Temple #13

Trevyn is coming to spend part of his Spring Break

with us so we spent the morning in Salt Lake

before heading to the airport to pick him up.

Temple Square was beautiful! The trees are starting to

bloom and the tulips are starting to look beautiful.  

The Salt Lake Temple was the fourth temple built in Utah

It was the only temple dedicated by President Woodruff

The Salt Lake Temple is the largest temple 

(most square footage) of the church

The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build 

but it's interior was completed in just one year.

During the construction of the Salt Lake Temple,

 the St. George, Logan, and Manti temple 

were all started and completed. 

The walls of the Salt Lake Temple are nine feet 

thick at the base and six feet thick at the top.

It was the first temple to feature a 

standing angel Moroni Statue

The Salt Lake Temple was completed

 the afternoon before the dedication.

I found out that Trayco had never really spent any

time on Temple Square 

so we went to the Tabernacle,Vistors Center, 

and the Newly Remodeled Church History Museum 

(which is AWESOME!!!)

They have a new interactive exhibit that walks

you through all the history of the church.

We learned a lot and want to go back when

we have more time to read everything. 

We are so blessed to live in a time when the church 

and gospel are flourishing across the world!

Upstairs in the museum they have a section for

each modern day prophet! It is amazing. 

In President Hinkley's section there is a

 podium made to look like

the one in the Conference Center and we joked that 

Elder Trayco C. Ross was 

giving his first Conference Talk 

HAPPY EASTER!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday!

We colored egg's and had an intense 

Easter Egg hunt in the dark with flash lights.

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A conversation I had with our Primary class 

perfectly sums up Easter:

Me: On Easter we get to do fun things like color eggs 

and get visited by the Easter Bunny but what is the 

real reason why we celebrate Easter?

Max: Because Jesus came back to life.

Me: That's right! 

And why is it is important that Jesus came back to life?

Max: Because it means that us and all of our pets 

will get to come back to life

and we get to live with our families FOREVER!

Paper Airplane Party

Today was our last day teaching our primary class.

We are so sad to leave them but we are grateful we 

were able to teach them for the

 few months we have been here. 

We have been promising them a paper airplane party because

one Sunday, Trayco started making their coloring pages

into paper airplanes and I made him stop because I knew

it would turn into a weekly occurrence. 

Trayco taught them step by step 

how to make paper air planes

and their eyes were glued on him! Their little

fingers couldn't quite get all of the folds right

so Trayco ended up making all of the planes 

but they were so cute trying to figure out

which way was "hot dog" and which way was "hamburger." 

We only had one kid throw his plane

 on the roof and one kid cry 

because her air plane wouldn't fly far enough

but over all I think the party was a success! 

Owen Norton, Sam Swain, Max Harris, Dan Swain, 

Kelepi Vaka,Ashton Crosby, Katrina Torkildson.

Not pictured: Cooper Gehring & Kaeda Kano

When we were taking a picture outside, my mind flashed

to a picture taken in the same spot from my primary days.

I never would have guessed that 

I would be teaching primary in the ward I grew up in. 

Ace of Aches

As a family, we went to watch Kylie AKA "Ace of Aches"

(her roller derby name) in her Roller Derby team's season opener. 

We learned a lot about Roller Derby and Kylie was killing

it until she got ran over and hurt her knee.

Thankfully Sam was the acting EMT for the night

so she was well taken care of. 

BYU Blue & White Game

We went to BYU's Spring Football game!

The team just plays against each other 

but it was free and fun to watch. 

We were teasing mom for wearing the wrong color!

(Trayco and Dad refused to be in the picture)

Utah Blitz

To get all of the new guys ready for the summer, Edge

had a "blitz day" where his team went out

and knocked for a day. 

Trayco's cousin and friend who will be selling this summer

drove from Colorado for the weekend.

Edge rented out a theater for Batman vs. Superman,

Unfortunately, it was not everything we hoped it would

be but you can't complain too much about a free movie.    

I went with Jamie to her Relief Society Dinner.

We had a good time and even made a new friend.

(Sadly she had to come and sit by us because

 in a moment of panic, I chose a seat in

 the far corner where no one was sitting)

It was catered by Zupa's and we heard really good

talks about service and "needing each other." 

Meet Lola...

The newest member of the Ross Family! 

We test drove and researched different

cars but as soon as we sat in the Cruze

we knew she was meant to be ours.

We feel all grown up with a car

payment and a car of our very own. 

We had such a fun weekend in Hyrum!

Amy spoiled the heck out of us and

took me and Jamie shopping.

We wore our new dresses to the

Provo City Center Temple Dedication

which was so good! 

It truly is amazing how many temples 

we live so close too. 

Temple #12

-The Logan Temple was the second temple built in Utah

-It is the only temple that was

 dedicated by President John Taylor

-The five-story temple was built entirely by volunteer 

labor over a seven-year period from 1877 to 1884

-The exterior walls of the temple were originally painted 

an off-white color to hid the dark, 

rough hewn lime stone. 

In the early 1900s, the paint was weather aways, 

uncovering the beautiful stone

 that characterizes the temple today. 

-In the late 1970s the interior the temple 

was completely gutted and rebuilt. 

The two year project replaced 

the progressive-style ordinance rooms 

-President Spencer W. Kimball, 

who rededicated the complete temple in 1979, 

regretted the need to reconstruct the interior 

because of the loss of pioneer craftsmanship

Temple #11 and a weekend in Hyrum!

On the way up to Hyrum we stopped

at the Brigham City Temple.

The Brigham City Temple is small but very beautiful! 

Jamie came with us which was so fun

and it was nice to have a photographer

so we didn't have to take a selfie :)

Trayco was insistent that I took a picture

of the "awesome Solomon's Temple fountain"  

The Brigham City Temple was the 14th temple built in Utah

and the first built in Box Elder County

The temple is built directly west 

of the Brigham City Tabernacle

Central Elementary School once stood 

on the site of the temple

President Boyd K. Packer attended school there as a boy,

The building and landscape designs 

were created to reflect both he 

history of Brigham City 

and the classical designs found

 at the Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake Temples

The landscape of the temple includes 26 fruit trees

I Hope They Call me on a Mission!

Today in primary the lesson was

"I can tell others about Jesus Christ" 

I brought coloring pages of a missionary tag

for the kids to color but they all wanted

them cut out so they could tape them to their clothes! 

Trayco and I showed them

pictures of our mission and told them

stories and I have never seen them so attentive!

Temple #10

Our temple! 

We hadn't been back since we got sealed so it 

was a great day. 

We even waited until "our couch" was

open in the Celestial Room :) 

We are glad we didn't get married a month 

earlier because everything on the grounds is still dead.

I am so grateful for temples and 

for eternal marriage. 

Fun Facts: 

-The Draper Temple was the 12th temple built in Utah

-All of the art-glass windows 

(created by Utah artist, Tom Holdman) 

miraculously survived a fired even though 

the art studio itself was so badly burned, 

it was condemned.

-There are 221 exterior windows, 

50 interior windows, and 432 door panels 

for a total of 35,420 hand cut pieces of glass. 

The windows incorporate the Log Cabin

 quilt pattern used by the early pioneers.

-The Draper Temple is built of the 

finest materials including 

granite from China, 

Makore wood from Africa, 

and limestone from France.

-The theme carried through the 

Draper Temple is of the sego lily - Utah's state flower. 

-The Draper Temple has the largest sealing

 room in the state of Utah, seating up to 80 guests. 

Temple #9

The Bountiful Temple was the 8th temple built in Utah

and the first built in Davis County

The floor plan created for the Bountiful Temple 

was adapted and used for the

Mount Timpanogos Temple

The Bountiful Temple was one of only two

 temples dedicated by President Howard W. Hunter

At the 28 dedicatory sessions of the 

Bountiful Utah Temple, 

201,655 members were in attendance—

the largest number of attenders at a temple dedication 

in the history of the Church.

Temple #8

The Ogden Temple was the 5th temple built in Utah

The Ogden Temple was the first temple 

dedicated in the state of Utah;

the four previous temples were dedicated in Utah Territory

The Ogden Temple was the first temple 

built with six ordinance rooms, 

allowing sessions to begin every 20 minutes

(only three other temples have six ordinance rooms: 

Provo, Jordan River, and Washington D.C.)

We went to the Ogden temple and got 

ice cream at Farr's afterwards! 

We spent the weekend in Logan and

had such a blast!!

We went to see Zootopia (such a good movie)

and had our first Twizlberry experience.

I also saw the Maze Runner 

and the Scorch Trials

for the first time! 

You could say it was a good movie weekend!