The Letter F and The Number 8

Today's update is brought to you by the letter F and the number 8.

Highlights for January 20 - February 2

Family Trip to Gilbert Temple Open House: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is hosting an open house for a new temple built in Gilbert, Arizona. We decided to go as a family and invited our cousins and sister to go with us. At the temple, there is a video before a volunteer tour guide takes a group through to view the 4 story temple. Before entering the temple, little booties were put on each person's feet to help protect the white carpets through the building. Hurricane and Underfoot thought the booties were slippery on the marble floors. The building and interior are beautiful with stain glass, paintings, and the colors.

I decided to take the boys back again to see the temple on a 1/2 day the next week. We noticed the use of the agave plant throughout the flooring, stain glass, door knobs, hand railings, paintings, and even the water fall outside the temple. The agave has the older leaves on the outside to support the younger leaves on the inside. Similar to grandparents and parents supporting, teaching, and guiding their children as they grow up to support the next generation.

Hurricane's favorite rooms were the "baptize" room and "marriage" room.

Underfoot loved the 18 foot chandelier in Celestial room and the eternity mirrors (one mirror on this side, one mirror on that side of the room.)

The boys loved both adventures.

Flour Wars: Since we were visiting, we stayed for Christian's birthday party. He and his friends threw flour bombs at each other. A flour bomb is flour wrapped in nylons (double the nylons if you don't want to lose a lot of flour and have more "hits".) If you wear black the flour shows up of where you've been hit.

The party was a blast. Hurricane caught a bug and slept on on and off for the day. He was awake for the flour war and would go and get the bombs for a personal stash until he unleashed on a cousin or Auntie.

Hurricane's Birthday Present Flair: Hurricane has talked constantly about his birthday - every day since his last birthday party. He talks about what he'll give and who he'll invite to his next party. Since we only do birthday parties at ages 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, this year might be hard for him to swallow. He was invited to a party and decided to give gum and ice cream. We arrived at the house and told the parent that the treat had to go into the freezer. The parent laughed. Mr. K-man, our neighbor, told his Mom that he liked Hurricane's present and hoped he would get that for his next birthday present from Hurricane.

Fever: Underfoot woke up super early one day. I thought he was being responsible until he asked to go back to bed just before leaving for school. After taking his soaring temperature, he stayed home from school. He slept on and off most the day. He loved his day off and especially liked being with his brother.

Fasting: Hurricane was at Mr. K-man's house and was hungry. He told the Mom that he was fasting but he needed something to eat. She texted me and asked if Hurricane was indeed fasting and if she should withhold food from him. I laughed out loud. He wasn't fasting but had a fast breakfast that he left in the car. We had been talking about fasting and how it helps us to come spiritually close to God. Sweetheart and I thought it was interesting how he interpreted the information.

Fred: Sweetheart has found that high school has an auto mechanics class. Fred, his commute car, has sprung a leak from the head gasket. Sweetheart made arrangements to take Fred to the high school and have the students repair it. Sweetheart needs to provide the parts. The students provide the labor and hopefully learn how to do something.

Family Search: This is a free website that helps with genealogy. A new feature on the website is that you can upload pictures of your family and then have a picture tree instead of just a faceless name tree. I have upload some pictures of my family members and love to see the picture tree. The other night Underfoot asked to see a picture of one our great-Grandfathers, John Scott. We looked up how many generations he was from Underfoot (6 generations) and what he looked like. Underfoot thought it was AWESOME! I do too. Thanks to the family members who have upload pictures I don't have. Anyone can join the website which is sponsored by the LDS church.
 
Fascinating Gem Show: Every year there is a gem show here. We went on Saturday, and it reminded me a lot of a pow wow mixed with a swap meet. The venders were from all over the world. There are dinosaur bones, geodes, Chinese market stuff, skulls, pearls, beads, petrified rocks, fossils, and much more. We didn't go to every tent and see everything. Our family doesn't know enough about geology to know how unique the differences are between the rocks and gems. Something new to learn.

Be Well.