Priorities and the Temple

[print_link]  I have been contemplating priorities over the last few days.  It is difficult for me to understand how active members of the church see things so differently.  One of these is temple attendance.  It seems there is a wide degree of difference among members as to what is expected of us concerning temple attendance.  On the one hand you have my mother who works at the temple one day a week and attends the temple another day a week.  She has failing eyesight and the drive is generally 45 minutes away.  To me she has her priorities straight; she has plenty of time, but failing health makes it difficult for her but not impossible for her to attend the temple regularly.  There are many challenges that keep us from the temple; children, distance, cost, time, etc.  No matter what stage of life we are in Satan tries his best to keep us from attending the temple.  Everyone faces this challenge in one way or another.  How do we overcome it?  What is expected of us?  Is it okay to attend the temple once or twice a year?  What does attend the temple regularly mean?  I often run into those who say that the cost and distance to attend the temple makes it almost impossible (we live 4 hours from the temple), my concern is that often I see these same people with cell phones with data plans or eating out or other accessories that are nice but not necessary (at least in my opinion).  Granted it is costly to attend the temple - gas, food, etc.  I remember when we were a young married couple living in Provo, UT.  We had a desire to go to the temple regularly (at least monthly) - but our funds were very limited.  Distance wasn't a problem but paying for babysitting, renting our clothing, often kept us from going as often as we felt we should. 
  I guess the point of all this is what do you think the Lord expects of us concerning temple attendance.  I understand that the answer will be different for each of us.  Our stage of life, economic circumstances, distance from the temple, etc. all come in to play.  Do you feel that we will be judged according to how we have made the temple a priority in our lives?  Are there other ways to make it a priority without attending?
  Personally I feel its a matter of priority.  If we make it a priority we will find a way to attend as often as we can and we will be blessed in other ways for that attendance.

Month of May

  So May was an extremely busy, crazy, fabulous month.  It doesn't get much better than having all my girls visit and Trevor doing fabulous at state and even getting to watch Spencer in a play!  I am so behind on posting so here it goes.

May was Track every weekend out of town. After the first weekend in Alamo, I picked up Chelsea and Gavin to spend a week in Ely with us.  Selina and Bobby drove up that day as well for Beau Bennett's mission farewell.  After that Bobby went back to Arizona to work and Selina and kids came to stay and play with us as well.  The weather wasn't great, but we enjoyed playing games and hanging out, it also included a quick trip to the duck pond.

 Thursday we headed to Vegas to see my sister Nancy - I decided to pickup Jayden and take him as well, so he could have a little time with cousins - especially Richie.  Chelsea, Selina, and kids all stayed at Grandma Reid's for a couple of days, having tea parties with Aunt Nancy and even a fun trip to the park - Oh Trevor was with us too.

 We dropped Trevor off at Divisions in Boulder City, and parted ways with Nancy, Grandma and Chelsea.   I was only able to see the first event - which Trevor's relay team won!!!  After that Selina, Richie, Kamry, and I headed to Flagstaff for her graduation with her Masters in Elementary Education from Arizona State University.  Trevor received a 1st in the 300 hurdles and 2nd in the 400 as well as his relay - qualifying him for State.

It was a quick trip to Flagstaff and then Jayden and I headed back to Ely by way of Caliente.  By the time I got home at 11:00 pm Saturday night I was pooped - it didn't help that I ran over a dead ELK in the middle of the road - luckily the Suburban was not majorally harmed and I was able to drive home.

The following Friday Ken and I headed to Las Vegas for State Track.  Spencer headed North to Elko for a seminary 2-day activity.  When we arrived in Vegas we were surprised to find James, April, and Everett hanging out a Grandma Reid's house (not really we knew they had flown in from China earlier in the week).  The five of us headed off to the track meet where Trevor had two events on Friday.  He participated in the 4x800 relay receiving 6th place out of 8 for a best team time (not too bad) and then he ran the 400 meter which he received 5th place with a personal best time.  He had hoped for better but felt good about what he accomplished.
On Saturday we headed back and were able to see my niece, Mallory race at the beginning of the day, followed by Trevor racing in the 300 hurdles a little later.  Trevor went in to this race with the top time in the State for his division, but only be a foot or so.  So it was expected to be very close.  Enjoy the video - he starts out in lane 4 and soon takes the lead.


As you can see he won the race and received his best time ever - almost beating the school record (a goal for next year).

1st place on the podium

Here you can see a few of Trevor's fans - Melanie and Nick joined us for the day as well!

After that Trevor was in the 4x400 Relay and his team received 3rd place - though they were slated in 8th place.  Trevor almost caught the 2nd place team, just needed a few more yards.  All in all it was a good season, but he found he had to work harder than he had in the past to get in shape.  Now he knows what it takes and will be ready to have a fabulous Senior year {I can't believe he only has one more year at home :(}

Gold Medal Winner

After that we headed back to Ely to enjoy having April and family with us for a little while before they head to Maine to see James' family.

Last full week of school and lots of things to do including attending Spencers play which was the final for his Humanities class at Lund High School.  The play was "Jungle Drums" and he was one of the leads.  He did a great job and I'm sorry to say we didn't get any video.  Here are a few pictures to give you an idea.  He did well at projecting his voice and his diction was excellent.  I was really proud of him.

The Love Triangle

Guess Who Won

And yet we are not done yet, the last weekend of the month was Memorial Day and we decided to head down to Caliente for a picnic.  Nick and Melanie said there was a great spot just a few miles from there home and it literally was an oasis in the desert.  It was green with grass, a cemented wading pool, a playground, volleyball pit, and some beautiful hiking.  We ate dutch oven chicken and potatoes, had a fabulous volleyball game which my team lost 19-21, and Grandpa even had fun teaching Jayden to play horseshoes.  It was the end to a fabulous, amazing month.

My sweet grandbabies only a month apart - can you tell which is the oldest?

Well if you made it through this, you are probably as tired as I am making it through the month.  June will be filled with catching up on my classes and getting the boys summer jobs.  Life is good and family makes it the best!!!!