Getting colder

When we went to the London Temple in November, it was a particularly cold day.





Those (like Rebekah above) who wore warm wool socks were just fine going for a lovely fresh walk for a while. Those that weren't were quickly frozen to the bone and had to go inside to warm up!

We LOVED the red of these leaves. The children gravitated straight towards them. :o)









Samuel is fascinated by all animals (where his siblings will walk away from a dog, he walks towards them, and with all other creatures too). He was enjoying watching the ducks with Rachel here.





Hannah, as she often does, had made a little boat from a twig and a leaf, and they were all watching it float down the stream.







When it got to tea time, we drove to nearby Wakehurst Place (a National Trust property we like) and ate out tea in the car. Then wrapping up as warmly a we could we ventured out in the cold again to watch them turn the Christmas lights on on the largest living Christmas tree in the country.

Beautiful things at the temple

This was a couple of weeks ago. We forgot our camera the first time we went to the temple since the scaffolding was removed around the angel Moroni. I ended up recording it by drawing it while the girls looked longingly at the horses across the road from the temple and tried to persuade me to take them across the busy road to see them, and while Michael was inside the temple. This time we have a couple of photos, but we didn't get the time having eaten lunch to go round to where we could see 'him' more clearly. So just from a distance. I is always beautiful seeing the temple with the spring flowers out too.





Most importantly though, it was lovely seeing our children there in the sunshine with their Gramps. He very graciously looked after them while Michael and I went inside the temple together. It might be a long while before that can happen again, and it doesn't happen very often as it is, so we were very grateful. The children were worn out, and I should think Dad was too, after their four walks around the temple and time spent in the visitors centre and doing other things. Rachel and Hannah had been asked to take care of any dirty nappies just in case, as that is where Gramps' services draw a line. :o) They didn't need to in the end though, which I should think everyone was grateful for!

Peter was over the moon when we said we would be meeting Gramps at the temple. He feels sad not to see his grandparents much. Everyone else was suddenly eager to get on and get ready to - very excited they were.





A lovely robin sat in a nearby tree singing to us as we were finishing off our lunch. The girls got really close to it, and Rachel managed to get a really clear picture. She hadn't thought it had come out very well, but I think that was just the effect of the shadow on the robin.



This was a lucky shot of Sarah and Rebekah releasing a little bit of energy. They were just like this after General Conference today - couldn't keep still for anything! I was so pleased the camera caught them both perfectly as they rushed past at high speed.

Winter at the London Temple

When we went to the temple in the first half of January it was really freezing. A statue of the angel Moroni had been added to the top of the spire over Christmas, but we had been too ill to venture out before. We were hoping all the scaffolding would be gone before we went, but it still isn't (I went with the Young Women last night and it's all still there). So here is a first sneaky view of "Roni" as Peter calls him through the scaffolding.




Hannah was too cold to go for a walk to start with - she wanted to be in the warm for a while. The rest of us went to see the water though. It was frozen quite strangely, with sort of floating blocks of ice on top of the normal level of ice. We liked this leaf that was frozen within the water.





The resident duck (there seems to just be one at the moment) was in the not so frozen stream instead and of course came over to say hello on realising there was somebody around. There was a lovely BIG Robin right there too that kept coming up close, and another much smaller one that was flying around the same area.









We were all pretty freezing so went inside quite quickly and the children first explored the waiting room while we had a snack (no eating/drinking in the visitor's centre). There are two glass tables there which some of the girls thought was perfect for a glass case for Snow White to sleep in! Rachel was a little too realistic! Sarah couldn't quite keep a smile off her face. Peter just thought it was fun to lie down with everyone else, and Rebekah decided being Sleeping Beauty on top of the table was a much better idea! Hannah was being a little too grown up for such play, but I thought she looked gorgeous in such colourful clothes and colours all around her so took a picture of her too. Needless to say we were the only ones in the room at the time!!








Once Daddy went into the temple and we got into the visitor's centre (which they all like spending time in), everyone split to do their own exploring. Peter likes to watch the videos of the apostles and prophets best, so we watched a few of those, with him choosing which he wanted to see from the pictures on the wall. He was repeating a lot of the names after told him who they were, and for President Uchtdorf he said "Elder Dorfdorf" which I thought was fun.

Last week when I was looking at a church magazine as Peter came up to me I showed him various pictures inside, and then he asked me "Where's Duff Duff?" I didn't know what he was saying, but after he'd repeated himself the second time he said "Where's Elder Duff Duff?" and I remembered. We did find a picture of him. When I call him by his real name (President Uchtdorf) Peter now corrects me - he knows what it is really!

A day at the temple

We went to the London temple last Saturday. The children enjoyed the newly developed visitors centre there with its own Christus, touch screen displays, and pictures of inside that actual temple (they were amazed at that). We'll explore it more another time when we're there for longer. It's a relief to have an indoor place to be now the weather is getting freezing. Talking of freezing, it has apparently snowed in some parts of the country this week, including in Coventry where we just moved from. The children were quite disappointed that we were here instead! It's certainly freezing enough here for it to be snowing, but it's partly the wind that's always there that makes it feel so cold I think. We hadn't quite made it down to 0 degrees in reality.






While I was in the temple, Michael and the children managed to find a fairly sheltered bench to have their lunch. They were joined by a very friendly duck who seemed to want to join in their picnic.




Later on while Michael was in the temple, Hannah got creative. She had already made a flower from some beautifully coloured autumn leaves, then while trying to hold more leaves to make more flowers, she decided she could really do with a basket. Hannah's obvious solution to that would be to try making one! She didn't get as far as a basket, but she did a pretty good job at weaving some grass/reeds together. She didn't really know how to weave having not done it before, but it didn't take her long sat on a bench on her own to work it out, and be very pleased with the result. Whenever we are at the temple Hannah's mind and hands get busy and she creates something or other. It was a boat to float in the pond last time. :o) She seems to find it an inspiring place to be, and no wonder with the lovely grounds there.






Michael and I also went round taking quite a few photos of the temple as requested by Debbie to give to somebody. It wasn't the best weather for it - very grey for most of the day. These are our favourites from what we managed to get though. Hopefully one for them will be fit for the purpose, but if not Deb, then we'll try again soon, hopefully on a brighter day!