Temple Open House and Dedication

I've been meaning to blog about this forever and have finally decided to bite the bullet and do it! One of the reasons I've been putting it off is because I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA!! Stupid, I know.

In mid - April the kids and I attended the Open House for the Vancouver Temple. It was such an exciting experience. I remember being a little girl and envisioning a temple for our area. Of course I saw it built on east hill in Vernon but Langley isn't too far away.

It felt like a reunion. We saw so many of our friends from our days in Vancouver and area.

Here are the kids in front of our temple before we went through.

Greta looks thrilled, doesn't she!?!

We also had a chance to visit with Great-grandma Kilistoff.

At the beginning of May, I drove down to Langley with my sister Ardie because we had an early choir practice on the temple grounds the next morning. We had a sister slumber party with Maria- up from Utah, Sarah- fresh off the plane from Switzerland, Ardie and myself. The next day the rest of the family arrived. All of my siblings were there but 2! So fun! Ryan and the kids arrived later that afternoon.

After the choir practice we were hanging out at my parents place when I received a call from my mom. The button had fallen off on her blazer and she needed a sewing kit ASAP as the prophet was to arrive soon. I rushed over to the temple and helped her sew it on just in time. As I was about to pull out of my parking spot, President Monson, Pres. Uchtdorf, Elder Christofferson and company pulled up.

That evening we went to the Youth Temple Celebration. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I laughed! I cried! I was so proud of the youth. And so proud to know Shelly Murley and Linda (Rolfson). They put together something truly miraculous.

Sunday was the big day. I sang with the Cornerstone Choir. Our kids were able to see the prophet put mortar around the cornerstone. It was such a neat experience to be near our beloved prophet and enjoy his good humour and love.

We then were in the celestial room for the second session. ( thanks to mom and dad) My parents did a wonderful job with their talks. What an experience to spend most of the weekend on holy ground with the Lord's anointed. It also happened to be Ryan and my 9th anniversary. I couldn't imagine anywhere I would have rather been.

We look forward to returning to our very own temple soon.