Philadelphia temple open house

A few months ago I'd set my phone so I would be ready for the sign up for the Philadelphia temple open house. Laura and I had planned to drag our families the first Friday it was available. We got tickets ASAP and posted on our ward fb page, and there were several other families that were able to get tickets also. Pax ward takes Philadelphia!

We left later than planned and took longer than planned to get up there. we made it before our scheduled time, but before we'd eaten lunch. Thankfully we'd gotten wawa donuts, so we were good. The temple is awesome and we were able to park in the garage underneath the temple. 

We went through the stake center intro, and headed to the temple. Laney hated the booties they had us wear to protect the carpets.

They had youth putting them on people's feet (worst job!) and at first she wouldn't even let them. She finally relented, but she was struggling.

Thankfully she had lots of people around her that love her. None of them being her dad, unfortunately. Matt's back, at this point, was on the up and up, but still not well enough to drive 4 hours and walk all around a big city. Chris was supposed to come too, but weeks before had asked me about days he could work at the dental office, and I had agreed to this day without realizing it was temple day! Ugh!!! For his regular job, he could totally get the time off, but his new dental job where he is filling in, not so much. So it was me and the girlies!

Thankfully our Mccombs were there too. And thankfully they think sassafras is almost as cute as we do, and we all took turns carrying her around the temple, because she couldn't ever get over the booties.

Top picture Laney is "smiling." Bottom picture you can see josh telling her "smile, or you don't get any gum." Josh is Laneys gum dealer.

After that she really tried to smile! She even used her hand to help.

Just look at that sweet face. A face only a mother could love! (;

Across the yard from the temple was a little visitor center set up.

There was beautiful art work and a young man playing on a grand piano. It was lovely.

Elder Milan Kuntz from the seventy was walking through the temple with us, so we grabbed him for a pic. Cause why not?

They had materials they used in building the temple on display.

It was very cool for the girls to see. I'm so glad we got to go. I just wish everyone could have come along.

On top of the visitor center building, which will be the waiting area after the open house, there is a rooftop garden.

It. Was. Hot. Lanes found some shade and didn't want to move.

The big girls let me take some pics.

Thankfully.

Josh pretended he was going to throw Frankie over the edge.

She wasn't happy about it. 

All weekend I made sure that everyone had a buddy. Buddies changed all weekend, i think everyone had a turn.

Addie say cheese! This is what I got.

Gorgeous!

Booties off, happy again.

I screenshotted weather all weekend. At this point in only felt like 109.

We ran into the callihans, Logan's, Kaldon's, and dorns. Dorns were the only ones we were able to get pics with.

Love this girl. 

We tried and tried to get good group pictures with the temple. 

It was really amazing. The inside was done very colonial. It almost felt like I was waking through independence hall, it was very similar architecture. Very cool. 

We were all hot and hungry, so we walked to a food court where there was something for everyone. D killed 3 pieces of pizza. 

Frank's helped Josh hunt some Pokemon.

She loves pepperoni, not sure where this face came from.

I had to take a picture of the fancy garbage can/compactor. #countryfolk

After lunch we walked back to get our cars and then spent an incredibly long and frustrating time trying to find our hotel. Wrong turns, wrong hotel, blah, we finally made it and got all unpacked. 

Because there were so many families coming, I had the idea to meet up at a park. That way we could all bring our own dinner and the kids could run and play. Then it was a million degrees outside and we'd eaten so late. Chelsea texted and said they were out for the park, and all but one of the other families was at our hotel. So we texted everyone to see if they'd rather just meet at the pool instead. And voila! New plan. There were 23 of us that invaded on this little pool. 

This was where I missed Matt the most. I had mad anxiety in the pool area. It was dark, loud, crowded, and had a really strong chemical smell that burned our eyes and throats.

It was on the 3rd floor and when the kids jumped or flopped in you could feel the vibrations on the floor, and it just made me feel super awful. But I talked myself down and actually was the first one there, and last to leave. Small victories.

Insult to injury for the pool though was that it looked nothing like the picture. I was super excited about it. Until we saw it. Thankfully the rest of the hotel was very nice and the beds were super comfy. Because the pool was super not. 

We went back to the room and bathed everyone. I offered to have mags in our room since mcs was pretty full. We watched Olympics and the girls played. Ash came over too. I partly wanted to have a quiet night with just my girls, but then, what fun is staying at the same hotel as all your friends if you dont even get to hang out with them? I was texting Matt and he asked if the girls were asleep, so I sent him this:

Then Dar texted to see if we'd like to walk with them for frozen custard. I didn't really feel like it, and I was already in my jams after my shower, but again, what fun is vacationing with all your friends if you don't hang out? So we loaded up our big red Bob and headed out into the sweltering night. Only felt like 99 at this point.

I wasn't embarrassed about going out in my jams. Until we got to the trendy custard place and there were all these hip millenials out on their Friday night dates. And then I wondered what I'd let myself come to. I'll tell you what. a chubby, older momma in my pajamas with wet hair on date night. #loser

The girls were melting down by this point, so they went to sleep super fast. And day 1 was in the books!