Saturday, April 21, 2012

5 years

This date is something both special and sacred to me. Because of my Heavenly Father's love for me and his self-less servants such as missionaries I am able to celebrate my 5 year anniversary of when I was baptized. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Mike was baptized when he was 8. As well has Mason and so many others. But unless you write everything down in your journal the details of this special day fade away. However since I was 23 I remember everything. So every year we do something special to celebrate this wonderful day.

(Side Note: I love how my husband celebrates with so much enthusiasm that you would think that it was our wedding anniversary)

This year we went to Temple Square.  Our first stop was the Family History library.
( a great way to show how we are all related)

 Mike's dad has told us for some long time now that their ancestors, The Mehr's, have a book in this library. We've wanted to read it but we've allowed silly excuses to procrastinate us. So today we went to the library to see if we could find this Mehr book. Unfortunately we were days late. The staff were in the middle of digitizing the books and were in the process of working on the letters M's. So we missed it. We were both pretty disappointed but it was a good reminder for us to act without delay from now on.

Anyways I called my father-in-law to see if he knew where to obtain a copy of this book. He was kind enough to offer to mail us his books to we can make our own copy . And while on the phone he told me that the painting in the entry of the Family History Library was painted by a family member. Mike knew that he has a relative who painted for the church but how exciting that we were only a few feet away to one of those painting. After I hung up the phone we turned the corner and seen the painting.
The Eternal Family by Judith Mehr

Absolutely wonderful! So the trip the family history library wasn't a complete waste after all. :-)
Mike was so touched that we purchased a paper copy from the gift shop which now hangs on our family room.

After this activity we walked around the Salt Lake City Temple grounds. Lily and Ducati really enjoyed this.
Pennies in the fountain.

 A duck on the reflection pond.


Lily kept saying "Mom and Dad where married in the temple. When I grow bigger I'll marry in the temple too." How cute!
We found another painting from Judith Mehr inside the North Visitors Center. Pretty awesome!

As we were leaving I asked 2 sister missionaries to take our photo. When they handed me my camera back they asked if we were from around here. I told them that we lived about 30 minutes away. Then they asked us what we were doing down here....and that's when I lost it. Mike and I started crying like a bunch of babies. I couldn't even speak because tears of joy were coming down so fast. Mike managed to compose himself just long enough to tell them that I was celebrating my 5 year anniversary of when I was baptized. Then they started to cry. So all 4 adults were crying in the middle of Temple Square. What a sight :-) We talked about how less than 1 year after I was baptized I was married to Mike. Then a little bit later we were sealed. So within 5 years I've come a long way. Mike explained how 2 Elder missionaries stopped me at Target to ask me if I was happy and then a couple of months I was baptized.


(Elders to answer your questions now- Yes I am happy! Thank you♥)

He explained that I am the only member in my family. Towards the end I managed to fight back my tears just long enough to tell the sister missionaries thank you and to encourage them to stay faithful because they do change lives. It was a special moment for all us.
Back to my special day :-)
Mike treated us to the Nauvoo Cafe for lunch.
 Here's Lily eating her chips.....then cooling down by sticking her face in the vent. She's too funny! :-)

Then a little playtime at Brigham Young Historic Park.

Ducati loves flowers. She kept smelling each one then kissing the ones she loved the most. 



 
Lily. When she learned that she's named after a flower she calls any and all flowers "HER Lily flowers"

After everyone got their wiggles out we started back to our car. But we couldn't leave without a visit to the waterfall at the Conference Center. These little girls just loved wiggling their little fingers in the water. 

After a such an amazing day already we weren't finished yet. A friend of ours watched our girls while Mike and I went to the temple to do baptisms. Such a great way to truly end this special, wonderful, amazing, blessed day. :-) 

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