Getting Mom and Dad to the Temple

My kids gave Alan and I a great gift of service last Friday.  It took some sacrifice on their part, but they all pitched in and made it so Alan and I could go to the temple with my parents.  It is about a two hour drive to Portland each way, so it makes it a full day trip.  It was stake conference for us, so they were having the stake temple night and chapel session at 7pm.  We wanted to go up early, though, so we could go to a session before the chapel session and also do some family sealings.  My dad also wanted to visit his brother on the way.  So that meant we needed to leave about 11:30 am.

When Alan first mentioned going to me, I didn't think there was any way that it was going to happen.  I needed to go to Battle of the Books at the elementary school, Elisabeth had a half day, Ben needed to be picked up at 3 pm, and then the kids had dance and gymnastics.  With my family all in the same stake, I couldn't really have any of them help me out.  But Alan really wanted to go, because he hadn't gone to the temple for a while, and we hadn't gone together for even longer.  So, I asked the kids what they would think about missing their activities.  They were surprisingly congenial about it.  Then the two older girls stepped up and were willing to go out of their way to make it easy for us to go.  Emily went to the school and did my Battle of the Books practice for me.  Then she walked from the elementary school to the middle school and walked Elisabeth home.  Not an incredibly long walk, probably under two miles, but it was raining, and my kids don't usually walk much, so it was a sacrifice.  Leilani stayed home and put Robert down for a nap.  Later that afternoon, they put the dog on a leash, Robert in the stroller, and all walked in the rain to the elementary school to pick up Benjamin and then home again.  It takes me about 15 minutes to drive it round trip, so I imagine they were pretty wet when they got home from walking there and back (apparently only Emily brought an umbrella and rain coat).  But they didn't complain.  I don't know what they did the rest of the day, but when we got home at 10 pm that night, school work was done, chores were done, the kids were all alive, the animals were taken care of, and the three younger kids were asleep in bed.  I was such a proud mama!

Meanwhile, we had a great day at the temple.  We made it to an early session, and Alan and I were asked to be the witness couple.  There were quite a few members of our stake in the session with us, including the stake president and his wife.  Afterwards we were able to get our family sealings done.  It was a very spiritual experience to have Alan and I be proxy for my great-grandparents and my dad to be a proxy for his dad, and get that family sealed together.  We had time afterwards to eat in the cafeteria before we went to the stake chapel session.  I really enjoyed spending the time in the temple and getting away from the world for a while.  It would be nice if we could get there more often.  Who knows.  Maybe we will now that we have older kids who can cover for us.