The Big Blue Room

This weekend found us traveling to Twin Falls for a short camping trip. Daniel went on a camping trip with the Scouts, but Amanda, Dallin, Alayna, David, Annika, Abigail, Dara Dee and I all packed ourselves into the Big Blue Van (BBV) and towed our little trailer down to Anderson Camp to spend the night. We enjoyed their swimming pool, and game room before we settled down to bed. Saturday morning we were pleased to discover that there was a little stream (give oh give) and an Apricot tree full of small, ripe fruit. Anderson Camp is a clean, if aging, campground at the Eden exit of I-84.

The main purpose of our trip to Twin Falls was to let our family see the Twin Falls Temple during the three-week open house. This is a rare opportunity for people who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to see the inside of a Temple before it is dedicated as a sacred building. We wanted our children to have this opportunity as well.

The Twin Falls, Idaho Temple is a magnificent two-story structure with beautiful flower gardens encompassing the grounds. The ground floor contains the offices, reception area, and baptistry, while the endowment and sealing rooms are on the second floor. There are three sealing rooms, each of which is on the eastern-facing side of the building. The endowment room is adorned with a magnificent mural depicting the beauty of creation in the area of the Twin Falls. This room flows into the telestial room which is elegantly simple. The Celestial room is a vaulted room with high stained glass windows adorned with an absolutely amazing chandellier with thousands of crystals. Of course, the craftsmanship and decorations are very elegant and tasteful throughout with beautiful stone, hardwoods, and stained glass. The Syringa (the Idaho state flower) is used throughout the edifice as an ornimental element in a simplified neuveau art-deco style. Also on the grounds is a new church building that is used to stage the many visitors to the site.

The guides told us that over 100,000 people had visited the temple to date during the open house, with over 6000 visiting before we had on Saturday. We had about a 1 hour wait before we were able to enter the Temple, but we got there at about 11:30 in the morning; probably the absolute worst time, as there were only a few people after us that were waiting. Presumably, most people were at lunch and the visitors would pick up again afterwards. There are about 600 people needed per day to host the open house, all are friendly without being over-zealous or preachy. Questions are answered, and those interested in finding out more information may fill out a contact card. The only preachy people we encountered were not from the LDS faith; these people insisted on giving us a "newsletter" explaining what they considered to be shortcomings of the Mormons. The temple will be hosting the open house until its dedication on August 24th.

In other news this week, Daniel and Amanda got their wisdom teeth removed. Both were swolen up like chipmunks, but at least they could tease each other evenly. Annika and Alayna both got over their chickenpox. David and Abigail never seemed to get them, at least they haven't broken out with them yet. Annika injured herself on some playground equipment at the swimming pool and poked a hole completely through her ear.

In all, due to sickness, injury, and recovery, we didn't participate in many activities outside of home the first half of the week, but it was refreshing to me to be able to be at home without many outside obligations. This is soon to change as Soccer season gets under full steam this week with High School two-a-days starting tomorrow morning.