Manti Temple Open House

When we realized that the last week of the Manti Temple Open House corresponded with our spring break, we knew we wanted the kids to have the opportunity to see inside that beautiful building where we were married and where they were each sealed to us.

We got up at about 4:30 a.m. to catch a 6:30 flight. We were blessed and made all of our flights without any problems. The descent into SLC was cloudy and VERY bumpy!

 

We were happy to see Grandad. He's always so good to come pick us up or drop us off at any time of the day or night.

He also grows humongous carrots!!

We knew Aunt Tiffani was coming to move Cameron out of his apartment, but we had no idea she was going to surprise us with the twins! Baylie and Jalen were especially excited to see them. What a fun surprise! (Nice photo bomb Grammy!)

That night, some of the family came over so Cameron could read his mission call. We're so proud of this decision he has made. It has not been an easy one for him. He is going to be on a service mission in the Las Vegas West mission. It was great to have so much family there to support him.

Earlier that day, I delivered cookies to Maddie Bushman, who had been in Young Womens in Columbia with me. She is such a sweet and talented woman. It was wonderful to see her.

On Wednesday, we drove to Manti for the temple open house. Manti has always been my favorite temple. It's where I did baptisms as a youth, where I took out my endowment prior to my mission, where I got married, and where each of my children was sealed to me and David. It was built by pioneers from 1877 to 1888 and is an architectural masterpiece. The spiral staircases are especially noteworthy because they have no central support and are some of the largest in the world made that way. There are only three staircases like this of this size in the U.S. and two are in this temple. David and I were married in a sealing room at the top of one of the staircases.

We cannot take pictures inside, so I got this one from the internet.

Back side

I'm glad this is the temple where we were all sealed. It is a special place to me.

There were large crowds throughout the open house and our day was no exception. Even though we had a reservation, we still had to wait a couple of hours. Most of the family waited in line, but I stayed with Grammy and Grandad.

Front side

By the time we were finished, it was evening. The temple is beautiful at night.

On Thursday, we just stayed at Grammy & Grandad's. We were all tired and Grandad needed some help. Jalen worked hard helping get the garden ready for planting.

Baylie did not work so hard, but she enjoyed being outside even if it was a little chilly. We spend a lot more time outside in Utah than in South Carolina.

I love this brick pathway at my parents' house. Many of the bricks have been collected on our travels.

While we were there, Dad received a book that he had been interviewed for. It was the history of Dixie College - now called Utah Tech. It was cool to have him included in the book.

I had never seen Grammy's tulip tree (she calls it a dwarf magnolia) with so many blooms. Usually it freezes and the blooms fall off. I love this picture of Baylie in front of the tree.

Once Grandad finished working in the temple, we headed to the airport. I love the mountains. It's something I miss living in South Carolina.

The walk through the Salt Lake City Airport is ridiculous.

Getting home was a lot harder than getting to Utah. We got bumped to Chicago so then we went to Denver. We would have been fine, except our plane sat at the gate and then the runway for about two hours, causing us to miss our connection. 

We watched some women's basketball while we waited. 

We ate some dinner and ended up taking a red eye flight to Washington, D.C.

Sleeping in Denver.

Sleeping in D.C.

We finally made it on a flight to Charleston.

After 24 hours of traveling, we finally made it home.

Our goal was to make it home in time for conference. We came very close! We ended up watching part of the first session in the car.

It was a short trip to Utah, but definitely worth it. It's very good to be home.

Charleston Open 2024

Attending the Charleston Open has become one of our favorite traditions. It's incredible that we can see some of the top women's players at such an affordable price. It's a wonderful opportunity. This year we got there before the gates opened.

Before the matches started, we took advantage of the Fan Zone where the kids could test their skills.

Serving gun - her highest was 69!

Baylie also did pretty good on the accuracy challenge, which is way harder than it looks.

Jalen rocked the reaction challenge.

And they both made the leader board on the accuracy challenge (also harder than it looks).

Baylie loved all the purple - the official color of the tournament.

Kids get in free to general admission with a paying adult! Incredible deal!

We got to see some of the best. 

Madison Keys & Taylor Townsend

The kids were able to get a lot of autographs. Baylie had them sign her tennis ball and Jalen had them sign his hat.

I was super excited to see Caroline Wozniacki play because she's always been one of my favorites.

Another favorite of mine is Victoria Azarenka. We got to see her practice. She was super nice and signed autographs even though she was in a hurry.

She was practicing with Jessica Pegula.

We caught Sloan Stephens on the way to practice.

We also saw Paula Badosa and Emma Navarro practicing.

We waited in line for a favorite, Ons Jabbeur. We were lucky to be early in line because it got long!

We ran into coach Pamela.

Ons was so very nice. (I got her autograph for our friend Fares from Tunisia that we met on a plane. She is also from Tunisia.)

Earlier we had a snack of two small bags of popcorn and three sodas that cost $45! So for dinner, we went across the street to Publix and bought a couple sandwiches and a salad. 

We went back for the evening session and got to see Sloan Stephens and Ashlyn Krueger play doubles. They ended up winning the tournament for doubles.

We watched Claire Lu and Shelby Rogers. Rogers won.

There was one match left to play, but we decided to head home. It ended up being a good decision because we were home before 10 and we got up early the next morning to head to Utah. It was an absolutely wonderful day.