A few months ago, as we were discussing our summer plans, Kevin had the idea that I go out west early, so I could spend some time with my mom.  And since Arthur is a fabulous travel buddy, I decided to take him with me.  And so on Thursday, July 6th, Arthur and I boarded a plane and began our adventure.

He loves airplanes, and because we drive most places now, he hasn’t had a ton of experience getting to fly.  That meant that he was pretty much enraptured looking out the windows almost the whole flight while listening to an audio book.  (And since we were blessed to have a row to ourselves, I tried to squish myself in two seats to take a nap. Arthur did let me put my head in his lap for part of it. Ha ha!)

We did have a layover in Denver, which Arthur thought was awesome, since he was born in Colorado. Unfortunately, our flight from Denver to Salt Lake kept getting delayed, and so that was frustrating, but we eventually made it to Utah.

When we arrived in Salt Lake, Marilyn came and picked us up from the airport, and we went straight to the Saratoga Springs Temple open house.  Although Arthur has actually been to a few temple open houses before, he was young enough that he really doesn’t have any memory of them, and so when I heard that the open house was happening right when we would arrive, I had to get tickets.  

The temple was huge! Four stories, I think.  I know we climbed lots of stairs.  And after our small (but beautiful) San Antonio Temple that is all on one floor, it felt extra giant.  We loved it, and Arthur was just soaking it all in, from the details, to the artwork, to the different rooms.  I am so glad we got to go and have this amazing experience, especially with Marilyn.  (And the view of Utah lake and Mt. Timpanogas from the temple was so spectacular.)

For lunch, we found a fun chicken place to eat that had a giant rooster, so we had to get a picture.

After lunch, we drove to Ogden and dropped Marilyn off, and then Arthur and I drove to Twin Falls. Brent and Marilyn were amazing and let me borrow their extra car, which was a huge blessing.  And the drive went great, especially because Arthur and I had a fun audio book to listen to on the way.