Twin Falls road trip date

Here is an excellent combination for an awesome road trip date:

 1. Super cute husband: in my case, his name is Chuck.

[and sappily I think any date with him is pretty much the best date ever]

2. Special destination: Twin Falls Temple, yay! 

We hadn't been since June and I felt a sudden serious need to go. The probability of the trip working out looked doubtful for a bit, but then everything fell into place (the boys had a day off school that coincided with Chuck's day off, Chuck was able to get in last minute to get his recommend renewed, my mom could delay her drive to Utah for a couple hours, etc), and I'm SO grateful that it did.

3. Good food: Cafe Rio! 

Chuck and I decided a while ago that Cafe Rio should be our special 'after temple dates' dinner so we've stopped there every time we've gone to Twin. Luckily there's one in Boise so we'll be able to keep up the tradition after Boise Temple dates too because their pork salads are soooo gooooood (notice the part of the screen I pointed arrows at...).

4. A little D.I. shopping detour! 

I'm not going to lie; a lot of our dates include quick stops at Savers or D.I. This time we found a couple shirts for the boys and then left, only to return five hours later on our way out of town because I couldn't stop thinking about this brown polka dot dress for $4. IT HAS SHOULDER PADS! Now I'm just counting down the months (two and a half left!) until Jack is weaned and I can wear it to church :).

5. A gooood babysitter - 
and ours is the best, Grandma Pam! 
It's worked out so well that my mom teaches so close to Twin so that we can all drive down and drop the boys off with her while we go to the temple. This time we met her at her school right as her meetings wrapped up for the day, and the boys proceeded to have all sorts of fun in her classroom. As a bonus, I got to see two old friends that are new teachers at my mom's school - Jenny Holden, a friend from high school and Kmart (meaning she remembers when Chuck and I first met, haha), and Debbie Kelly, an old friend of my mom's from their days as young moms. Our families spent a lot of time together when I was growing up since their five boys were all around our same ages.

We finished up our trip by checking out where Grandma Pam lives during the school week - a fun basement apartment that she and Debbie rent together. Naturally the boys' favorite aspect of the place was the stairs :).

 Road trip dates are fun, but they're also looong (even longer when kids are in the car!) so we're pretty thrilled that the Boise Temple renovation is completed so that we can go much more regularly without having to make an entire day of it.

I figure the money we save in gas can be put in the 'D.I. dress fund' - still need to run that one by Chuck though . . .

Speaking of the Boise Temple, don't forget to take a tour of it during the Open House! Tours are available for the next three weeks (the last day is Saturday, November 10th) Monday-Saturday. I'll copy and paste the spiel I posted on facebook about it:

*The purpose of the open house is not (for once, haha) to convert or baptize anyone, I promise. No one will ask for your info or if you want to 'know more' about the Church. We really just want to share a look inside this building that we hold so sacred.

*After the tour, there are comment cards that you can fill out if you'd like to about your thoughts about the experience in general. Because of time/efficiency, the tour guides aren't able to answer questions along the tour, but afterwards questions are welcome, and there are cookies 

[correction: I've since learned that there is a small treat, but not cookies. I want to be angry at people with allergies who ruin cookie opportunities for the rest of us, but then I remember their lives/health are at stake, and I resolve to leave them alone and just eat extra cookies at home later].

*The tour is about an hour, give or take a little.

*If the thought of obtaining tickets is too much commitment, go during the morning or afternoon on a weekday when the crowd will be a little lighter and they will squeeze you in (be prepared to wait a few minutes though).

*Kids are welcome!

*I can almost guarantee you that any member of the church you know (myself included) would be happy to go with you if you ask.

*If you want the chance of having the awesome Jana Izatt as your tour guide, go during the afternoon of Oct 31st or the morning of Nov 1st and you might get me!

Here's the link to get tickets:    https://templeopenhouse.lds.org/tickets/6