This morning I took the girls to the Payson Temple open house. In the process, I discovered how beautiful Payson is. The mountains were green! I know that color is fleeting, but the verdant setting and spring smells were the perfect precursor to our experience in the temple.
Before we left, we had a quick lesson on how the temple is the house of God. I told the girls to pay attention to how they felt while we were there because peace and joy come from the Holy Ghost, and since the temple is God’s house, we can easily feel the Holy Ghost there. I don’t know if they identified their feelings while we were there, but I can say that they were so reverent during our visit. I was grateful and happy to be there with them. The three of us held hands for the entire tour, and I felt the Spirit. When we entered the baptistry, Mary asked me if we were going to see Jesus, and I felt a spiritual charge when I explained even if we didn’t see him, we were in His house.
The Payson temple is very original. There is a fruit blossom motif throughout because it is built where there used to be orchards. The baptistry was stunning, and the girls loved the chandeliers in the celestial room.
After the temple, we all came home for lunch and naps. When I woke up, I had the strongest craving for chocolate chip cookies. I have been in love with Tate’s cookies lately, and even though I’ve always preferred chewy cookies over crunchy, today all I wanted was a thin, crisp, buttery, crunchy cookie. Tate’s cookies remind me of your chocolate chip cookies that I used to find in your cookie tin, Grandma. After trying the recipe out, I realized that every tray of cookies I made came out slightly differently. It turns out that the texture of these cookies depends on how much batter you put into each cookie. The last tray I put in came out just like Tate’s, but all of my other trays had thicker cookies. I learned my lesson! Next time, I will put less than 2 tablespoons of batter into each cookie and cook them for fifteen minutes.
The girls were thrilled to wake up to cookies, and then Abe came home in time for us all to go to the gym. We deposited the girls in childcare for half an hour while Abe and I worked out. My OB gave me permission to start working out again, and it felt so great to move around.
Then we came home for dinner and another finance meeting with Ingrid and Patrick. It was very educational, and I learned a lot.
Here’s a video I caught before we left for the temple open house. Lydia is teaching Mary her letters using a “game” I play with Lydia. I watched them secretly from the stairs and felt so grateful we had the girls so close together. It was so sweet to hear their exchanges.