Monday, October 15, 2012

Sarah's birthday

Sarah's birthday celebration kind of happened in stages.  On her actual birthday, we had a small party at my parents' house with the children there (one of whom also had a birthday that day!) and both sets of grandparents.  Saturday we had another small party with pizza and blondies at a nearby park; a couple of Sarah's friends were able to join us in spite of the dreary weather.  Sunday some of my long-distance relatives were in town, and we went to visit with them.  It was not a party, but there was cake and dessert and a singing of "Happy Birthday."  Sarah and Natalie both enjoyed playing with their cousins. 

Here are some pictures from the shindig at my parents' house. 














Sunday, October 14, 2012

photos from Friday

This post is brought to you by my dad, who shared his pictures from Friday's tour.  :) (Sarah may have taken some of these shots, but I don't know which ones.)





The show bread which caught Natalie's attention.




The angels atop the ark of the covenant.

The ark of the covenant.

The priestly garments.






Saturday, October 13, 2012

If you ever have the opportunity to see the wilderness tabernacle mock-up that Messiah's Mansion does, you should do so.  They've been in Greeneville, so my dad, Sarah, Natalie, and I went yesterday. 

They've done a good job.  They have a model of the temple on display (similar to the one I remember from Orlando's Holy Land Experience).  They have posters of the various temples that have existed.  Then of course there is the full scale model of the tabernacle. A speaker explains the various rites and rituals and symbolism. 

The girls enjoyed it but were obviously a bit younger than the target audience--Natalie especially.  Sarah stayed content snapping photos (and asked questions a time or two), but Natalie got restless at several points. 

However, two things caught her attention, and anyone who knows Natalie won't be a bit surprised by what those two things were.  ;)  The first was the display of show bread.  Natalie noticed the bread right away.  And being the bread-lover (okay, food-lover) that she is, seeing bread was enough to make her listen to the speaker.  "That's bread?" she asked me. 

"Yes," I confirmed. Okay, it was fake bread, but that was beside the point.

"It belongs to God?  Is He going to eat the bread?"  (I think she may have been trying to ponder how she could con God out of said bread, really.)

The second thing that Natalie noted were the angels on top of the ark of the covenant.  However, I think she maybe recognized the angels because of watching Doctor Who.  She's pretty obsessed with the Weeping Angels.  I wish I had a picture of her doing her impersonation of one; it's absolutely hilarious.  I don't, so just trust me on that. 

All in all, though, we enjoyed it.  Hopefully, I'll have pictures to post soon.  :) Also, I have some photos from Sarah's birthday to share eventually.