Friday, July 20, 2012

Life is Sweet



For our Thursday field trip, we took a tour of Sweet's Candy Factory in Salt Lake City.  They make some pretty famous varieties of candy:  salt water taffy, cinnamon bears, orange sticks, and loads of sour balls.  The kids were so well behaved!  I couldn't get it on camera because cameras weren't allowed on the tour.  But Jack was awesome. Picture a little guy with his hands shoved deep in his pockets just walking sedately through a factory.  He was very serious.

But they all loved picking out something sweet at the end in the candy store.  John got Sour Cherries.  The rest of the kids picked out a bunch of taffy.  The stuff behind us on the wall and in those bins are their 50 different flavors of salt water taffy.  And it's good tasting!


Couldn't help adding the above one just because of the look on Joe's face!  The one below was something that got all of the kids excited as soon as they saw it!


After our adventure in the candy factory, we decided to take a trip to Temple Square.  I figured this might just be one of the last times we get there before we move.  It's a bit of a drive from Austin to Salt Lake just to visit the temple.


But every water feature had to be visited.  Mostly it was just hands in the water and a bit of splashing. But Jack and Joe wanted to put their feet in too.  I would have normally be slightly okay with it...not really...but today they were wearing tennis shoes and not sandals.  Somehow, Jack still managed to get one foot in the creek before I could stop him.



We tried to get the kids to pose for the following picture but all Bekah and Jack wanted to do was play with the bronze girl. Joe was intrigued by the bronze baby. He kept looking up at the little boy and he looked like he wanted to make friends with him.  Ah well.



John wanted desperately to take a picture of Moroni on top of the temple.  He kept trying to get the shot just right but it never happened because if we stopped, Jack got into mischief.  It was a constant battle to get that two year old to stay off of walls, benches, or from running in front of people.  I should have brought snacks.  Lesson for next time.  So, I snapped off the picture for John and kept moving.  He was a bit disappointed, especially since Kelsey had her own camera and was taking pictures all the time.


Then it was up to the 10th floor of the old Hotel Utah.  The kids had never seen the temple from so high up.  They enjoyed looking down on the tops of trees and seeing cars pass below.


And since I'm a softy for old architecture and the stories of the people who built it, we took them to the front lobby of the building and the Empire room to show them how people used to live and the pride they took in their handiwork.


This is the chandelier in the lobby.  The kids loved the huge room with its plush furniture and huge faux marble pillars.  This was the first stop before the 10th floor.


This was our last stop on our way out of the building.  It's now called the Joseph Smith Memorial building and this room (Empire Room) has been serving as a room for various kinds of parties (wedding, family reunions, etc).  But we showed the kids the woodwork on the ceiling and told them that a similar design (not the colors) is found in the Salt Lake temple and that people probably hand carved alot of the stuff up there.  John wondered how it got up so high (the ceiling is vaulted and very tall).  I said they used ladders.  He said they climbed up the walls.  Yeah, I guess.  If you were a monkey!

But they were in awe for a few moments that they could see something that was found in the temple.  Bekah responded that she wanted to get married here.  When I asked her why, it wasn't the pretty flowers of Temple Square or the cool fountains that had impressed her.  It was,

"Because I want my family to be together forever."

Don't we all, Bekah.

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