Laie Temple

On Sunday after church we visited the Laie Temple which was just a few minutes from our beach house. The peace we felt there, coupled with the gorgeous natural plants and flowers really did make it feel like paradise.

Benson and McKay were amazed by how big the flowers were. They spent some time admiring them...and trying to pick them. We were mostly able to thwart their efforts.

The Laie temple is built on the site of an ancient island city of outcasts. Whenever someone was cast out from the main city, they could come here, so anciently it was known as a place of refuge. Today the Laie temple is a modern place of refuge from the sins and cares of the world. We felt a wonderful peace as we walked the beautiful temple grounds.

Because of temples on the earth today, I am blessed to be sealed to this little group for eternity. What a great blessing!

 

Hawaii 2013

This year for Christmas, BJ's mom surprised the whole family with a trip to Hawaii over Spring Break! While not all the family could come, we still had 37 of us. Sue rented a beautiful beach house for the whole family and we all stayed together on the beach and had a marvelous time. Above was the view from our backyard at sunrise.

This was the view just off the backyard during the day. What you can't see is the beach and tide pools where the kids spent many happy hours. Staying on the beach was so great because we could go down for a few minutes or a few hours--anything worked. We spent most of our time on the beach just below the house. The kids played and played in the sand and the waves. It was a relaxing and really fun vacation!

Muffins

Yesterday afternoon McKay was bored so in a moment of desperation I pulled out a recipe and suggested we make muffins. He eagerly agreed. The recipe was one I'd found in a magazine. It called for healthy stuff including grated carrots, apples, and wheat flour. I told McKay they were surprise muffins. We measured and mixed and put them in to bake. They came out smelling yummy and we all anxiously waited for them to cool. Once they were cool enough *read* stone cold, (the boys won't eat anything unless it is cold) McKay took the biggest muffin and bit into it. The look on his face was somewhere between disgust and horror. I actually laughed out loud he looked so distressed. He slammed the muffin down on the counter, ran to the garbage and spit it out and said, Gross! I didn't know they were going to be slumpy muffins!