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Sadly, this is our last day on our tour.  Since we only have a few hours to go to Elko, Nevada, to visit Matt, Donae, Aaron and Elyse, our kids that live in Spring Creek.  Prior to heading out of Herriman, Utah and our gracious hostess, Arlene's sister-in-law, Marilyn Boekweg, we headed over to our last temple in Draper, Utah.  The temple has been closed Tuesday through Thursday then open only on Friday and Saturdays for several months as they complete several maintenance projects.  They will be open in mid-November for regular schedule from then on.  But, we managed to get in on the 8:30 AM session.  It's not as large as the other temples we've visited but every bit as beautiful.

This is one of the few temples where the sign is anywhere near the temple.   Most of them are pretty far away.

Front view

The West stain glass windows 

The view from the temple walkway.  Really nice to see another temple a few miles away from the Draper temple.  We think it's the Jordan River temple but that is the best guess.

This is our last day of our tour for 2016...well, maybe not.  We still need to go to Reno and Oakland but that will come some day here pretty soon but with Elder Kevin coming home in a few days and all of the activities that will go along with that, we may not be able to do much for the next couple of weeks.  Keep your eyes on this blog for some more picts over the next few weeks...there will be more...

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Last night we got to go visit Jon, Angele, and Feonyx.  Went out for sushi and a little time together.  Good time together.  Of course, I forgot to get a picture of our time together...sorry about that...

Today we went over to the Bountiful temple and spent the morning there.  Merilyn went with us and we had a great time.  This temple is very similar to the Mount Timpanogos temple in design both inside and outside.  Nice thing about that was that we could actually find our way down to the cafeteria without getting lost in this temple.  With all of the temples we've visited on our tour, it's not been uncommon for us to have problems finding our way around inside the temples.  But, we've had a great adventure for the past couple of weeks.

The Bountiful temple is on the side of a mountain over looking the valley.  There are two layers to the parking lot.  KInd of a unique way to park, I'm thinking.

The entryway into the temple.  

Back side of the temple. 

The view from the Bountiful temple parking lot.  A royal view of the valley.  It was quite windy that day so it's a bit noisy from the mic.

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Another day and a different temple to visit.  This time we decided to visit the Mount Timpanogos Temple.  As all temples are beautiful, this was no exception.

Entering temple grounds...

View from the front.

Entry into the temple through the side.

The stained glass on the large windows have this beautiful blue coloration to it that shows up in the shadows best.  If you blow this up you can look at this color.  Very pretty.

South side of the temple.

We had a wonderful session in the temple and enjoyed our time there.  It's a beautiful temple and was well worth the visit.  We had a nice dinner and made our way home for the evening.  Another day and temple tomorrow.

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Heading up to Herriman, Utah, today.  Continuing on our Temple Tour 2016.  First stop today is the Manti Temple, a couple of hours North of St. George.

View of the temple from the South side, sitting on top of a hill.  Quite a view from up there.

As you drive up to the temple, from the North side, you see the temple in all of it's splendor.  this side is the entry from the parking lot.

The entrance into the temple.

On the West side, this most like was the original entry door.  Quite an imposing face to the temple.

From the North parking lot.  Not your normal view.

This is an up close and personal view of the South side.  The stones used in the temple have such a beautiful color to them. 

Not every temple has a cemetery at the foot of the base.  But here it is and it's pretty large.

A temple on a hill...

We had a nice lunch in the cafeteria then headed out to Herriman.  We had kind of planned on hitting another temple, like Provo, later that day but we were kind of pooped so just headed off to Marilyn Boekweg's for the night.  More time the following day to visit another temple.  A couple of hours and we'll be at our destination for the day.

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Sister Webb has been very gracious and taken us around various sites in the St George area.  We visited a few places close into the house.  We did manage to stop at the Pine Valley Chapel for the branch there.  Truly a beautiful place.

We managed to get into the Pine Valley Chapel and got a special tour of the building.  It has been around for a long time.

Here is the chapel.

Guess who standing on the entry way.

The lower chapel or training area.

The chapel upstairs

Pews up on the stage for the choir or speakers

Their organ is actually a two pedal pump organ and is still in use

The roof is rounded and is shaped like the bottom of a boat.  That's because it was built by a seafaring man named Bryce.  It's the only way he knew how to build something so it looks like an upside-down ship.  Well built, too.

One of the oldest, continuous use chapels in the church

...and those steps up to the attic reminded me of Nauvoo...sort of made me homesick...naw!

In the corner of the property is the tithing office, now used as a Junior Primary building.

One last shot of the chapel...

So, look out there at those cows.  They are an English breed raised up in Pine Valley year round.  Can you guess what they call them?  Come on, give it a try...just once?   Yep, "Oreos".  I wonder why?

We'll be leaving in a couple of days after we have worn out our welcome here in this beautiful valley.

The four of us together again.  Me, Arlene, Connie Webb (Pine Valley), and Mary Joines (St George).

Next stop will be heading back up to Marilyn's then home...

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Day 2 of St. George...  Check out form the hotel and go to the ROC.  We received a warm welcome and a lengthy tour of the center.  Got a good idea of everything they do there and what we would be doing there if we decide on a mission there.  We talked about housing/apartments and a lot of other issues pertaining to a mission.  It looks very good.

Next met with Connie Webb and Mary Joines for lunch.  If you will remember they were the sweet sisters that were site missionaries we went to the Burlington Ward when we were on our mission back in Nauvoo.  Afterwards, we headed off to Pine Valley to stay with Connie for a few days.  Prior to that, I walked around the temple and took a few pictures that I was not able to take the night before.  Just no time.

St George temple from the front.

The dedication info for the temple on the front.

The Visitor's Center in the South East corner of the temple lot.

We then headed off to Pine Valley to get settled in for a couple days with Connie Webb.  

Pine Valley area.

Shot of the mountain across from the house we stayed in

Arlene at the Pine Valley post office.

Another beautiful shot of the surrounding mountains in Pine Valley.

Now for a couple of days of down time and reflection.  More to come...

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After a good night's sleep, we headed to the Las Vegas temple for a session.  The temple is on the far East side of Las Vegas nestled against the mountains on that side of the valley.  It is an older temple and has been there for some years.

Taken from the East side.  The trees pretty much obscure the temple from most angles so this angle is about the only really clear shot.  It was a very pleasant day in Las Vegas.

This is an unusual view of the front of the temple, mid-way in the temple.  You don't usually see this view anywhere.

The entryway to the recommend desk.  

Across the street, looking East, about a block away the mountain goes straight up.  On the right is a house that has a man-made stream in it's front yard.  Well, ya know, this is Las Vegas.

The entry way sign.

Well, when in Las Vegas...a cell tower that looks like a palm tree.  What, are you kidding me?   As we drove a little bit farther past it, it looked even more like a palm tree.  Now, that's just weird!  

So, now on to St. George, just a couple of hours away.

Drove by on our way into St. George for our first stop.

Our first stop was over at the Family History Center and the Records Operations Center (ROC) where they do extensive research for projects for the FHC.  We got there kind of late and the director invited us over to the temple for one of their twice monthly temple sessions.  So we went with them and did that.  Had dinner over at the temple then talked about the ROC for a while during dinner. 

Afterwards, we went to the hotel for the night and tried to get some sleep.  We only had the room for one night and weren't sure what we were going to do the next night.  But, while waiting for the session, Arlene ran into connie Webb, our partner that we went to Burlington, IA ward back in Nauvoo.  She invited us to have lunch with her the next day and then to come stay with her for a couple of days, which we gladly accepted.  We wanted to spend a couple of hours at the ROC and see what they do there before we left St George.  On to tomorrow...