Temple Trip and Magical Moments

My family had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple’s open house on Saturday. Kevin, me and our three girls went up in our van and Grandma Bates, my mom and dad, and Carol went up in my parent’s car. It was a wonderful day!
The temple was beautiful! I loved the colors that they used and the patterns that they spread throughout all the rooms. The tour was set up very well and moved everyone through at a nice pace. Kira’s favorite room was the Celestial room, she loved the big crystal chandelier that shimmered and reflected rainbows in the light. Izzy’s favorite room was the baptistery because it had water and animals. Emma’s favorite part was the pamphlet that they handed out at the beginning of the tour because it had a picture of “her Jesus” in it. They were so excited that they were able to go inside the temple. I am so glad that we took the chance to take our little girls.
I have a few stories that I would like to share, the first is a little irreverent. As we were walking through the ordinance rooms Carol tapped me on the shoulder and said “Oh look, it’s a love seat, that’s so sweet.”
“Oh,” I said, “I’ll bet that’s where the bride and grooms sit.”
“I’ll bet your right.” Carol agreed.
Then I leaned over and said to my mom as we passed the second love seat that was located on the other side of the room “mom, look it’s a love seat for the bride and groom.”
My mom looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “Heidi the men and women sit on different sides of the room, it’s for fat people.”
As her reasoning set in I started to giggle, and so did Carol. Oops I guess that just goes to show how dense I can be sometimes.
My second story was inspired by my favorite room in the temple. The baptistery was gorgeous, I was particularly impressed with the sculpture of the oxen. Each of the oxen was carved as if it was walking out of blades of cattails. I have had an affection for cattails ever since I had a very touching experience with my children one fall day. I would like to share the story out of my journal. I will warn you in advance that it is a little long. And sorry to those of you who have already heard it

Magical Moments

One bright clear fall day in 2005 Kira came home from school and was still in a mood to play outside. My other two girls of course didn’t want to be stuck inside on such a glorious day either so we decided to take a walk.
We headed out with Izzy and Emma in the double stroller and Kira on her big girl bike. We walked and talked as we slowly made our way around the block. We turned around the second corner and stopped for a minute to visit a dog that was barking at us from behind its fence. We continued on our way after a few minutes. As we walked along side a field that held goats Izzy became very excited. “Mom can we look at ‘em,” she asked.
“Sure.” I said and I parked the stroller and Izzy climbed out. As we approached the fence I noticed there were some cattails a little ways down the road. “Ooh look girls, cattails.”
I dragged all three of them closer to the cattails and the minute they realized what I was talking about the two older girls took off running and giggling. They stopped just short of the cattail plants and hollered to me. “They’re in water. Mom why are they in water?”
As I caught up to them I recognized this as a teaching moment and decided to take it. “Well they grow in very wet soil, so they grow in the ditch so that they have enough water to grow.”
Just at that moment a little breeze stirred the air and sent the blades of the cattails bending shifting. “Do you hear that sound?” I asked them, they shook their heads and I continued, “that’s called a rustle. It’s the music that cattails make.” We listened to their enchanting sound for a minute.
“Can you see the brown stuff at the top of the cattail stem? Do you think it’s hard or soft?”
“Hard,” said Kira
“Hard,” echoed Izzy.
“Let’s pick one and see.” I stepped as close as I could and broke off a stem that I could reach and brought it down to their level.
Kira touched it first and said in astonishment “its soft!”
“Yes it is.” I said.
“I want to see,” complained Izzy.
I turned the head toward her and she quickly rubbed it back and forth, “ooh it's soft.” She said.
“Why is it soft?” Kira asked in a puzzled voice.
“Well let’s take it home and wait for a week or two and we’ll find out.”
We picked a cattail for each of the girls, including Emma.
“Now we’ll go home and put them in a jar on the counter and leave them alone for a whole week. Can you do that.”
“Yeah, yeah, we can.” Kira and Izzy chimed in at the same time.
Once we were home we put the cattails in a jar as discussed, but that was the end of listening to me. Through the week they were used as magic wands, swords, golf clubs, baseball bats and drum sticks along with anything else their imagination cooked up.
As I was cleaning up the house the following week I picked up the only surviving cattail, it's stem was bent and broken, the tip was gone, and there was a hole in the side that was the size of a nickel that was beginning to fray. I sighed and lifted the garbage can lid where it would share its brother’s fate but stopped. I had a decision to make, I could dump it or I could go through with my original teaching opportunity that I saw.
I quickly called the girls upstairs and took all three of them outside on our porch. I was a little disappointed as I realized there was no wind. When they had gathered around me I asked them as I held up the cattail, “What do you think a cattail is made out of?”
“Fur” said Kira.
“Cats” said Izzy.
Then I took a pinch of the frayed edges around the hole and spread them across my palm.
Kira looked at them and said “They look like dandelion seeds.”
“Yes they do, they are actually a lot like dandelion seeds. These are cattail seeds the brown part of a cattail is made up of trillions and trillions of seeds. Can you see the part at the tip of each seed that flares out like an umbrella?” They nodded. “This little fuzzy thing allows the wind to carry each seed far away from where it started so a new cattail plant can grow somewhere else.”
“Do you want to see how cattails end up growing all over?” I asked. Again they shook their heads yes.
I took the seeds I still held on my palm and threw them up into the air. It had been a windless day, but at that moment a small breeze began to blow, and caught the and sent them flying in all directions.
Giggles erupted from around my knees as all three girls watched with sudden excitement. Emma, who was one at the time, started down the stairs to chase after them and Izzy quickly followed. They ran and giggled after the little torrent of seeds.
“Mom,” Kira implored, “can I throw some?”
“Yep you can,” and I handed her the cattail.
She ripped handful after handful off and sent billions of seeds floating into the now still air. With no wind to carry them away they just hung in the air around us, it looked like snowflakes suspended in mid air. Suddenly a gust of wind whipped through the cloud of seeds, sending them into a kind of dance. They swirled up from behind the garbage can and twirled up around the eave of the house only to continue higher and higher until, as one, they turned in a wonderful dancing cloud that rained down around us.
My two younger girls stared up in open mouthed wonder as the seeds burshed across their cheeks and swirled around their little bare feet.
Except for the sound of the wind all else was silent, it was as if we were caught up in a world all our own.
Kira whispered, “It’s like magic!” I looked down and watched as her shoulder drew up in a smile to match the one on her face. She crinkled up her nose and giggled in delight, twirled once, threw the cattail at me and took off down the stair to join in the ballet around us.
Izzy suddenly broke from her trance and began to twirl and dance in a way that set puffs of seeds dancing around and around her. She giggled and exclaimed, “They’re like dancing fairies!” There was magic in her step and sparkles in her big blue eyes as she grabbed Emma’s hands and together they spun in circles and giggled even more. Another gust of wind picked up and sent seeds into a little twister turning and dancing down the drive way.
Emma let go of Izzy’s hands and padded after it, she reached its epicenter and she stretched out her hands out to either side and twirled. Her curls lifted up as the whirlwind took to the sky, her small face watched it sail away with awe etched in every feature.
Amid such a display of wonder my thoughts turned to the wise maker of this world and all the wonders that he has created for us here on earth, and how he takes opportunities whenever we allow him to teach us. Just as I taught my girls through experience what a cattail is, what it is made of and what it sounds like, my Heavenly Father took an opportunity to teach me through experience of his majesty and grace, his beauty, his wisdom, his kindness, and his love. As I watched my children enjoying the beauty and magic that surrounded us my heart filled with awe and gratitude and love. I realized that these are the moments that I came to this life to have, this is what I once dreamed of in the preexistence, to be surrounded by my beautiful smiling children with magic and wonder in their laughing faces. I feel so blessed that I was able to share this magical moment with my loved ones. And that I chose to come to this life and experience the wonder and joy that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have created for us.