Oakland Temple Trip

Things I want to remember about today (mainly regarding Hudson):

We sing "I love to see the Temple" quite often, and he is somewhat familiar with temples, so when Colby and I decided on Friday afternoon that we would all go up to the temple on Saturday, I thought I would let him in on the plan.  He was really excited that we would be going to the temple.  He started talking in his loud, excited, intense voice saying "go to Temple, and church and NURSERY!"  He was so excited.

When we put him in bed Friday night, we told him he needed to go to sleep so we could go to the temple "tomorrow." When we woke him Saturday morning, I asked what we were doing today.  In his same excited voice, he exclaimed "Go to temple!" He was super thrilled about the outing.

When we pulled up, he noticed the temple immediately and pointed it out to us.  As we drove past the visitors center, we could see the christus through the window and I pointed it out to him.  Colby went into the temple and I stayed out with the kids for an hour.  The first 30 minutes or so we walked around the grounds and Hudson kept asking to go see the "White Jesus" (the christus is white...I don't have a racist child.) We eventually made it over to the visitors' center.  Upon entering, he exclaimed, it's Jesus!"  A bit later he said, "Mom, I want to hug Jesus."  I got a little weak in the knees.  I had to explain we couldn't hug this jesus.  We snapped the below picture of him with Jesus, then he asked to get out and stand by the statue.  He then wanted to climb up it and hold the hands.  I showed him the nail prints in the hands and feet, and he was really interested in that.  We walked around and looked at paintings of Jesus' life and ministry, and when we saw a painting of Christ on the cross, I told Hudson the story of the crucifixion and showed him the nails in His hands and feet and explained that was why he had nail prints in his hands and feet on the statue.  That night at home, Colby and I were asking Hudson what he saw today.  He told us the temple, and Jesus.  He then told us Jesus has holes in his hands and feet.  It is crazy what children learn and remember at such a young age.

I love my little Hudson and love seeing his love for the gospel.  I hope he remembers bits of todays experience.  He keeps telling us he wants to go back to the temple, which we said we would.  I hope he always wants to return to the temple.