aussie-merican momos: I love to see the temple

Since the nearest temple to us is in either Sydney (6 hours away) or Melbourne (7 hours away), we decided that a trip to the temple would be a great way to spend a part of Sam's vacation from school. We hopped in our little car and caravaned out to Sydney with Sam's parents, Mark and Debbie. About an hour into our trip to the temple we saw a young man hitchhiking along the road. I have always been trained to pass them by without a second thought (since they could be an axe murderer you know), but Sam has a little more faith in people and felt we should pick him up. Ends up he's a law students from Brisbane who is spending his school holidays traveling as far as he can through Australia. He was great company and rode all the way to Sydney with us. I admit I was surprised to find how great it felt to help out this friendly young man. I think the Lord must have sent us his way to help out.... it was an amazing and humbling experience. I was glad Sam and I could be at the right place at the right time to help out some one in need...

After dropping our new hitchhiker friend at the Sydney bus station we headed to the temple. Since Sam and I were going back the next evening we decided to spend as much time as possible there to make the most of our trip. It was worth every painful, butt-numbing hour of driving to be in the House of the Lord!

Sam with his parents

Sam was growing out his moustache during school holidays. He got teased at the temple, but I still think he looked pretty handsome!

Even in the middle of winter the temple grounds were covered in gorgeous flowers....

On the way home from the temple (which is a 6 hour drive may I add) we had to stop to answer mother nature. In our search for bathrooms we stumbled across the coolest little park with a gorgeous lookout point. It was cold and a storm was coming in, but the view was breathtaking....my camera doesn't do it justice. It was the perfect ending to a great little vacation!