The temple in McAllen, Texas was finally ready for the open house! We have waited a few years for this. The timing of the open house wasn't great- right after school started and in the Texas heat. So I had the big kids miss a day of school to go. We drove 6 hours south and stayed the night in McAllen the day before the open house began. We were there at 10am for one of the first tours on Friday. After the temple, we drove to South Padre Island. We rented a beach house for the weekend. It was a great trip.
The kids enjoyed the temple. Gemma shared a sacred experience with me afterwards that I hope she will remember as she gets older. Ashton liked seeing the baptismal font as she is only 15 months away from being able to attend the temple as a youth.
After the temple and drive to the island, we visited a turtle rescue/rehabilitation facility. The kids loved it all. Then we spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the beach. Having the beach house right there was nice so we could walk back and forth for lunch and breaks when we needed it. The beaches and water were so much nicer than Galveston. We even found a sand dollar, along with bags and bags of seashells.
We drove back Sunday after going to a small branch in the area. The people there were so excited to have a temple nearby. The kids did great on the trip as well. We found out at the branch that this temple is a huge blessing to the area it was built in. There is obviously a customs border check at the actual Mexico/US border (maybe 30 minutes away) but there is also one an hour north (that we hit on the way home, complete with drug dogs and lots of border security officers). This means much of the area's population due to their illegal immigrant status are unable to leave the area due to the risk of crossing a checkpoint. This limits their ability to attend any temple- US or Mexico.
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