after my baptism when i was eight, i remember immediately wanting to do it again. ever since then i've wanted to do baptisms for the dead on my twelfth birthday. well, finally my twelfth birthday came and just like when i was eight i still wanted to do baptisms. we started the day off by opening presents. when we finished, we dropped the boys off at becca's house, and we were off to temple square. when we got there, we walked to the doors you enter through for baptisms(which make you feel as if you are sneaking in).
when we got in, we had to take off our shoes and put on white socks with little grippy thingies(like the ones little kids have on the bottom of their socks). we also had to turn in our cameras. when all this was done, we carried our shoes to a small room for the shoes. just like restrooms, there was one for both girls and boys. next, we had to get our jumpsuits(if that's what they're called). we got those and then went to the dressing rooms and changed. we put all our clothes in the lockers and pinned the key to our jumpsuits. i put my hair in a white scrunchie and, i was all set. i'm not sure what went through my head when i opened the door that lead to the font, but, i'm pretty sure i just thought wow. it was right during another baptism and all the sudden i felt happy, really happy. i went first. the water was surprisingly warm. my grandpa baptized me. i did thirteen baptisms, and they were all family names(thanks to grandma). i got out and grandma got in. while i was wrapped in my towel grandma did about five baptisms(which were just temple names). then, dad got in. he did twenty three family names! then dad baptized mom maybe seven times. after that we all went into the dressing rooms. when we got in, we quickly showered and walked to our lockers. we changed into a dry jumpsuit and pair of socks and went to the confirmation room. we got confirmed for the people we baptized and went back to the locker rooms. we changed into the clothes we came in and put our jumpsuits in a big white bin. when that was done, we did our hair. then, we went and got our shoes and cameras and left. we walked across the street to see the christus. we went downstairs first. downstairs, they have wax figures of book of mormon heroes and prophets. they are kind of creepy. take this wax joseph smith as an example.
they also had book of mormons in all the languages they make them in.
we met some sister missionaries downstairs, and one was from the philippines. she was shorter than me and had dark hair(boy, is tyler gonna stand out). she bore her testimony in tagalog. her companion was from the u.s., but bore her testimony to us in sign language.
after talking to them we walked up and saw the christus. i hadn't seen it in a while, so it was a fun experience.
we walked to the lion house for lunch(it's one of my favorites). i got roast beef, corn, rice, fruit, root beer, and carrot cake. i always get their root beer because the bottles look like beer bottles.anyway, this is one of my my lion house traditions.
this is the other.
we started walking back to the car but i insisted upon a couple more pictures in some of my favorite picture perfect spots.
when i went to temple square two years back for family parties, i took a picture in this same spot. the wierd thing is, the flowers always match what i am wearing.
then...
now...
when we finally got to the car we left temple square and, went to get the boys. i went in and, they told me to go in to the kitchen. i did so. they had a "happy birthday" banner,a sign that the kids made,and cupcakes with orange and lime green frosting.
we took the long way back to grandma's house,but when we finally got there, i left again for birthday shopping with grandma and grandpa. i tried on what seemed like millions of things and decided on two shirts and two pairs of capris. after we bought the clothes, we got ice cream. i got a caramel flavor that was more creamy than i had expected. when we got back to the house. we took off again, but this time back to temple square. we met my dad's side of the family at the gardens(a resturant on top of the joseph smith memorial building)for dessert.
obviously, i hadn't had dinner yet so i got a tomatoe soup. for dessert, i got a chocolate cinnamon cake because it's what they usaally serve on birthdays.
i opened presents from the family while i ate.
i had a really fun twelfth birthday at temple square, a day i'll never forget.
