David and Traci go to Florida

David and I spent several wonderful days in warm, humid, and sometimes rainy (albeit warm droplets) Florida. I gave up hope of taming the curls and decided to go natural and let them fly. We saw Cirque de Solae at Disneyworld, spent a day at Sea World with Brittany and ended the day with a dinner at Arabian Nights watching some amazing horseback riding. The next day we spent some memorable time swimming with dolphins at a refuge and then headed south with the top down on the car and my wet hair flying and turning into crazy curls as we drove to Kennedy Space Center. We had one marathon day with Grant and Brittany driving from one side of the state to the other taking in the Everglades in between, complete with airboat ride through the mangroves. The beaches on either side of the state are warm, turquoise and beautiful. We drove with the top down on our rented convertible until one nasty rain cloud decided to unleash… wet people, wet car. We ended that day in Fort Lauderdale’s premiere crab shack where we ate way too much sea food (YUM!). David and I spent a day at Disneyworld (Epcot Center) without any kids – a great day to hold hands and be best friends. The very first ride we went on made David nauseated. I loved the replica of buildings and sights from different nations. We tried to catch as many shows and acts as possible. My favorite of all was a double quartet of outstanding singers performing some good ole American tunes. I would have bought a CD on the spot if they had had one. End any day with Disney fireworks and the day has to be declared perfect.

The last day we were there we didn’t have anything preplanned. We found out that the Orlando temple was reopened that very day after 3 weeks of cleaning. I had forgotten that Orlando had a temple and had not brought my recommend. I called my bishop in Utah and he agreed to be near his phone so that the Orlando temple could call and verify my temple status with him so that I could attend. Knowing that this would take extra time we headed out early and had time to visit with several temple workers while they tracked down the temple president to make the call. The temple sits in a gorgeous section of town and is surrounded by beautiful grounds (sorry no picture – it was pouring all day). Unlike Pres Hinckley’s 100 temples, this one is large and impressive. One darling Hispanic temple worker reported her regret that the cafeteria was no longer open. She related that when the temple first opened they served 150 people a day, but as time wore on the members became complacent with the nearness of a temple and the attendance has continued to go down. With a sad countenance she reported that the temple was very underused. The two brethren next to her sadly agreed. I couldn’t help but want to reiterate to my endowed children (and nieces and nephews) to make monthly attendance an absolute in their lives. For those of us that live close, 2 times a month would be great. Lynn Scoresby used to live in our stake and I love to hear him tell about his least favorite calling in the church. As a young married couple he and his wife were called to attend the temple every week. They had several children and busy lives so they attended the 5am session in order to get home before the school routine started. He reminisces about grumbling… until he caught the vision of what temple ordinances and being endowed with power were all about. Later, as a bishop and now a stake president, he would give crazy challenges to the members (“We are going to do temple work for an entire stake on the other side of the veil in one week” – this included the members submitting hundreds of names). His motto is “In our ward (stake) we do hard things.”