A visit to Philadelphia

We were super excited to hear the announcement of the Philadelphia temple a couple of years ago. Even though it's not our temple, we knew we would be able to take our kids to the open house. So we made our reservations for the temple, and figured we'd pack in some other fun things to do as well.

On the way up, we stopped at Fort McHenry, which is where Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to the "Star-Spangled Banner." The film we saw was very inspiring and brought tears to our eyes. Henry loved wandering around the visitor's center, and we heard more stories from a historian. It was crazy hot outside (100 or so) and Clara and Henry and I stayed in the visitor's center while Michael and Robbie went to the actual fort.

 Hanging out with Francis.

 This photo is evidence that not everything is what it appears to be. Clara initially refused to be in the picture and only came over under the consequence of having a privilege taken away. Anything for a family photo, right?

 Here Robbie is pretending to blow the cannon.

We drove on to our hotel in New Jersey (after paying $20+ in tolls!) and hurried on to Philadelphia for our reservation to go through. We started in the beautiful chapel across the street from the temple, and then walked across to enter. It was (sort of) funny--when we went to the Atlanta temple re-dedication several years ago with Clara, she had a tantrum over wearing the paper booties over her shoes and made a scene. This time, she handled it much better. Robbie, however, got quite upset this time--maybe it was the age!

 Fortunately, Henry didn't mind at all.

 The temple is just gorgeous--so much attention to details with period furniture, etc.

I love this picture!

After we left, I realized that even though it is a beautiful building, what makes the temple really unique and amazing is the incredible Spirit that you feel there. Because it hasn't been dedicated, it didn't have the same feeling that it will after it is dedicated. It is still lovely and peaceful, but I can't wait for my kids to enter a fully-operational temple when they do baptisms and receive their endowment. That is powerful.

After the temple, we drove downtown and met up with my old BYU friend and fellow Linguistics major, Kendra Wolgemuth Hernandez for some Philly cheesesteaks and ice cream at the Franklin Fountain.

It was great catching up, and my cheesesteak was so good!

The next morning, we drove back to Philly to visit the Franklin Institute.

 We met up with Ted Lansing and two of his kids, who were also there to see the temple, and we enjoyed checking out the amazing science museum.

 Clara is inside a "brain"--aaahhh! It was this cool net climbing system, supposed to be neurons in the brain.

On the way home, we stopped by Michael's dad's birthplace in Downingtown, and he really enjoyed Facetiming his dad so that Grandpa could see the old house. The owners even let him go inside.

It was a long and tiring trip, but we were glad that we made the choice to go. I love the temple and hope our kids will love it, too.