On Veterans Day I helped take 35 church kids to visit the Boston Temple (somehow we missed a carload for the photo). I added the extra middle row seat to our Odyssey so I could squeeze in Malcolm plus six more 12-14 year old boys. It was hilarious to watch them work out the seating arrangements amongst themselves to stagger the younger, skinnier boys amongst the older, bigger boys for the 3-1/2 hour ride each way.
A few years back when we were shopping for vans, the Honda dealer of course gave us the test drive in the most extravagant model with leather seats and a DVD player. When we first loaded our kids in they were bouncing off the seats, folding them up and down, looking in all the little compartments, exclaiming about all the cup holders, and generally making a racket. In the glove box we found a boring sales DVD about the van's features. We popped it in to see what it would be like to have TV in the car.
Sudden stillness. Complete silence. Guess which van we bought?
Being stuck in a van with seven young teenage boys for 400 miles sounds like a painful way to spend a day off. But they watched movies the whole way and found other ways to entertain themselves, and the trip went right by. The one movie I had to turn off was "Toy Story" — so many of them had every line and nuance memorized and felt compelled to quote it the entire way through. They couldn't promise me they'd stop. Next film, please.
We had late lunch at a huge buffet, and from the adults' table I saw the boys go back for multiple Slurpees and dinner plates of cake and ice cream. It was fun to watch them laughing so much.
In the end I'm hoping their experience at the temple at least balanced out all the movies and dessert they pumped into their systems. I know I had a really great day.
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