Ft Lauderdale Temple Open House

We took a trip down to Fort Lauderdale to attend the open house for the second Temple in Florida. 

We were all so excited to be able to take Jack to a temple open house.

Jack had quite the set up in the back seat

Jason took off work, we pulled Jack out of school. 

The boys and I in one car and Nana, Pepi, Kate and Ava in another.

We stayed the night in a hotel with rooms right next to each other. 

As we walked into the temple there were dark threatening rain clouds. Inside the temple was incredible. It was not like one I have seen before. Dark wood and beautiful fabric on all the chairs and benches, beautiful woodwork and molding, even the rugs and carpeting had Florida palms and flowers throughout.. In one of the instruction rooms there was a mural in style with Florida landscape. One section it looked like you could be walking down the beach. It was incredible and such a wonderful experience for Jack. He was so cute pointing out all the beautiful things he saw and asked questions to our guide. The best is when we went into the sealing room and all three of us were in the mirrors going on for eternity. A visual reminder what Jason and I did for our little family when we were sealed almost 9 years ago in the Logan temple.

We came out of the calm temple setting to a rainstorm. We had a true Florida experience that day. We quickly ran to the cars to get out of the rain and with promises to return the next day to get pictures in front of the beautiful temple.

We got back to the hotel,dried off ,checked out the hotel, ate some dinner and then went for a night time swim at the rooftop pool!

The next morning after some fun cousin time in the hotel we headed to the temple for pictures and to see it one last time before we headed home.

What surprised me the most is that the temple is not white, it is more of a tan sand stone color.It is very fitting for the location and reminded me of the sand from the beaches that surround the area.

It's a wonderful event and feeling here in Florida to have a second Temple! We told Jack we wouldn't mind at all if this was the one he wanted to go to before his mission or to get married in!

We are looking forward to attending the dedication via satellite on Sunday. I am hoping we are able to go back down soon and go through a session and experience all the beauty again.