While we were in Charlotte, I was chatting with someone at church and mentioned that we were going to Washington D.C. next. And she was like “Oh! The temple open house is happening right now! You should get tickets and go!”
And that is exactly what we did. We were so excited that we got to go.
And it was surprisingly busy, and it wasn’t like it was a weekend. We went on a Monday evening at 5:30 pm. And I would guess that about 90% of the visitors were non-members. So that was really neat too.
Trying to get everyone in position…. It’s like herding butterflies. 
Well this might be my new favorite picture of all time. 
Well, shoot, this one is amazing too! 
I love watching the relationship between these two develop. They are just best buddies. It’s adorable (unless their fighting over the same toy)
We arrived and got parked and I was trying to get everyone in place for a picture, and a nice older gentleman offered to take a picture of our family so that I could be in it.
Of course we took him up on his offer and we all got into position. And then the gentleman’s son came up and was like “Cassinat!?”
And I was like “Bejarano!?”
It was a mission buddy! Can you believe that!? It was really fun to see him and his cute little family. That was just a really fun little coincidence.
After taking pictures outside, we went in and did the tour of the temple.
If you want to see the interior, the photo galleries on this page have pictures of all the places in the temple. (It also has a lot of the historical information about the temple and discusses what temples are for etc.)
One of my favorite details was the cherry blossom motifs found throughout the temple. How fitting.
At one point, as we walked into the Celestial room, (which is absolutely stunning, and has 13 enormous crystal chandeliers) I was carrying Evie, who turned to me and said “This is a great place to be”
It just warmed my heart. Little people are so smart.
After we had finished the tour of the inside, we were able to go walk around the beautiful grounds as well.
The grounds right around the temple are beautifully landscaped, but a lot of the grounds were left as they were and so it feels like it is just nestled into a beautiful forest. I loved that.
This is a view of the DC temple you don’t see very often: the stained glass windows, which are located in the stairwells. It’s really pretty with the sunlight coming through. 
You can see the details better in this pic. 
One of the things that I love about this temple is that it is in the middle of a city, but it feels like you’re just out in the forest. 
Lot’s of dogwood trees on the grounds. 
Look at the reflection! 
When we had finished walking the grounds, we made our way back to our car and then went in search of food.
In the end, we decided to just go hit a food court at a nearby mall. Because it was convenient and everyone would be happy.
We felt very lucky that our time in DC overlapped with the open house. It was a really cool experience.
