Ward Temple Trip

Last Friday, we left for the ward temple trip after Mike got home from work. We packed a bag and took off around 6:30. The closest LDS temple (besides Cardston, Alberta) is in Billings, Montana. I drove the whole way there, and despite the fact that it was only a 2 lane highway the entire time, the drive wasn't so bad at all. There were very few towns between GF and Billings, except for very, very small towns like Belt.) Just a lot of wide open space, and land and crops. But it just made the drive incredibly beautiful. I was seriously at a loss for words. It started raining huge, heavy drops making everything look really misty for awhile. But once it mellowed out a bit the sky was breathtaking, as I literally could not catch my breath at the sight. The eastern sky was dark with black clouds and the sun was setting in the west producing a bright, gigantic rainbow across the sky. Each end of the rainbow was touching the horizon. There's just no way to describe how beautiful that scene was. I had to pull over to take pictures, but I couldn't get anything decent. Mike was on the phone with his Dad at the time, and I'm sure all he could hear in the background was me saying "Wow! Oh my gosh! Wow, that is so beautiful!" And then we drove through a big wind farm, and maybe I'm just crazy, but those wind turbines are so beautiful to me. I remember driving through a wind farm on my way to California and it was so impressive, like it was from a movie or something. Anyway, with the fat raindrops, the various colors of the shifting sky, the rainbow, along with the wind farm, it was such a wonderful drive the entire way. It's moments like that, that I can't deny that there is a God. The world is His canvas.

This picture was taken a little after the rainbow first appeared and it was just starting vanish.

Mike tried to take this picture from the window as the car was moving.

By the time we got to Billings I was tired and hungry. It was about 10:30 and Mike ordered a pizza to be delivered to the room. In the meantime we got ready for bed and played with Vessel who enjoyed exploring the room. He slept most of the way in the car, so I didn't know if he'd go to sleep very easily that night. The 3 of us sat on one of the beds eating pizza and watching T.V. until about midnight. We knew we had to get up early so we finally called it a night. Mike and I layed on one bed with Vessel between us. Vessel just kept talking and jabbering in the dark. He would say the word for everything he touched, like blanket, pillow, "mommy hair" and various parts of our faces until eventually he fell asleep around 1am. The next morning we got showered and ready to go to the temple. There were some very nice volunteers from our ward to watch children while their parents did temple work. The temple was beautiful, inside and out, just like every temple I've had the opportunity of seeing. There was something different about my experience at this temple, which I will probably go into more detail in a later post. It was powerful and spiritually strengthening and I seemed to develop a greater love for EVERYTHING. It was truly amazing. Afterwards we picked up Vessel from the Stake Center and went back to the temple for the traditional ward picture.

Here are some pictures of just our little family.

The Billings Montana LDS temple.

Billings is a much larger city than Great Falls, and I wish we could've spent more time there just seeing what was around. We found a Johnny Carino's restaurant and decided to eat there for lunch before making the drive back. This is where the story gets pretty funny. We were seated at a table (not a booth) kind of situated in a little cubby, if that makes sense. Vessel was put in a high chair and enjoyed coloring and what-not while Mike and I talked. Another family was seated across from us in a booth, and kept looking at us strangely. I would even say rather rudely. But I didn't think too much of it and just kept talking to Mike. After awhile Mike bent down to pick up the crayon Vessel dropped and when he came back up he looked completely shocked. He looked at me and said "We've got a problem." I thought, "What? What kind of problem?" Mike said there was poo all over the floor. Poo? Really? It must be something else, because I couldn't smell anything and Vessel seemed fine and happy in his chair. Well, another look and sure enough Vessel had diarrhea so bad that it exploded out of his diaper up his back down his legs, all over the high chair and a formed a big puddle underneath. I was mortified. That's why that family kept looking at us strangely! They should've said something, am I right?!? Anyway, Mike and I huddled and made a plan. I ran to the car to get his diaper bag but Vessel didn't have any clean or dry clothes (he spilled water on his last outfit) and we only had 3 wet wipes left. Only 3! I knew it would take a miracle to clean up that mess. Anyway, I took Vessel out of his chair, held him at arms length in front of me and hauled butt to the restroom. I put him in a stall, stripped him, wiped him down, diapered him and found a plastic bag to put his clothes in. Before that happened, the waitress was just about to bring our food out. We told her we had a situation on our hands and she put the food under a heat lamp or something until we were ready for it. I almost just wanted to leave. While I was in the bathroom, Mike had to wipe up the chair and floor with paper towels. The whole time that other family just sat there eating! If it were me, I would firstly, tell us that our son had a major blowout, and secondly, request to be moved to another table. Stupid people. So we figured out the reason Vessel had exploded like that. Apparently while we were at the temple, one of the men helping with the babysitting gave Vessel 5 apple juices! 5 juices in 2 hours! I could've strangled that man! Who gives a child that much juice?!?! Of course I can laugh about it now, and I don't have any hard feelings for the guy.... but geez, what was he thinking? Anyway, we finally got our food, and it wasn't as good as it probably would've been, had it not been sitting there for some amount of time. I was truly beet red from embarrassment....
We finally got back on the road, and Mike drove most of the way home. It was just as beautiful. I'm so happy we were able to go on the trip, regardless of the not so good moments a long the way! It was worth it. :)