I was going through my camera and I realized I had a bunch of pictures from when we visited temple square that I never posted. Since it's Friday and yesterday was Thursday I figure "throwbacks" are perfectly acceptable, right? ;)

 We had a really fun time at temple square the night before we flew out to Iowa (Dec 20th). We drove Isaac and Chelsee to the airport and then went to the Salt Lake Temple for an endowment session. It was especially meaningful because that was the first time we'd gone to the Salt Lake Temple since we were married. After the session we went to Stephen's grandpa's house (who doesn't live too far) for a delicious dinner of roast and potatoes (side note: we made a roast for the first time in the crockpot this past Sunday and OH MY WORD it was so good!). We visited with him and Stephen's aunt and uncle for a bit before heading back to temple square to see the lights. They were BEAUTIFUL! This year was especially cool now that I have even more of a connection with the Salt Lake Temple. It was a really fun evening! Despite the fact that it was like 20-something degrees and Stephen stepped in a puddle so his socks got wet and started to freeze. We enjoyed walking around and taking pictures and then going inside the visitor's center for a few minutes to get warm, and then going outside to enjoy some more.

Unfortunately, the evening took on a bit of a sour note when we got back to our car only to realize that we'd gotten a parking ticket!!!!! We were parked close to a sign that said "do not park beyond this sign" but we thought it'd be okay since only about a foot or so of our car was beyond the sign. Apparently not! On the way home we were both a bit bummed, but then I read Stephen a blog post my sister Rebekah wrote about their awful 25 hour roadtrip with their three young children ON their 6 year wedding anniversary. The trip included: multiple diaper blowouts, two cracked hubcaps, 39.5 total hours spent in the car, and to top it all off - a speeding ticket!

By the time we got home we were laughing so hard (especially at the part where my sister helped her son pee in a water bottle in the car) the parking ticket didn't seem like such a big deal anymore. I'm sure Rebekah and James will be able to someday laugh about all their misfortune on that trip as well, but maybe it's still a little too soon. :)

We went to sleep that night grateful for a good day and for the fact that we didn't have to go through what Rebekah and James did. ...Little did we know the series of unfortunate events that would follow us the very next day in our efforts to get to Stephen's house in Iowa. Haha. I'm so grateful I married a man who can laugh when things don't always go as planned.