Senior Trip Day 3 - The Temple

This day was fantastic and very surprising. The kids didn’t have a set plan for the day. There was a little back and forth about what to do. Last night some of the kids made a music video. Jackson is amazing at editing and he put it all together in no time. It looked amazing and the kids who weren’t involved thought it would be fun to do another video today. There was a LOT of debate about what song to do. I listened to a lot of options. Slowly they decided that instead of doing a popular song, they would go to the temple and do a hymn there. So they tried out hymns for a while. They decided they really liked A Child’s Prayer. They sang it and then went upstairs to record it. Here they are recording in the room they thought was the most acoustic.

The Newport Beach temple was about 40 minutes away. Once again, I was navigating and Tyler was driving. We love how he can maneuver so easily with that large van. I’m sure it is still tricky but he makes it look easy. The hardest part is the skinny alley behind the house. Look how tiny. But he always makes it in and parks just fine.

We arrived at the temple and everyone unloaded. We walked to the front of the temple and it had a nice staircase, so we decided to take a couple pictures there and maybe record some of the video. 

We were only there for moments when the temple president came up the stairs. He was on his way into the temple. So we said hi and he asked where we were from. We told him and he asked if we were coming inside. We mentioned that we weren’t dressed right and didn’t have our recommends. He said we should get online and find a spot and that we should come back the next day.

Then he went inside. I didn’t think much of it. But a few minutes later, he came back out and said, "Come on in guys. Let’s figure something out." We all trooped inside. There, we gave our names and they looked up all our recommends. (Yay for technology) (To be fair, Tyler brought his recommend. He was the only one who had it with him.) The only recommend that wasn’t current was Oscar's, but they called his Bishop. He literally had a mission call, I think his recommend just had expired recently. But we were all good to go. A few sisters were there and they had a LOT of family names which were all female, but we had a good group of girls.

We went in and all the boys went to get ready since they can baptize now. I love that change. A few girls went in to do confirmations and I went with the other girls into the locker rooms. They asked if I would like to do baptisms and I loved that idea. I hadn't done them forever. I had to go to a special area to get underclothes since I wear different ones than the girls, but soon enough I was suited up and waiting in line.

The boys did a great job baptizing. Each of them took a turn. Then we went in to do Confirmations. There were more for the girls because of the family names. But everyone got to do some. Tyler did all the confirmations. I’m so glad he could be there and do that.

Overall, it was an amazing experience that was such a blessing to have. We talked about how the Lord aligned stuff just right for it all to work out. I don't think it was coincidence that we were sitting on the steps when the temple president arrived. And we heard later that the temple president never lets rules slide like that. He never invites people in. It was such a great testimony builder for the kids. When you are worthy and in the right place, the Lord can bless you.

We still had some hopes of doing the video. We walked around the temple grounds while Tyler got gas. It was so beautiful. They had a couple fountains, amazing flowers, and cute little hummingbirds flitting around. Awesome. 

The kids seemed ready for food, so we put off the video in order to eat. We took our food over to a nearby church building so we weren’t on temple grounds. That made me feel better about doing a game. After we ate, I introduced them to Bird on a Branch. I couldn’t really get the kids to pair up with the opposite gender, but we had a lot of fun. We also played some Bunny Bunny.

Then we did a little Swedish Twister. I’ve never played where people push each other over. There was so much shoving. It was crazy. AJ was big on it, but Aaron and Eve were culprits too. I did terribly. I was knocked out right away each time. After, we finished up with the number game. That was really fun. We had a lot of people take a turn. We switched numbers a lot and had a lot of fun close calls. 

Finally it was time to go home. We loaded back in the car. This time we took the longer way, but it went by Huntington Beach. That place looks awesome. I think we’ll go there tomorrow. The coast was so nice. It really is a fun place to visit.

Back at home, people weren’t hungry, so there was some napping, resting, calling, and chilling. The kids finally decided to play secret Hitler, but June always bans me from that game because I can call her lies. So I sat and watched. It ended up being the most intense game that ended with very hard feelings. Christina was practically in tears. June was livid when she was killed. Aaron finally gave up and showed his card, ending the game. The contention wasn’t worth it anymore. I was glad that I hadn’t played. 

Many of the kids went for a walk to the beach to cool off. I stayed to help prep dinner. They ended up taking some of the neatest pictures that evening on the beach. The one where they are jumping might be my favorite shot of the trip.

We got dinner ready and the kids came home. Dinner was chicken skewers and caesar salad. Aaron was trying to eat the last bit of chicken off his skewer. The skewer was too long, so he was trying to stick it down his throat like a sword swallower. It was so disturbing to me. He kept gagging, but he was very determined. I expressed my serious concern, but he was not to be deterred. June sat and read facts about sword swallowing and Aaron kept trying. Luckily he finally got it with no injury. More excitement than I need. Oh, but really funny. We put jam on the table at dinner and Aaron was proud that he found perfect little jam cups. Sure, they were shot glasses, but we won't tell him.

We ended the evening watching the edited version of Ocean’s 11. Great movie. 

Looking forward to more fun tomorrow.