4 Day Getaway

Last weekend I left for a much needed getaway.

Bright and early Saturday morning, I made my way here.

[With thanks to my RS President for the ride at 7:00am!]

 

I waited 10-15 minutes to get my boarding pass and check in my bag.

I headed to the security line, which thankfully, wasn't very long.

A few of the people ahead of me got to go through 

the metal detector, but lucky me, I had to go through the body scan.

 After going through the body scan, I was stopped by security.

A female employee, informed me she had to do a light pat down. 

After the pat down, they took my hands, rubbed something 

over my fingers and told me to wait.

I'm thinking, "What the heck is this all about?"

Another passenger saw what was going on and wondered 

what it was all about, too.

The female employee came back and gave me the all clear,

as well as an explanation for what just happened.

It's all about the "bling"...

The shorts I was wearing had some rhinestones on the pockets.

Apparently, the body scan machine doesn't recognize "bling"

which was the reason for the pat down. 

And whenever security has to pat down "sensitive" areas,

they need to test your hands for residue.

WHATEVER!?!

So... new "fun" fact for the day.

Wear bling-free clothes while traveling by plane!

The plane was already pretty full when I boarded,

so I ended up sitting in an aisle seat towards the back of the plane.

[I prefer a window seat near or in front of the wings.]

About an hour and fifteen minutes later, I was here.

It had been almost three years since my last visit to Kansas City. 

I stayed with my aunt, uncle and cousin.

I was also able to visit with my cousin Kenny and his family.

It was nice getting to catch up with my cousin

and getting to meet little Rebecca for the first time. 

 [Evangeline, AnnaMarie, Rebecca, Kenny, Tasha, Frankie, Audrey & Me]

On Monday, we went here...

 

 It was the last week of the open house for the Kansas City Temple,

which was one of the main reasons for my trip.

We arrived at the temple at 4:30pm and 

were rather disappointed to discover that we couldn't go through,

because they had stopped the tours at 4:00pm, due to FHE.

[My uncle had volunteered the previous Monday and they went 

until 5:00pm, so we thought we'd be good to go.]

So I ended up just taking pictures instead.

[Which unfortunately didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, 

because of the glaring sun.]

 Last time I visited we went to Liberty Jail.

We also drove to the Independence Visitors Center,

but it was closed by the time we got there.

This time it was open....YAY!

We had a cool sister missionary from Samoa give us the tour.

I thought it was going to have a lot more on all 

the history of the church that happened in this area, 

but there was only one part about it, which was a bit of a bummer.

The remainder of the exhibits were like ones I had seen before

at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center. 

 

Across the street from the Visitors Center.

I think it looks like a Narwhal.

Tuesday was my last day in Kansas City

and my last chance to go to the open house.

 I ended up going there on my way to the airport.

Which was exactly what I was trying to avoid,

but had no other choice.

It's a good thing I decided to take pictures the day before, 

because not only did I not have enough time to take them,

 but my cousin Shannon wasn't with me this time around.

So because of my time constraints, I had to skip the movie 

they show before the tour and head right to the temple.

We were part of a group of about 30 people.

The first stop was the recommend desk.

We then walked to the baptistry room.

After going up a flight of stairs,

we walked through the women's dressing room,

went inside a couple ordinance rooms,

before heading towards the room I was most anxious to be in...

the celestial room.

It was a room filled with beauty, love and peace.

There were many non-members in our tour group

and I wondered what went through their minds 

as they stood in this room and if they could feel and 

recognize the spirit there, as I did. 

The final room we visited was the largest of the sealing rooms.

As I stood by the altar, I couldn't help but imagine what

 it would be like to be there, surrounded by family and friends, 

and the man that you love. [Sigh!]

After the tour, we realized that we had more time than we expected,

so we stopped for a light refreshment at the stake center.

We were only in there for a few minutes, but we ended up running into the sister missionary from the night before!

Even though things during this trip didn't go exactly 

as I had hoped or planned, [Story of my life!]

it was still a wonderful experience and one that 

I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to have.