Family Vacation 2014: Day 2: July 26, 2014

I have a new phone with a great camera, but getting the pictures into the blog is a headache and a half.  I am hoping there is just a learning curve and I will get it soon.  Right now, though, the pictures are downloaded to my computer, but all 600-800 of them are completely jumbled and I cannot sort them by date taken or anything. 

So, for now, I will just tell the story and figure out a better way to try to add the pictures and I will do that later.

Saturday, July 26, we got to go to the Baton Rouge temple.  We decided that Baby C was just too cranky and unhappy to leave him for an entire session and we had to get ready for the kids to do baptisms.  So, CK and I went and did initiatory.  The Baton Rouge temple is a smaller temple.  It creates in me a deep gratitude for the love of the Lord in hastening his work and providing temples close to a majority of peoples on the earth.  We are truly so blessed.

After CK and I went to the temple, we went back to the hotel and got the kids.  K and C were ready in their Sunday best to go to the temple to perform baptisms for the dead.  It was especially neat this time as a friend from our ward had given them the opportunity to perform these ordinances vicariously for her deceased ancestors.  I dropped CK and C and K off at the temple, then took the younger four back to the hotel.

Remember how we didn't have a hotel room now for Saturday?  Luckily they let us have late check out at two.  I stayed with all the kids and finished packing what we had left.  Then, we went and picked up the three at the temple and headed out directly from the temple.

We drove and drove and drove.  We were all quite exhausted and, to make matters worse, there was a big accident (we later learned that it was an overturned semi truck) that STOPPED traffic COMPLETELY for miles.  The second time in as many days that we were stopped on the road.  The blessing is that Baby C slept most of the time. 

Because of the change of plans, we hadn't yet been grocery shopping.  We weren't going to shop on the Sabbath, so we had to stop and get a few things for our food for Sunday.  I fed Baby C in the car while CK, K, and V went in and shopped.

By the time we made it to the house, we were tired and happy to have made it.  It was late and dark and we couldn't see the ocean or the outside of the house.  So, we unpacked as quickly as possible and called it a night.