Visiting Another New Temple...And An Old Friend

We kept our kids out of school on Monday, October 20th, so they could attend their Grandpa Barrett's memorial service. We also got them out of school early on the following day (Tuesday the 21st) so our family could take a quick road trip to Phoenix, to catch the open house of the LDS Church's newest temple...the Phoenix Arizona Temple! We'd planned on going to the open house the weekend before, but had to cancel due to Glenn's passing. We still really wanted to attend the open house, but were quickly running out of time to do so (due to my birthday and Halloween bearing down on us). So we decided to make a Tuesday of it and get some family bonding time in.

This was actually our second temple open house this year; we'd attended the open house for the Gilbert Arizona Temple back in February. Seeing two new temples open in Arizona has been a great opportunity; I know how many blessings temples can bring to their communities, and I am happy the Phoenix area now has multiple temples operating to help the many, many members of the church who live there. Next up (hopefully) is the Tucson Arizona Temple...it's been announced but the groundbreaking hasn't been officially planned yet. I'm confident we'll see progress on that front in the next year, though. It's almost our turn!! *fingers crossed*

Anyway, our trip to Phoenix was fairly uneventful; we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Chick-Fil-A on the way up, since we'd taken the girls out of school before their lunchtime. The Phoenix Temple is located on the north edge of Phoenix, which is a longer drive than we usually undertake (the Mesa and Gilbert temples are both in the southeast part of the Phoenix metro area). But we made it in time for our 3:00 pm tour all the same! As it turns out, we needn't have hurried much. Unlike our visit to the Gilbert Temple, when we waited in line for over an hour, we were hustled right to the front door of the temple this time! One of the advantages of visiting in the middle of the week, as opposed to a Saturday afternoon, I suppose.

Due to the Phoenix Temple's location (it's situated right at the edge of a large residential area), it was impossible to park too closely to the building. Instead, we parked our car at a large water park about a mile away, where a series of chartered buses waited to drive visitors to the temple. It felt a little weird to walk around outside a large water park wearing a church dress!

As you might imagine, the girls felt super-excited to be riding a big fancy bus to the temple.

The Phoenix Temple was a little smaller than the Gilbert Temple, and perhaps a little less "flashy" (some of the architecture of the Gilbert Temple seemed designed to "wow" visitors; the Phoenix Temple felt a shade more utilitarian). However, the Phoenix Temple was still a beautiful, impressive building.

 

 What it lacked in fancy stained-glass windows, it more than made up for with its striking oval skylight in the Celestial Room, its oval-shaped, elaborately tiled baptismal font (I don't think I've ever seen a baptismal font in a temple that wasn't a perfect circle! This font stood out, in a good way), and its extensive collection of original paintings that hung throughout the building. Many of them were Arizona-themed drawings, featuring landscapes from our wild, beautiful desert state. The endowment room also featured two large wall murals, complete with saguaro cacti and numerous desert plants. Like the Gilbert Temple (albeit in a different way), the Phoenix Temple felt like a temple built to honor Arizona's unique natural beauty.

Daddy & Lorelai just couldn't help themselves; goofing off here by the reflecting pool

The girls had fun taking their picture with this Christus statue in the small visitor's center following the temple tour...

It was hard to find a good angle to get a family picture in front of the temple (mostly because the late-afternoon sun made too much glare), but we managed to get a couple of good shots.

 

After visiting the temple, we had another great opportunity...we were able to visit my good high school buddy Kelly (Grady) Dahl, and have dinner with her and her beautiful family!

In years past, we'd spent frequent weekends with Kelly, her husband Greg, and her kids Carter and Bryn. However, as life has gone on, and our kids have gotten bigger (and busier), we haven't been able to travel to visit them as much. In fact, we hadn't seen the Dahls for more than three years! As luck would have it, though, the Phoenix Temple is located about five minutes from the Dahl's house. Nathan and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see them, so we managed to sneak in a quick (two-hour) visit with them before getting the girls ready for bed and making the long drive back to Sahuarita.

Kelly, as always, was looking fit, gorgeous, and happy. She is so sweet and fun to talk to! Greg is an awesome guy, too, and it was great to visit with him as well. We were really grateful to have that short time with them, and hopefully (if we make our annual trip to Phoenix this Christmas) we'll see them again before too long!). Plus, the pizza dinner was good too. Food is always good when you don't have to prepare it yourself; that has become my motto over the last month! Between Nathan's dad's passing, and our constant traveling back and forth, and the caloric black hole of Halloween, we are happy for whatever properly prepared meal we can get!

Overall, it was a quick trip to Phoenix, but definitely a happy one. It was a nice pick-me-up from the somberness of Glenn's memorial service. Seeing the temple was a good reminder that this life is not the end, but merely another step in our eternal progression. Thanks to the work performed in these gorgeous temples, our separation from our loved ones will only be temporary. We needed that reminder more than ever on this week.