Date night

It's really silly to not know what to do on date night around here. But we didn't.

So we grabbed some sandwiches and went and found the temple. We were glad we didn't decide to go in that time since it wasn't incredibly easy to find and getting into the parking lot was an adventure as it appears that Friday evening is a popular time to visit or get married. It looked like it was smaller than the pictures made it look at first, like the Salt Lake temple, but after walking up to it, I decided it was the biggest one I'd ever seen in person. It was beautiful. (link to a picture that I did not take) We arrived as the sun was lowering and that gold light was magic. The grounds are very well kept, planted and raked and trimmed. There were secluded benches among trees, nature trails, and sweeping landscaping rich with freshly transplanted annuals.

And of course there's the Spirit of the place. Driving through the gates was almost overwhelming. We didn't have to say much as we wandered around and just soaked it in. The main door faces north, but the east-facing door was simply and beautifully decorated. I kicked myself for not bringing a camera.

We went to the visitor's center and enjoyed the brief message played with the Christus (pictured here, link -- it's the statue) and they had a fascinating scale model of ancient Jerusalem. It was surrounded by pictures depicting moments of Christ's life, coordinated with pinpoint lights in the model to show the location of each.

All in all, despite having to drive in Maryland, it was a very good date. The guy who came to watch our kids brought two of his three as well as a neighbor's little girl. Funny how the social life around here involves so many little people. At the bbq last night, of that close to 40 people who showed up, 3/5ths were kids under the age of 10, and that ratio stacked a little since there were 4 missionaries and one couple had only one child. We have a very large primary.