Fun at Temple Square

Okay so I am running out of ideas with this winter hanging on like it is. I needed something FREE and fun for the kids to do. Since we live in Utah we kind of don't go to Temple Square all that often. It is so close that is just seems like something we can always do. Well since it has been a long time I thought I would take the kids to "Do Temple Square" My brother asked me what do you do at Temple Square all day. Well here is how you can spend your whole day there and not have time to see it all.

Our first stop was the Church History Museum. My Grandma use to Volunteer there so I know that I love this place because of times I would go see her there. It has a lot of pioneer artifacts and tells about the starting of the LDS Church to present time. It really is a neat place. I love to learn about history and my ancestors so I really do love it. The first thing that my kids loved to see was the Death Mask of Hyrum and Joseph Smith. Emma commented that Hyrum looks like our family. She even thought JJ looked a little like the mask. See how cool ancestor stuff is. Then we saw the boat that brought the saints to America and the kids got to see what it was like to share a bunk with your whole family. They are much happier with their own beds.
In the museum the Angel Moroni is in a room where you can see the Angel Moroni on the SL Temple. The kids thought that was awesome.

They got to see what it would be like to stand behind the pulpit in General Conference.

They loved pretending like they were giving talks in the Tabernacle.

The museum has a children's room. It tells how special children are. It is a small but fun interactive play house. They can do a lot and they all loved it. We stayed for about an hour and they weren't to happy when I said it was time to move on.

Dress ups for the Manger scene.

After the History Museum we walked around the Temple grounds. It was a bit chilly, but still beautiful.
We went to the south visitors center and watched the videos about family. JJ has already used a line on me from the videos. Family, isn't it about time commercials. He is too smart for his own good.

JJ would not come stand in a pic to save his life, and Ellie was terrified to stand on the HUGE round platform so I had to hold her while we took a pic and she was terrified the whole time.

After the temple we headed over to the Lion House to get a treat. We had yummy cookies and talked about all the fun stuff we had done that day.

Then we took a tour of the Beehive house. My kids love to tell the missionaries that their great-grandmother lived here. The missionaries always think that is SO COOL!

After the Beehive house we went to the Joseph Smith building and waited for Dad to come so we could go see the Joseph Smith movie. We went to the Family History Center and took a picture of us at Ellis Island. We just came to America like our ancestors. They have put a play area in the Family History Center now, so the little kids played while JJ, Emma, and I searched our family out. We didn't get very far. We got the bug though. It was fun again for the kids to show the missionary that helped us that Joseph F. Smith is in their family tree. We think she about passed out. She had never met anyone related to a prophet. She is from the Philippines, so that explains why.
When Dad came we headed over to the movie theater and watched the Joseph Smith movie. This was our kick off to our knew scripture study time. We loved the movie. I can't make it through without crying. Emma and JJ both got a little teary eyed. It really has been useful to have seen that right before we start studying the Book of Mormon. I have referred to that movie a lot of times in our lessons.

It really was a fabulous day. We were not able to go to the North Visitors Center or the Conference Center or the Library. So it looks like we may need another Temple Square Day. The kids had a blast and still bring it up.