Holiness to the Lord.

The Boise temple has been closed for renovation since July 2011.  Which means, for the past year or so, we've had to travel almost 2 hours away to visit the closest temple.  We have missed the 15 minute drive to the Boise temple, and the regular attendance that accompanied having one so close.  Still, there's learning that accompanies sacrifice and, fortunately Tim and I had fun trying to route our trips this year so that we could visit the temple "on the way".  Sadly, we were in Winter Quarters, NE, on a Monday this summer (one of the days the temple is closed).  Other than that, though, our temple visits have included the Portland, St. George, Mt. Timpanogos, Provo, Salt Lake, and Twin Falls temples.

The Boise temple is now complete and open to the general public for a few weeks before it is rededicated and thereafter available only to worthy members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We've invited a few friends to go take a tour, but want to extend the invitation to any of you who happen to read this blog - the last time the Boise temple was open to the general public was in the mid 1980's, so, if you're interested in learning more about what goes on inside a Mormon temple, go to this website and schedule yourselves a free tour (or just show up, they won't turn you away).  The tour schedule ends Saturday, November 10th.

In any case, our family took a tour almost two weeks ago.  Here we are on the shuttle:

And then just outside the temple after the tour:

I wish I had sat down to record my feelings a bit sooner so that I could recount with greater detail some of the feelings I had on that occasion.  Our experience in the temple was very tender, particularly as I was surrounded by my husband and four sweet daughters.  I loved sharing that building with them, as it is where I've gained so much learning and the eternal perspecitive that grounds me as I navigate a world that lacks answers to life's most fundamental questions.