Our Temple Trip

As an anniversary surprise to Steve, I arranged for us to go to the Columbia, SC temple last Friday night. It is about a three hour drive, and because of that we haven't gone very often. So, this time I arranged for us to go overnight. I had each of the boys stay at a different families house from the ward.'They went from after school on Friday, until Saturday afternoon. It is so wonderful to have a network of friends that you trust to leave your kids with, and who are willing to do it. It also made it a fun weekend for the kids as well as for us.

Of course as with every time we try to go to the temple it seems there is trouble. I spent all week finding people to babysit, booking a hotel, and getting things ready so we could take off on Friday. On Friday morning I checked the temple website to get the address, and happened to see the schedule of closed dates. And lo and behold I see that the temple is closed on Saturday. The very Saturday we were planning on going. So, of course I go into panic mode and do what I can to try and get us there Friday night for the 7pm session. As I am calling people to see if the kids can come a little earlier, two of the four families say they have sick kids in their home. And not just a little sick, but a fever, throwing up, and soar throat sick. But being un-intimidated by germs as I am, I said if they would still take the child, it wouldn't bother me to leave him. They both agreed to still take the child. Whoo hoo!

So, Steve and I are in the car by 4pm and headed to SC on Friday afternoon on Labor Day weekend with no time to spare. Needless to say we did NOT make the 7pm session. We got to the temple at 7:15 and were able to do sealings for about an hour which was absolutely wonderful!

What we found out after it was too late was that there is a short cut to the temple. Steve and I trust our GPS a little too much, and thought that it would take us the best way. Well...it took us fifty miles out of the way to keep us on a freeway. In Georgia, often times the fastest way to go is on the back roads. So, we took the fast way on the way back, and it cuts out between 30 and 45 minutes from the drive. Enough time that we would have made it if we went that way Friday night.

After the temple on Friday, we went out to eat at Outback which was delish. Steve got a fish dish since he is trying to eat healthier, and I got the chocolate cheesecake for dessert since I was out to eat as an anniversary celebration. :) Saturday morning we slept in until 9, then played a game of cities and knights on line which is our favorite thing to do as of late. Then we got up and drove back to the temple for some pictures. Next to the temple is a very nice church bookstore that we browsed at for a while including an outdoor yard sale they happened to be having that day. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful overnighter. Then we drove home the fast way and were home by 2:30.

So, it was an eventful trip, but it all worked out beautifully in the end. The boys all had a great time, and the families said they had no problems with any of them. Brandon wasn't the best sleeper, but they enjoyed him other than that. And miraculously none of us are sick this week even after the exposure we had over the weekend. We do have good strong immune systems though. It must be our lack of using hand sanitizer. haha

Definitely a FABULOUS anniversary get away.