Our Temple Square Trip

Our trip to Temple Square on Joseph's birthday is a story all by itself. We waited for John to get home from work so we could all go together. We got there and as we were walking up to Temple Square from the parking lot Ruth accidently slapped Johnny on the face . They were fooling around, and somehow Ruth's hand and Johnny's face met. Ruth got a quick scolding, and that put Ruth in a rather obnoxious teenage pouting mood.

I had to get a picture of "the mood".

First thing, I wanted to take the littlest kids to see the Christus and to feel the spirit up there. I also thought it would be a great place to take a picture of all 8 of my kids together.

 

It was hard to get them to look at the camera. But I am glad that they enjoyed looking at the Christus. This didn't melt away Ruth's mood, though.

So, of course, I had to get another picture of "the mood".

We then went and looked at the neat displays in the lower level of the large visitors center. Then we went out to see the flowers, the fountains, and the Temple. I thought I would try again to get a picture of all 8 of my children with the pretty flowers in Temple Square.

But, it was hot on the cement ledge. Joseph was holding his legs up saying, "Hot, hot, hot, hot...", Kate and Johnny kept standing up and Anya and Rachel were squirming. Most of the kids said those flowers were not the pretty ones. But these flowers and the hot seat melted Ruth. We gave up on the pretty pictures by the flowers and went to the reflection pool.

I sat the kids that are capable of sitting up to look at the water and for some more pictures. That may have been a good idea, if Joseph did not get an idea of his own. He sat right in the water.

With Joseph all wet, we thought we'd take a break and go and watch the movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. That went really well at first. We got there just as the movie was about to begin, and we didn't even plan that. The kids were being good and quiet and even Joshua and Joseph were watching the movie. Until about 3/4's through the movie. Joseph, Rachel , and Anya got bored and started trying out some empty seats. I let them wander a little because they were being quiet. That is until we heard Joseph really start to scream. Ruth and I rushed toward him and he was upside down in the the seat , the seat popped up and his head got stuck in the crack. At first we yanked his head a couple of times. The movie played on and Joseph screamed louder. Then we tried  pushing him through the bottom. That worked. I promptly took Joseph out of the theater, and we waited here for the movie to finish.

We headed outside. On the north side of the Joseph Smith memorial building, there are these meandering river-ish fountains. The kids started to walk along the ledge. I wanted to go up to the Temple steps for one more try at a picture of all 8 kids. So we meandered along

 

Until....Rachel fell in Backwards.

 We laughed. a lot. She cried a lot.  We decided not to go up the Temple steps for a wonderful "Families are Forever" picture of all 8 of my kids. So went went back to the reflection pool. 

Joseph got in again. Sometimes, we just can't learn. 

With so many of us wet, we decided to head home. That we did, but we did stop for one more photo. This time it was only the willing victims.

I know this sounds crazy. But we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. Thanks for the attitude Ruth, getting your head stuck Joseph, and falling into the fountain Rachel. I had a lot of good laughs. I love my big family-- teenagers, toddlers, and everyone in between!