Temple Day!

Yesterday Lance and I got to go to the Indianapolis temple and do a session and it was AMAZING for the following reasons:

1. It was the temple. It's always pretty great.
2. We got to go together. As in at the same time. (We splurged on a babysitter.) This is a totally rare occurrence.
3. After ELEVEN years of driving 3+ hours to Chicago, each way, with a car full of restless children, and devoting an entire 12+ hour day to a temple trip, the drive down took only 56 minutes. The session was 2 hours and the drive home was under an hour. (Even with the I65 diversion!)

It was so great. I has a prayer of gratefulness in my heart the whole time. We are so blessed! And it was fun to be in the temple so soon after it was dedicated.  Everything was new to everyone, but everyone was happy and cheerful and willing to help.

And even though I went to the open house and had been inside before, I swear it was prettier this time. The dark wood and the stained glass and the colors were just beautiful. (Still not a fan of the chandeliers, but that's just me.)

After our session Lance and I did something I've been wanting to do for years: get a Costco membership! Since there are two Costcos close to the temple I now have a good reason to splurge on a membership. We gave a Sam's Club in Lafayette that I tolerate. But I have a lifelong love of Costco. (I inherited this from my mother. She raised me right.)

So we had Costco lunch and shopped a bit and enjoyed our time together and took our sweet time and STILL got home just before 3pm.

Like I said. Amazing.

Band Mom N00b

Despite my gentle prodding towards choir, Spencer has decided to take band in middle school. (Why my prodding? He's already taking piano lessons - which will not stop until he can play the hymns well - and choir is way cheaper.)

Fortunately, Uncle Kevin donated his old alto sax, which he played in high school. (Thank you Kevin - the lunch you owe me for your lost Super Bowl bet is now forgiven. Until the next game, which you will probably lose because I am the best.)

We lugged that sax across the country on our drive home. It even fell on Cole's head once.

I will be the first to admit I don't know much about band. I was never in band, and was off at school and married for most of the time my brothers were band rats. So this is a whole new world to me.

I now know where the preferred (if only? Not sure...) band instrument repair shop is in Lafayette. I have even conversed extensively with the owner. I've driven by the shop 100's of times but never noticed it before. (It's Brent's Bench down on 4th St., in case you're wondering.)

I picked up the cleaned and fixed saxophone this afternoon. It only cost me $75 - MUCH better than the several 100's I would've spent on renting or buying an instrument.

I have also learned where the preferred local music shop is - off of the horrendous Hwy 52. Not only is that the road being used for diverted I-65 traffic, but it is under MAJOR construction right now. It was AWFUL. I was only on the road for a mile, but it was enough to drive me batty.

But I made it to Quinlan & Fabish and was happily helped with all my sax needs. The store owner was really great; I highly recommend his shop!

I picked up a shoulder strap, some cigarette-carton-looking reeds,

and some "premium" cork grease. I guess the "" mean we'll have to decide for ourselves if it is, in fact, premium. PROPER PUNCTUATION MATTERS, PEOPLE!! (I kinda want to cross off those punctuation marks with a permanent marker, but Spencer doesn't need yet more ammunition for his "my mother is crazy" hypothesis.) ((He has not yet verbally expressed this hypothesis. But every time he rolls his eyes I know that's exactly what he is thinking...)

I was a bit dismayed to learn that most new band students go through a box of reeds about once a month. At $30 a pop, that's pretty steep. I later found the exact same box of reeds on Amazon for $2 less. I'm all for supporting the local economy. But not when shopping online will save me money and a drive through the hell that is Hwy 52.

Well, here's hoping band is as glorious as Spencer expects it to be! (And that we continue to find ways to make it a little easier on the wallet.) ((I know, I  know. Hope springs eternal.))

Temple Cultural Celebration & Dedication

I can tell I've really gotten out of the habit of blogging. Usually my excuse for not blogging is that nothing noteworthy has gone on, but now even when something does happen I totally forget to blog about it! (I also blame Instagram and FB. So much easier to make little blurby posts on them.)

Last weekend was a big one for us - the dedication of the Indianapolis, Indiana temple! We have been waiting literal YEARS for this temple to open!  I still distinctly remember when it was announced - it was during the first General Conference in this house. (I was feeling the morning/noon/night sickness with Tess. Blech.) We were watching conference through the internet on our TV and it happened to die RIGHT when president Monson announced a temple here. We totally missed it. Family members were emailing and calling us to let us know. It was crazy! We were SOOO excited! I was ready to go out there and start digging the foundation myself!

Fast forward 5 years later to last weekend:

Actually, no, the weekend before. See, before any temple dedication they have the youth in the area (ages 12-18) put on a big Temple Cultural Celebration. Think a big outdoor pageant-type-thing. Songs, dancing, descriptions of what the culture is like in the area of the new temple. Tickets to these events can be hard to come by, and here in Indiana was no different.

I was already bummed about missing out on so much prep for the temple dedication because we were in UT for so long right before. I had resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't get to go to the celebration, either. But the Sunday before our Young Men's president (Dave Miskin) slipped into Primary and gave me 6 tickets. What the what?!? I was so surprised and happy! When I asked him why, he said that he "figured the Madsen family should get to go". (Along with a warning not to tell anyone he had done this - he didn't want to get harassed from others for tickets he didn't  have!) What a great guy - I totally owe him one.

Saturday night was a little crazy in Indy - it was the last weekend for the State Fair and there was a pre-season NFL game between the Colts and the Bears. We tried to get dinner reservations somewhere close to the IUPUI soccer stadium where the celebration was, but no dice. So instead we ate Subway sandwiches on the way, which I think turned out better what with the traffic and whatnot. (They made us all park in a parking garage. Crazy.)

Anyway, we had to sit in stands and it was crowded but not, thank goodness, hot! We sat by Gigi and Bergen, so happily took this picture for us. (No, we didn't intentionally hide Cole. He did that on his own.)

Oh Cole. Will there ever be a day when I am happy to sit next to you at some sort of event like this? (Or at all, in general?) That day can't come soon enough, because you were an absolute PILL. Not exactly terrible, but enough that you made things somewhat miserable for all...

But let's forget about Cole and this oh-so-fun phase of life we are all enduring with him.

There were a ton of youth involved in this. It made me both kinda happy and sad that I wasn't in YW anymore. I mean, it would've been really cool to be a part of this. But also A LOT of work! The youth in our ward are in the center of this picture in the yellow shirts.

It was a pretty neat sight! I'm bummed Spencer wasn't born 4 months earlier because then he could have participated. How cool would that have been? (Answer: very.)

President Eyring was there to start things off. He kept his remarks short and sweet and directed to the youth.

I didn't get pictures of every act, and they're not the best quality because all I had was my phone. And I don't remember everything that was said or done because I was dealing with the child mentioned above. (Remember, he wasn't THAT bad. But I had to direct a lot of my attention to him.)

The first section was about the Mormon pioneers and the missionary work that went on in Indiana. They did a great dance and pulled out handcarts and everything. (In between acts they had a slideshow of pictures that went along with the descriptions of that act up on the jumbo tron. It was really well done.)

The second act was about Indiana's agriculture and economy. We're well known for popcorn so OF COURSE they did Popcorn Popping. It could've been really cheesy, but I think they pulled it off.

Then they talked about the war and all the war memorials around Indianapolis. It's hard to tell, but those are sailors dancing with the poodle skirts.

OF COURSE they had Indy car racing. (Cole was bummed that the car didn't go fast or make a loud noise.) ((It was just pushed.))

They sang a jazzy rendition of "Back Home Again In Indiana" that I really liked and have had in my head all week.

All the kids in the middle are waving yellow flags to tell the "race cars" (those in the different colored jump suits) to slow down. It was awesome when they "crashed" and had to be carried away by medics.

They also had a section about how important education is in Indiana and about how many universities and colleges are here. All of the kids below had on shirts from different universities.

It started with a pretty great drumline.

And ended with them dancing to "Take Me Back to Indiana" by the Jackson 5. (Can't mention Indiana without the Jackson 5, right?!)

The last act had the narrators telling the story of the First Vision, with interpretive dancers. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or thought it was a bit strange. A bit of both, I think.

It ended with all of the youth in white shirts and black pants/skirts marching out and singing the theme song again. ("Gather to the Light)

It was pretty cool.

By this point Cole had definitely had enough. (So had the other kids, but they were better behaved.) Since we had eaten so early we stopped for ice cream on the way home at Dairy Queen. Staying up past bedtime and getting ice cream? Pretty sure this is what the kids will remember of this once-in-a-lifetime evening. :)

I'm just so happy that we got to go - and even more happy that our temple is finally open!

Roadtrip 2015 - THE WEDDING

Finally - FINALLY - it was time for the wedding! The whole reason we had planned this crazy trip in the first place. We had been teasing Dane (behind his back, of course) all year for this lousy wedding date. Not only was it RIGHT before school started for our kids, but we actually missed out on a bunch of other stuff because of it. Like going to Germany even. And other things... things that I can't really remember right now because really, when there's such a happy reason to get together with family, does it really matter? Nope.

The day before the wedding we hung out for a while at the Madsen's home. It was nice to have a chance to catch up with immediate family and spend some time together. We were even able to help Viggo go through some of Joy's things and help decide what needed to be kept and what didn't.

Viggo with Amanda, my niece, and Tess. I'm not sure what was going on with Viggo's neck... but I do know that Tess had just inherited a pretty nice red purse and was feeling quite sophisticated!

Dane gave Lance this fancy knife gadget thingy for being one of his groomsmen. It even had a light. very cool.

At one point the kids were super bored and going a bit crazy. I think it was while the men were all out picking up their tuxes. So the kids and I walked down to the cemetery to see Joy's grave and to get some wiggles out.

And OF COURSE some Madsen Garbage was played.

I don't remember much else about the day, other than we went back to Provo and had Kevin stay at the house so Lance, Susie, Dad, and I could go out for Thai food. Important memories here, people.

Finally, it was the day of the wedding! But the wedding was not until 5pm. Ugh. So we spent the morning packing up and getting ready for our trip home the next day. Also ugh.

We got all dolled up and took a few pictures on the front porch. Daddy and Tessie matched. It looks like she's about 10 years too early for prom and he's 10 years too late! Hah! But they are pretty cute together!

There's always one kid...

The wedding was held at Heritage Gardens in Sandy. (About an hour from Provo.) Since we had people in the wedding party we had to be there an hour early. Tess had to learn how to be a flower girl.

And Lance had to learn how to walk down the aisle and where to stand.

I tried to keep the boys entertained by letting them take pictures and walking around and looking at things. I thought this display was really nice.

Have you ever tried to keep a rather ornery six year old boy away from a really fancy birthday cake?

No small feat, my friends. (I must have said "Cole! Stay away from that cake!" at least a hundred times.)

Then I had to keep all four of them distracted. I thought it might be nice to have a picture of them out in the pretty gardens. The kids had other plans.

Try #1. Thank you Cole and Tess.

Try #2. Tank you, Spencer and Cole.

Try #3. Thank you Cole and Tess. Growl.

Then I gave up on them and took a picture of a very well-behaved lily pad flower.

Here's the ONE picture of Grammy B I got on this trip! Oops to that. Next trip I'll do better. (Right. I never do.) Lovely, Tess.

Tess and Cole got a little antsy waiting for the ceremony. That's a pretty classic picture there.

A nice moment between the biggest brother and the littlest sister.

A not quite as nice moment with cousin Trevor on the left.

There was a huge mirror on one wall; I tried to take a picture to distract Cole. It didn't work.

Tess and Josh sure were cute!

Tess was in heaven: in a cute, spinny dress, ready to be a flower girl, hanging out in a pretty garden? Forget about it.

Right before the ceremony I had to threaten Cole within an inch of his life into good behavior. You know how he gets. He was being so loud and naughty just because Lance wasn't there and I had my hands full with everything else. So I told him if he misbehaved he'd lose his first gas station treat on the road the next day. He didn't believe me. He lost that privilege, but I told him if he could behave during the ceremony he could earn it back. It totally worked. Crisis averted.

Here's Dane walking down the aisle.

Lance escorted Katrina, his sister.

So handsome!

I'm dying because none of the pictures of Tess really turned out. Dang it! She was so cute and so intent on her job. She was going to be the BEST FLOWER GIRL ever, and she put all of her concentration and effort into it!

Jenica walking down the aisle.

Saying their vows.

Trying to distract Tess during the ceremony with some pictures. Here's the cute basket she used.

Yay! They were married! And my children didn't ruin it by yelling or screaming or being naughty!

 After the ceremony Viggo entertained us all with a few words.

About 10 billion pictures were taken, as per any wedding. Tess had been strictly warned and bribed to be good and smile for these pictures. I would just have to say "Smile pretty for Jenica! It's her wedding!" and she would put on this huge grin and look super cute. (She wouldn't do it if we said it was for Dane's wedding, though!)

It was at this time that Cole started asking - very loudly- "IS THIS THE TEMPLE?" Um, no, Cole. Shush. "WHY ISN'T THIS THE TEMPLE? WHY AREN'T THEY MARRIED IN THE TEMPLE?" At which point I had to drag him away for a little chat. Oy. However, I have to admit I'm impressed he made the connection!

The flower girl finally reached her limit.

This wedding had a dinner and it was yummy. Spencer actually ate, but the rest of my kids were punks and refused to even taste much of anything. I'm sure they were hungry, but I didn't care.

There was bread and veggies and chicken; nothing we've never had at home.

Spencer tried to take a picture of Lance and I. First Lance's eyes...

...then mine. Doh.

After dinner poor Cole kept waiting and waiting and asking when we would have cake. CAKE! CAKE! He was ecstatic to learn there would be a dessert buffet, but it was still hard to wait. I think dinner ended earlier than they expected, so there was time to kill between dinner and the reception. Hard times for little kids.

Lance and Dane killed time by talking about very manly stuff.

Finally, it was time for cake!

Cole couldn't stop giggling over them stuffing cake into each other's mouths. Or perhaps he was just happy to finally get to taste that cake!

Checking out the cake carnage.

I thought Tess looked so cute here with her skirt out and flowers in her hands.

Head tilt? Darling!

And then Cole decided to get in on the action. Yup, that's about right.

Jenica threw the bouquet and Tess was devastated not to catch it. (It'd been a long day by this point!)

Then they tossed the garter and Josh caught it! (Of all people...)

He was quite pleased with himself.

This turn of events did not help Tess feel any better.

Here's a picture of a satisfied boy. He caught the garter, his plate is full of cake, and it's a lovely evening.

I tried to explain to the boys that wedding cake doesn't always taste as good as it looks, but said I was wrong and loved it. (I was still right...)

The pretty little gazebo out in the garden. I kinda want to have something like this in my yard!

When the dancing started my kids were pretty much done. Tess was tired and excited and full of sugar and disappointed about the bouquet and about 38 other emotions. But mostly tired.

It was a wonderful wedding and we were really happy and lucky to be a part of it. It was well all of the effort and expense and threatening of children. Good luck, Dane and Jenica! We are so happy for you and wish you a lifetime of happiness!