Gila Valley Temple

This weekend we took an over night trip to visit the Gila Valley Temple in Pima, or Safford or Thatcher.. not sure which town it's actually in.  We went with three other couples: the Rapiers, the Johnsons and the Kettrings.  We left midday Friday and arrived about 4 pm.  We checked into our hotel, changed and went to do an endowment session. The temple is so pretty!!  It's all done in blue and yellow. ♥  After, we went to a steakhouse for dinner.

We didn't get back to the hotel until after ten but most were not ready to go to bed.  Glade had gotten really sick (stuffy and coughing) so he was miserable and ready to go to bed.  Melanie and Robin headed to bed as well.  The rest of us went to the dining area to play a board game.  We also stopped for ice cream on the way back so we dished some of that up.  Because it was late and we are who we are, we giggled till we cried.  Sometimes Moose skids and imagining Moose in underwear is just too much!  I went up to bed around 11.  Glade and some of the others got up bright and early to run before it got too hot.  Melanie ran to the wrong hotel when she was done.  Hilarious.  She didn't realize till after she had gone through the lobby and to find her room only to discover they didn't even have her room number.  Funny girl.

After a hot breakfast in the dining area, we headed back to the temple to do sealings.  Clint had a pretty big stack of names so we figured they would do as many as they could in the hour that they normally allot.  But not here!  We were there for over two hours doing all of the names.  It was kind of long, but it was so nice that they would let us stay and do them.  All the temple workers were so sweet and kind.

Clint and Alicen needed to get home so we grabbed a quick lunch and they took off.  The rest of us stayed hoping to find something to do before we had to go.  Not a lot to do up there. Ü  So we decided to drive leisurely home and see if anything came up along the way.  In looking for a potty, we came across the Pickle Barrel.  It's an antique store/barn.  We decided that could be interesting.  It was mostly Indian apparel and western stuff, but they had one room that was actually really old everyday items.  It was so fun to look at all the phones, butter churns, lamps, dishes, tools, etc that were used so many years ago.

We arrived back home around 6:30 with just enough time to say hi to the kids, grab a bite to eat and be back in bed by 8.  (ok, it might have been 7:30)  I was really tired!  But it's times and occasions like these that remind me how blessed I am to associate with such wonderful people.  To have so many temples close by.  To have willing and able family to help take care of my kids and means to be able to take trips like these.  Now.... what's next??