The Washington D.C. Temple

We had a couple of hours to kill until Gabriel's big bash that evening after his Bar Mitzvah, so we decided to go see our temple. The Washington D.C. Temple. You can see it from the free way just beaming in the sunlight. We went to the visitors center, which is almost as twice as big at the Columbia, S.C Temple itself! They had the "Reflections of Christ" by Mark Mabry pictures on display (from his book... google it!). They were so moving, and brought you to tears. The whole visitors center was amazing!

On to the temple... how glorious!! It was so white, so big, and so amazing. It looked like it was carved out of one BIG block of marble. There are no words to discribe how gi-normous it was. I know it is taller than the Salt Lake Temple, and I all but laied on the ground to get a full shot (with Brint in it), and I couldn't get it all. Just amazing. I wish that we had time to do a session or two, but we were in a time crunch. That just means we'll have to come again!

Please go to http://theargallpics.shutterfly.com to see more of our pics!!

Gabriel's Bar Mitzvah

January 3, 2008
So, Brint and I were invited to Maryland to a Bar MitzVah. It was Brint's uncle-nephew's-son Gabriel. They (Henrique, Ronnie, Gilad, & Gabriel) come down every Thanksgiving since we moved here. They are just the most amazing people. So, sweet Gabriel was turing 13, and it was time to party. A lot of family came from far away places. Canada, Brazil, North Carolina (ok that's not so far). The first night, which was Friday Jan 2nd, they were having a shabbat dinner at their house. We had some yummy real mexican food. Ronnie is mexican, so her mom made chicken with mole sauce, and a green chili chicken enchalada. We also had flan, brownies, cookies, etc. The food was so yummy, and the big family chatter was lots of fun.

The next morning was Gabriel's Bar Mitzvah. Let me just say this boy rocked the house when it came to reading/singing Hebrew and from the Torah. He was so fast, and sooooo good at it. Way to go Gabriel!!! His Bar Mitzvah was intertwined with their Shabbat (sabbath) day service. It was cool to see Brint wear the Tallit (Jewish prayer shall), and the Yamika (the little cap for those who don't know what that is) out of respect for their faith. We had a shabbat lunch. Hummas, tuna salad, flat bread, falafel... yumm again! We couldn't take pictures of any of his Bar Mitzvah or during the lunch, out of respect of their religion. We should have taken Gabriel out side to take pics, but it was tooooo cold!

Later that night we went to Gabriel's "Chocolate and Games" night. It was a ton of fun!!! Go to the website below to see the pics, and more description of the night!!

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