For weeks before Christmas, I'd been telling Cooper we were going on an airplane to visit LOTS of family like Grammie, Papa, Chelsey, and Calvin. He was SO excited to finally see Calvin, and hasn't stopped talking about "Cowben" ever since. So excited we get to go to Utah again in a few weeks for Chelsey's wedding and to see Calvin again! Except for a few days when Cal was too sick, these too were INSEPARABLE!! (Calvin 2-3/4, Cooper 2 --7-1/2 months difference in age)
Our second night in Utah, we went to Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. Cooper has been learning that temples are special places to be married so families can be together forever. This is Cooper's first glimpse of the Salt Lake Temple, and we was ecstatic!
For Cooper, the night wasn't so much about seeing all the amazing Christmas lights, but about finding water fountains, and fighting with us over whether or not it was too cold to go swimming in them. BOY WAS IT COLD, and CROWDED. But we still managed to have a good time, despite the screaming toddler who was mad that we wouldn't let him play in the water.
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We somehow managed to get some group photos. Here's all the girls: Chrystal, Camyll, Cassady, Aspen, Anna, Mom, and Chelsey (Jaisie was in the stroller keeping warm)
There's that adorable baby girl and her Mommy!
And here's all the guys: Calvin, Poulson, Dad, Alex, Cooper, Stettsen, Jayson, Tyler and Nathan
No trip to Temple Square would be complete without going inside the old Tabernacle. We all had to go see the place where Grandma Great (Grandma Christensen) used to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Alex and Cassady were good sports.
Everyone was just happy to get out of the cold and the crowds for a second.
Cooper and Calvin were too busy to stop for a photo op.
"What were they too busy doing?", you might ask. Playing swords with their neon light strips inside the reverent Tabernacle. Yeah...sigh.
Back outside to see some more lights. Camyll and Cass really liked this huge old tree decked out in red lights.
Spiderman and his sidekick, I mean, Calvin and Cooper, were happy to get a ride on their dads' shoulders.
Up the temple steps to touch the doorknob of the temple. Coop thought that was just AWESOME!
Cass was too cute in her red coat.
Finally a good picture of the Coopster
We were all being goofy--I think it was the cold making us all go insane! Either that or we were all trying to convince ourselves that being in huge crowds to see some Christmas lights at the temple in the bitter cold was FUN. ;o) Actually, I really enjoyed it. Thank you to the whole family for indulging me.
As we made our way over to the reflecting pool, we passed the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where Nathan and I had our wedding reception 6 days shy of 7 years earlier. As we walked around Temple Square that night, it was very nostalgic for us because the lights and the crowds were much the same on our wedding night as we came out of that side of the building for our reception send-off on our wedding night. It was fun to have our little family of three there with my immediate family to celebrate Christmas, but also for Nathan and I to remember our wedding as we approached our 7th anniversary.
And of course, on the way back to the car, as Cooper screamed and cried because we left the "big water" and wouldn't let him play in it, we stopped in front of the Conference Center to see one last water fountain.
It was a great way to start a GREAT Christmas vacation!
(Now that I FINALLY have all the photos uploaded and edited, more of Christmas to come as I have "spare" time to catch up.)
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