Philadelphia

Bentley is now 12 which means that he gets to pass the sacrament at church AND he gets a "limited access" pass to the temple!  So Craig and I were excited to finally take him to the temple with us. 

Bentley got a suit for his birthday (thanks, Mom and Dad!).  I told them to look like Boss Baby for this-- I think Ryder's Pikachu tattoo really adds to the look...

My little men

Unfortunately, the temple situation here is a big pain right now.  The DC temple is closed for 2 years for renovations (I heard they're replacing the HVAC and stuff?  and possibly the roof?).  Our next closest temple would be North Carolina, but it was also closed due to a mold problem.  Which means that for now (at least, until the new Richmond temple gets built!!!!!!), our closest temple is five hours away in Philadelphia.

But, of course, that wasn't going to stop Craig from getting us there.  He began scheming, and I filled in the gaps, and before we knew it, we had a pretty workable plan!  It helps, as always, that we have wonderful friends.  In this case, it was the Atkinsons in Manassas who helped make this all a really fun day.  They have three kids the same ages as three of our kids, so we begged them to come along, and not only did they agree to do so, Christina offered to watch all the kids so I could be inside the temple with Bentley.  So that was AWESOME of her.  Still not sure how I can ever repay her for that...

We left the house at 6am that Saturday, picked up the Atkinsons at 8, and DROVE.  Our appointment was for 12:30, but we got there early enough to drive around Philadelphia looking for parking for a bit before finally giving up and just being at the temple early.  Oh, well.  At least by then there was a parking spot in the temple garage!  (Which took me a lot of maneuvering and not a little sweating to get into, but I did it!)

Dwain, Craig, Bentley, Spencer, and I all filed inside.  They could use Dwain's Chinese skills so he got put him to work helping some Chinese members, and Craig helped the rest of us all do baptisms, so that was awesome.  The Philadelphia temple is really pretty, with lots of beautiful murals of the Susquehanna River and TONS of colonial details that feel right at home with history of the city.  So that was all really cool to see.  Apparently Christina took everyone back to the car and let them watch a movie on her phone while she napped.  PERFECT!

After we were done, we had to take pictures!

I like how both Bentley and Spencer are looking down for this shot-- they're buddies!

It was windy and chilly-- can you tell?

This was the best we got.  At least you get the idea!

By this point we were all getting hungry.  I would have been okay just driving to a rest area outside the city (I HATE city driving and Philly was awful for that), but Craig really wanted me to get to experience the Reading Terminal Market, so he finally just dropped Christina and me off with a few of the older kids (with very clear directions that I was to ENJOY IT and NOT STRESS OUT-- he knows me so well!).  He'd pointed me in the direction of MeltKraft, where they serve amazing grilled cheese sandwiches, so I ordered for all of us there.  On the way, we found this pig statue, which thrilled Ryder.

As Craig had promised, the food was delicious, and even better once Craig and Dwain and all the rest of the kids joined us.  Once we were all stuffed it was time to begin the drive home.  Another three hours got us back to Manassas, and that time flew by as Christina and I talked and talked.  I will never run out of stuff to talk about with her!  We'd planned on having dinner at Cafe Rio, but I was still full, so Craig got quesadillas for the kids while I drove past our old house (it looked great-- they've done WAY more with the landscaping than we ever did!) and then we took the Atkinsons home.  Since we'd skipped dinner, Craig and I stopped at the Moo-Thru and I got a milkshake, so that was delightful. 

Not entirely sure why I bothered vacuuming the car BEFORE the trip, except that I really didn't want to force Christina to sit on a bed of goldfish crackers...

We got home at 10pm.  Man, that was a LONG day.  But totally worth it.  I'm so glad we were able to go!  But I'm REALLY hoping that the DC temple will be up and running again by the time Kendra turns 12!