Like many others, we took the opportunity to attend the Manti Temple Open House. We scheduled it during the kids’ Spring Break from School. The last time we were in Manti was for Zach and Alyssa Smart’s wedding in 2018 (I posted it about it at the time). We took this picture as a family then.

We decided to recreate the 2018 photo. Here is what we were able to do with the exhausted and cold kids.

We all are 6 years older! I don’t think my hair line has receded anymore since then, although it still might be thinner. All are taller.

We waited for more than 2 hours to get into the temple for the tour. It was brisk and chilly, but the kids seemed to take it well. They even rolled down the temple hill a few times. We snapped this photo near the beginning of the line at the bottom of the hill. Grandma Jill Hemsley joined us for the occasion too!

It was a long line.

We finally made it inside. I think we moved through faster than I would have preferred. However, it was fun to be in parts of the temple I had never before seen. The Assembly Room was amazing. I enjoyed the novelty of the stairwells. The new screens in the Terrestrial Room, although necessary for the video presentation, are very disruptive of the room. I really appreciated and felt some of the paintings.

We also recreated another photo from 2018. Some of the landscaping was redone…

Here is the photo they were recreating. Aliza and Hiram were waiting for a hummingbird to land on them. Unfortunately, with the new water conserving landscaping, I am sure there will be many fewer hummingbirds. Too bad the grounds didn’t just do away with the grass. The flowers were so amazing.

If you look closely, you can see the keystone of the door in the 2018 photo. Too bad the bench is also gone.