Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

*Note the child with crutches and a broken leg on TOP of the bench. "Who's kid is that?!"

Sundays are hard sometimes. I start off the day with the attitude of no TV watching, church music playing in the background, while breakfast is being made. Prior to church is sometimes harried, especially when you're supervising 4 children getting ready for sabbath worship. You sit through sacrament, trying to keep them reverent with "shushes", coloring books, and snacks for the youngest. The rest of your meetings are great. You go home, have lunch, and then boom! ------It hits you. That desire to take a long Sunday afternoon nap. The desire is equal to that of a post-Thanksgiving Feast slumber. That's about the point in my day where I cave in and let the kids watch TV so I can satisfy the yearning for that Sunday afternoon siesta (you know what I'm talking about). Well, I decided with all my might that I was going to continue with keeping the sabbath day holy. I layed down for 20 mins, got up and announced we were going to visit the temple's visitor center. The closest temple for us is the Mesa Temple. It's kind of neat that the two places that we've lived, have temples that look the same. The Mesa Temple is bigger than the Hawaii one though.  ----Continuing.

It was a long drive (I only got lost once). We went in and my kids quickly went to all the interactive maps and video monitors, investigating what each could do. Their all-time favorite is that 3-D map of Jerusalem that lights up as it narrates the Savior's last days. After a few minutes of that, I gathered them and took them to see the Reflections of Christ photography display they had. That was amazing! My kids were enthralled with sights they saw and could identify the different scenes of Christ's life. I must say the reverence and spirit was very tangible in there and knew my kids could feel it. Later, my two older children viewed the new Joseph Smith movie. Both of them were amazed with it and wanted to see it again. We walked the grounds, took a few pictures and got in the car for the long haul home.  The trip made for a great Sunday. I better start thinking about next week. 

The kids sitting on the petrified tree trunk on the temple grounds.