The Ogden Temple

For those of you who have kept up on the news, the lovely Ogden Temple is slated for reconstruction and remodeling coming the start of April. As such, to end March of this year, my sister-in-law and her family invited Tyler & I (along with another sister-in-law) to join them on the temple grounds for taking some pictures and making some final memories of the Ogden Temple.

Tyler's parents Kevin & Judy, his Grandma Robinson and Aunt Sherri

Tyler and I didn't dress in church attire and we only brought our cell phone cameras. But here are a few shots we took of our family on the temple grounds. Some of the images I took the next day, earlier in the morning when I went back with Ty's parents, his grandma and aunt as pictured above.

It was hard to get them both to smile at once!

Our nephew and niece were, however, appropriately attired, thus they received most of the attention during our photo session. Of course, as is typical of children their age, it was a challenge to get them both to look at the camera and smile at the same time.Out of all the images we were able to capture, this one of Hannah is my favorite. Her dress glowed and she smiled up at me at the right moment. I didn't alter this image at all, since it was simply lovely.

Really bright outside + a film of moisture on the lens = glow effect

Many people flocked to Ogden this week, so the grounds were crowded. I would have liked a chance to photograph the temple without having so many people there, but I realize that everyone wants to make one final memory there before the structure changes.

Here's a clear shot of the temple from the east side

I know there are those who consider the Ogden (and therefore also the Provo) temples as eyesores in the world of temple architecture, however having been inside both, I can simple promise you that the way those temples were designed, the circular structures lent themselves well to the eternal purposes and functions for which they are intended.

This is a close up of the bridge and pond on the east side

Orlando's True Magic

For everyone, there comes a time in life when reality and Disney cross paths in a major way. For me, this happened this February. For the first time in my young life, I entered a Disney theme park. Here to follow are a few images and tales of my visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando.

At the beginning of my adventure, I got to go up into the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House and it was incredible. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but the line of people kept urging us all forward. Below is an image of me next to the bust of one of my mom's favorite actors.

One of my favorite is the Love Bug and the classic other Herbie movies. Naturally, you can imagine my delight at Hollywood Studios on the Backlots Tour when I got to see Herbie, both the chopped and whole versions waiting around.

Then, on that same ride, I was able to experience an earthquake & flood. I could feel the heat from the fires and I sure loved that little scare if gave us.

Now, we did go shopping around Downtown Disney, and here's a picture opportunity we had and couldn't walk away from:

Another highlight was in Animal World on a Safari ride. I love Elephants, so when we got to see a small little herd of them, I was happy. I also enjoyed being able to take a rest and be off my feet for a while.

Now, as you well can imagine, my nephew & niece were with us throughout the week and truly they were the main attraction and highlight of our adventure.

Their eyes were full of the magic and wonder and it was hard not to feel that this really was a different world.

Epcot was great, I wish I'd had more time there. I did enter the German zone and here's a picture of me shopping the shops there and loving it!

Another part of our vacation brought us to Universal Studios, a theme park with ever major movie or show themed ride you could ever want.

I got to enter into the Harry Potter section, which was really neat.

It’s really something else to be in a life-sized representation of JK Rowling’s wizarding world.

Since one of my favorite children’s authors is Dr. Seuss, I was happily at home in that portion of the park, watching little Jonathon & Hannah enjoy the fun rides and play areas. I will say that before anyone decides to ride the Cat in the Hat ride, they should first down some Dramamine and hope for the best. It was a wacky ride, one that I was happy to get off at the end. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures in this part of the park :(

I did have a wonderful time and though the plane ride was long and less than fun, I will someday return to this wonderful city of Orlando.

Winter's Wonderland

Beus Pond
My brother and his girl friend drove out for a short visit. They wanted to do a hike, but the weather didn’t look like hiking would be a good idea, so instead we went to Beus Pond.

Winter has brought a layer of ice to this beautiful play. The ducks didn’t seem to mind the weather much, hanging around on the ice.

Others went swimming in the parts of the pond that weren’t locked under a layer of ice.

Along the way, we discovered a number of ice formations that begged the camera lens to immortalize them. Naturally, I obliged.

I also saw some very cute little tracks that followed along the shore of the water which were reminiscent of a child’s hand print. All of you cub scouts out there could probably tell me what it was that left these tracks. I was purely enchanted with the mystery.

I encourage everyone who reads this to take a morning or afternoon and go to a park or pond near them and enjoy the wildlife. There’s bound to be a story in every landscape.

I know I discovered many on my visit to Beus Pond.