Even More Temples

Josh and I have made an effort to visit new temples whenever we travel, like when we went to DC, Idaho, and Utah. Recently we've been traveling a lot, and therefore we have been able to visit a few more temples, bringing the ShepAlder Temple Total to 30!

In December we went to Texas and made a special trip to Dallas for sight-seeing and general mayhem, but also managed to fit in the Dallas temple (we have already been to both the San Antonio and Houston temples).

Temple #28: Dallas, TX

It was unseasonably cold in Texas at the beginning of December, and we hadn't really planned for that. The Dallas temple is similar to the Boise temple, which means it's squatty and the Celestial Room is small and round. The temple workers in the Texas temples have to be the absolute nicest people in the entire world. It might be a Texas thing or a Southern thing, but they were very sweet (especially since I always seem to get lost). In all fairness, temple workers are (mostly) exceptionally nice people, so you have to imagine that the Texas temple workers are especially nice!

Josh says, "It's not like it's far away, but it's really, really, really tucked in the middle of nowhere. We didn't even realize the temple was coming up until we got there. It's in the middle of a neighborhood!"

I like these arches. Interesting detail.

Then this past weekend we went to Utah to visit friends, family, and be present for the blessings of the Fergie twins Camille and Joshie (actually and honestly named after my husband). We were only there for a whirlwind two days, but we were able to squeeze in two temples! I'm not sure why we thought going to both would be a good idea, but sometimes our vanity gets in the way of common sense.

Temple #29: Draper, UT

Frankly, I don't remember much about Draper except that it was in a nice neighborhood and it was way up on the mountain. The Celestial Room was inexplicably tall and had a huge chandelier. The endowment room had beautiful paintings of boxwood trees. I love the newer temples that have the wall paintings that kind of make it seem like you are outside.

I'm not sure if this nativity scene is in front of every temple,

but it was in front of all three temples we went to during December.

Josh had to climb down the lawn in his dress shoes to get this shot.

Temple #30: Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Possibly the most annoyingly difficult to spell name of a temple, Oquirrh Mountain is beautiful, and not (despite what Josh says) a replica of Twin Falls. It has a very Egyptian feel inside, with tall doorways and slightly boxy architecture. In the Celestial Room (which was very tall, similar to Draper), the chandelier is somewhat star-shaped, which prompted Josh to remark that he would hate to be standing under it if it fell. (I told him that if he was under the chandelier when it fell, it would be the weight rather than the pointiness that would hurt him. He said that if he had a choice he would stand under a circular chandelier than a pointy one. But what are the odds that he would get a choice in the matter?)

The nativity scene again!

Josh and I are averaging about 10 temples for each year married, but it's going to get harder to see new temples since we've mostly been to all the ones in places we regularly travel. For the record, we have been to all temples in Washington, Idaho, and California. We have been to all but three (Ogden, Vernal, and Monticello) in Utah, all but one (Lubbock) in Texas, and all but one (Medford) in Oregon (which is to say, we've only been to Portland since the Medford temple is basically open only when they feel like it).

In the future, we're planning to go to the Boston and Manhattan temples, and then hopefully we'll get to go to a church history tour and maybe go to either the Nauvoo or the Palmyra temples.