Lights at Temple Square

Last Saturday we had time to do whatever we wanted because Matt is done with school for the semester and that means that Saturdays are no longer filled with massive amounts of homework. Also, it is winter, so Matt doesn't have to do yard work on Saturday. This is definitely the best time of year. I love having so much time together as a family.

We decided to make the long trip up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. Nicole LOVES Christmas lights. Every time we get into the car, she asks if we can see the Christmas lights, even when it is day time. We have to tell her it is day and the lights aren't on yet and then her heart is broken and she breaks out in tears. So, we thought it would be fun to go up to see the lights at Temple Square.

The kids don't travel well, so we don't often take long car rides with them. Nicole has some sort of triggered response to be hungry when she gets in the car. It is weird. The second I strap her in, she is saying she is hungry, even if she just ate. So, we brought my new tablet (more on that in a separate post) for her to watch a movie while we were in the car. There were still some meltdowns in the car about the tablet, but at least she wasn't asking for food every three seconds.

We got up to Salt Lake around 6pm and it was packed! We thought that we would park at the conference center, but the parking lot was reserved for an event (most likely that Christmas play they do). So, we drove around for a while looking for parking and ended up parking at City Creek mall. We bundled up the kids and ourselves, got out our amazing stroller and headed over to Temple Square.

The crowds were out of control! There was just a throng of people mulling around the square. We got into the heard and moved with the people, but really weren't able to pause to observe the lights because if we stopped, we would ebb the flow of traffic behind us. So, we just moved like a herd of people.

Nicole was one unhappy passenger in this stroller ride. We don't have gloves for her this year and her hands were getting to cold. So we told her to put her hands in her pockets, but then she started crying that her face was cold. She was wearing her hood from her coat, but refused to wear her owl hat, so her face was getting cold. It was seriously cold out. We had piles of blankets on Daniel and had his heavy carseat cover on and we didn't even open it to check on him. We figured if he wasn't crying, he must have been happy.

Anyway, we finally made it away from the temple and went to the north part of the square where they have a lot of different nativities and the crowds were a lot less and we were finally able to get a few pictures. The pictures are really bad of course because Nicole could not get over her cold face and was throwing fits.

Look up Nicole! "No, my face is cold!"

Okay, she kind of looked up for this one, but not at the camera. And yes, she is wearing snow pants when there is no snow.

Here's a peek at Dan in his car seat all bundled up and drinking his warm milk.

Here is an unfortunate picture of me

Nicole was not posing for any more pictures.

So, after being there for about 40 minutes, we headed over to Deseret Book to use the bathroom before going home. That is one thing I have had to train myself to do with a newly potty trained kid. I always have to remind myself that we have to find a bathroom before we go anywhere. Otherwise, inevitably, Nicole will say she has to go right when we start driving somewhere.

Even with all the tears and the cold, Matt and I enjoyed our jaunt at Temple Square. It is fun to get out and try new things, even though it is challenging with two small kids. If we were always afraid to go somewhere because it would be challenging with the kids, then we wouldn't go anywhere at all.