Oakland Temple & Ice Cream at Fenton's

Saturday was our stake temple day.  Somebody had the genius idea to send around a sign-up list the week before during Relief Society meeting asking if anybody needed babysitting or would be interested in volunteering to babysit.  There is a huge stake center on temple grounds and our ward reserved a room for the kids to stay in during the temple session and it worked out perfectly for us because it meant that we were able to drive to the temple and spend some time on temple grounds together before dropping Clara off to play with toys, eat her snacks, and watch a movie while Paul and I did a temple session together with other members of our stake.  There were four other kids besides Clara and two of them are her little friends Silas & Liesel from around the corner, and the babysitters were a girl who lives a couple houses down from us who is home from college and one of the young women in the ward.  We snapped a quick family photo before going into the temple for the session.

 

I posted this photo of Clara on Instagram.  She loves looking at the fountain in front of the temple and we played here for a few minutes.  She was so happy to be wearing her "pretty church dress" which she usually only gets to wear on Sunday to church. 

The session was wonderful.  I felt so happy and it was the fullest session I have attended in a long time, which makes my heart swell.  The new version of the temple film was absolutely beautiful.  I loved it and learned so, so much and had so many insights that I had never had before.  I can't wait to go back again soon.

Afterwards, we went to Fenton's Creamery for dinner (but really for dessert).  Fenton's is mentioned in the movie "Up" and I think I have blogged about it before.  Fenton's is 119 years old and was founded in 1894 in Oakland.  Clara was VERY excited to be going for ice cream. 

Clara and I split a cheeseburger while Paul had a crispy chicken salad.  We were trying to save room so we could split a junior size banana split (which despite its name is actually enormous - how anyone eats a full size banana split is beyond me). 

The kids get little paper hats to wear.  Clara kept hers on for all of five seconds to pose for this picture with me but then wanted nothing to do with it.

Our friends, the Fischlis.  We enjoy hanging out with these guys.  We were told that the wait for a party of 7 was over 45 minutes but if we split into two groups it was only a 15 minute wait.  But we were lucky that we were seated as separate parties right next to each other so we could just pull our tables together.  Way to beat the system, right?

I meant to take a photo of us (and our banana split) before we started eating it and completely forgot!  Once somebody sets a giant dish of ice cream in front of you with hot fudge dripping off the sides and nuts across the top it is practically impossible to resist digging right in.  We always modify our banana split and get the hot fudge on the vanilla ice cream and marshmallow topping on the chocolate ice cream even though traditionally the vanilla is topped with pinapple topping.  I love it this way.  Oh, and I love that Clara couldn't be bothered to put her spoon down for the photo.  She just kept going at the ice cream. 

I tried to take a picture of what was left of our banana split at the midway point.  Clara had her spoon in the strawberry and Paul had his spoon in the chocolate, surprise, surprise.  I had to take the picture quick and get back in on the action before it was all gone.

We didn't make it home until 9:45 p.m. but Clara stayed awake for the entire drive.  It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening.