Razorback vs BYU Football & Temple Dedication

This weekend was one for the books for sure. 
The stars aligned and our Bentonville temple dedication was set for the same weekend as the Razorback VS BYU football game in Fayetteville. The temple and razorback football- it doesn't get much better. 

Naturally, my parents came to visit but all my Dad's sisters and their spouses also came in for the fun weekend. 

Chris was sadly out of town for a work trip so he missed the game. That left me to manage my crazy kids all on my own. It was wild but we actually had a really great time. 

We all met up at Aaron and Stephanie's house in Cave Springs. We ate BBQ and chatted and had some time to catch up. 
Then we drove over to campus. We parked at one of the shuttle lots and hop on the bus to get to campus. 
The kids were pretty excited to explore "Hog Town". 

This is a massive area in front of the stadium that is decked out with food and activities and tons of swag. My kids have never seen so much free stuff and they enjoyed collecting all the treats and stuff from the vendors. 
We had so many reese's PB cup footballs that we were feeling a little sick afterward. lol. 

No tailgating is complete without some cornhole- so we had to play a few rounds. 

Tucker and Benson also enjoyed the football toss challeges. 

Eventually we made our way to the stadium. 

It was so fun to see all the red in the stadium. But there was also a ton of BYU Blue in the stands. 

There are a tons of members of our church in this area, so the BYU fans were out in force. 
Some fans were split equally in half, wearing half red and half blue. It was fun to see. 

I sure love these kids of mine. We had so much fun watching and cheering on the hogs. 

Unfortunately, Nanny and Papa had nice seats away from us in the nosebleeds, so we sat alone. But Nanny did come over to hang out before the game started. 

It was so fun to have the kids with me and to experience the excitement of a Razorback game together. 

It was a crazy game. It felt like the refs were calling every foul and penalty they possibly could and basically gave the game to BYU but it was still a fun game. 

I'm glad my kids got to experience the fandom that is AR Razorback football!

This morning we got to attend the dedication for the Bentonville temple. 

Happily, Chris had arrived back home late Saturday night from his work trip so he was able to attend with us. 

Benson was not old enough to attend the dedication so he got to go play with his friend Wesley. He didn't seem to mind missing it knowing he would be playing for a couple hours with his best friend. 

It was a beautiful dedication. It still feels completely unreal that we have a temple right here in Bentonville. It's so incredible and I can't wait to start worshipping there. 

Elder Bednar came to dedicate the temple and he talked a little about the growth the area has experienced as the Lord prepared the area for this amazing temple. 

about 40 years ago there were only around 2000 members of the church. Now there is anywhere between 35,000 and 40,000 members. That growth is so amazing. 

Following is the text of the prayer offered by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to dedicate the Bentonville Arkansas Temple on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.

Our Beloved Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that we can pray to Thee in the name of Thy Beloved Son on this special day of dedication. Truly, our hearts are brimmed with joy, and we rejoice in our knowledge of Thee as our Eternal Father, of Thy Son as our Savior and Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost as the witness of all truth. 

We are assembled to thank Thee, to praise Thee, to worship Thee in the name of Thy Holy Son, and to dedicate this house of the Lord. We cannot express adequately even the smallest part of the gratitude we feel for the bounteous blessings Thou hast bestowed upon us.

We thank Thee for Thy great plan of happiness, established to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Thy sons and daughters. We thank Thee for Thy Only Begotten and Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for Thy Son’s atoning and redeeming roles in Thy eternal plan and adore Him as our Savior. We express our love for Thee and for Him.

We thank Thee for the Restoration of the gospel of Thy Son through the Prophet Joseph Smith and for the blessing of living upon the earth in the latter-day dispensation of the fulness of times. We thank Thee for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We thank Thee for the return of priesthood authority and keys, for the establishment of Thy Son’s Church in the latter days, and for the sacred ordinances that enable each of us to have a covenant connection with Thee and Thy Son. We express our deepest gratitude for these supernal blessings.

We recognize we have been given much and that, therefore, much is required of us. We love Thy holy purposes and joyfully affirm our commitment to bear witness of Thee and Thy Son and to be anxiously engaged in the work of salvation and exaltation on both sides of the veil. 

We thank Thee that the Restoration of Thy Son’s gospel is ongoing. We gratefully acknowledge that many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth have been revealed, are being revealed, and will yet be revealed.

We acknowledge and thank Thee today for the great and noble souls who over many decades have helped to establish Thy Son’s restored Church in northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri and eastern Oklahoma. The faithfulness, devotion and consecrated service of these remarkable pioneers continue to bless and strengthen each of us and our families. We pledge this day to remember the righteous examples of those marvelous Saints who gave all their hearts, minds and strength to the Lord with wisdom and vision so clear.

We thank Thee for this beautiful building and for all who have labored to build it. We are especially grateful for the faithfulness of Thy Saints and for their tithes and offerings that have made this house of the Lord possible. Please bless them, Father, and open the windows of heaven and shower down upon them every needful gift.

Now, Beloved Heavenly Father, in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and acting in the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and with the authorization of the First Presidency of Thy Son’s restored Church, we dedicate and consecrate unto Thee and unto Thy Beloved Son the Bentonville Arkansas Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

We humbly pray Thou wilt accept and visit this holy house. We ask Thee to permit Thy Spirit to be here at all times. Please strengthen and sanctify all who enter this sacred and set apart place.

We dedicate every space and feature of the structure from the footings to the top of the steeple. We dedicate the grounds, the ancillary facilities, the landscaping and the decorations for the accomplishment of Thy divine purposes. 

We dedicate the baptismal font and the initiatory, endowment, sealing and celestial rooms for the blessing of individuals and families on both sides of the veil. 

May a mantle of holiness rest upon and endure in and over this sacred edifice. We ask Thee to shield this temple from disruptive, desecrating and destructive influences and forces. 

We pray that all who enter into this sacred space will do so worthily and thereby preserve the purity and the spirit of sublime reverence that should prevail in the house of the Lord. Please bless the members and temple leaders in all of their righteous efforts to accomplish Thy holy work.

We ask Thee to help each of us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to more fully understand and to ever strengthen our individual covenant connection with Thee and Thy Beloved Son. May the power of godliness be made manifest in our individual lives through the ordinances of the holy priesthood.

And we ask Thee, in a most particular way, to bless the young people who come to this house to worship, to learn and to serve. Please help them to write in the fleshy tables of their hearts the truths of Thy Son’s restored gospel.

May the Spirit of this holy house emanate across the region and constrain, and even confound, those who make false accusations about or who seek in any way to hinder the holy work of Thy Son’s restored Church.

Holy Father, we love Thee. We thank Thee for Thy love and for Thy Beloved Son. Please hear our prayer on this day of dedication and accept our pleadings unto Thee we sincerely ask in the sacred name of Thy Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

We had these beautiful handkerchiefs made for the dedication and they are the perfect keepsake. 

The blessings promised during the dedication were beautiful and inspiring. We already have appointments set for next week and we can't wait!

It was an awesome weekend. Razorback football and the dedication of our beautiful temple made for a pretty near perfect weekend. 

Labor Day in Branson

We just had a wonderful Labor day weekend in Branson with the Drake cousins and Nanny and Papa. It made me really miss summer though. I am not ready to be back in school. 

Because Chris couldn't miss church, we didn't leave until after church on Sunday to drive up to Branson.

We stayed with Nanny and Papa at their Marriott condo and it was so fun. 
I have so many fun memories of staying here over the years and the kids always get so excited when we stay here. 

We immediately hit the pool on Monday. 
This particular Marriott resort has the best pool. 

The kids practiced with their snorkel masks again. We are trying to make sure we are comfortable with them before our cruise in November. 

I cannot wait until we snorkel together in Mexico. Watching the kids swim around in their masks made me so excited.

We swam for hours and just loved being together with the cousins. 

These kids are just the best!

I also always enjoy watching my kids with their aunts and uncles and I was cracking up watching Uncle Joseph and Benson playing. Benson was pretending to eat Uncle Joseph and they were both laughing so hard. 

Eventually we had to come inside for lunch. So we did that and then it was back out to the pool again. 

Then we came inside and made dinner and ate. 

After dinner we went out to the firepit and made s'mores

This had me feeling all nostalgic because I kept thinking about when we stayed at Nanny and Papa's condo when I was pregnant with Bailey and we all went to roast smores together. It felt like so long ago. We only had two grandkids then and Clark was little, not even a year old yet. 
I had to go searching for the pic I knew I had of Papa and Tanner eating their s'mores together. 

Then we had to try to recreate it. It's pretty precious!

These pics were taken about 12 years apart. 

We all enjoyed our s'mores and then we played some yard games and enjoyed the beautiful weather. 

Then it was back up to the room to change back into swimsuits so we could all go night swimming. 

That night my parents sent Chris and I to stay at another unit because there wasn't room at theirs, but we had the place to ourselves and it was a nice little getaway. 

The next morning we went back over to the Marriott location and naturally it was straight back to the pool for more fun. 

 

These cute boy cousins participated in the belly flop competition and Benson one for his age group and Danny won for his. 
Their reward was a free snow cone. 
Which then led to me buying the rest of the kids snow cones. 

Then a bit of a thunderstorm rolled through so we had to get out of the pool. The boys changed and went back outside to play ping pong under the awning once the storm had calmed down. 

Tanner and Dad went to play shuffleboard too. 

We had to head back home today because the kids have school on tomorrow, Tuesday. But before we left, we all went to the "Branson Coaster" and it was so fun. 

We did this same type of coaster in Pigeon Forge, TN on our spring break trip, so the kids were super excited to do it again. 

After the coaster we had to say our goodbyes and drive back home. 
But we had the best time. It was a short trip but it was so fun and we were grateful for the time with Nanny and Papa and the Drakes. 
Happy Labor Day!