We had an amazing summer in 2013. No question for the four of us here, the highlight was having the opportunity to participate in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It is hard to describe the experience in words. It was truly amazing to be part of a missionary effort so well organized. To be with a group of 700+ fellow members of the Church and really away from worldly concerns made our family desire to return and be part of it again!
To backup briefly our summer began with a trip to Dublin, Ireland at the end of June. We had such a nice time seeing this country. We stayed in Dublin most of the time. We decided we had to see the countryside ( after all " P.S. I Love You" was the inspiration in choosing Ireland for it beauty) so we took an all day bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. This allowed us to cross the country in 1 day.
It was super foggy and rainy so this photo does no justice to the amazing Cliffs. To get an idea of their majesty there is a 200 vertical drop from the top down to the water. It was truly worth the 3 1/2 hour trip there to see. The countryside was everything we imagined.
Some other highlights were Trinity college with it's famous library. Of course while in Ireland you have to take in a performance of Riverdance.... so worth it! And the original St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Moving on we flew directly to New York and on July 5th we registered for Pageant.
We loved being with so much family. We were in pageant with my 3 sisters and their families.
We had lots of opportunities for fun service.......setting up 6000 chairs and washing them! Lots of hands make work go fast : )
We got our parts on the first night and started staging the next day. It is so cool how it all came together in 7 days. We started performances one week after we arrived.
It could be exhausting. We often were at the Hill from 8:30a.m. until 11:30 p.m. There was a little down time at lunch between devotionals, practicing and cast team time....to catch a snooze!
We had a P-day and we got to do some boating and that evening was a cast talent show. Cindy was Primary President and Suzy one of her counselors. The primary performed a really cute song and dance number.
We were so sad to have it come to an end. On closing weekend the rest of the family was able to join us and see a the closing performance.
From there we went right into our yearly family reunion. Lots of boating and playing and eating and visiting for a great week of fun in the sun.
Feeding the masses is always a big job. We have each family take a day and that helps us not all be in the kitchen soooo much.
One of the highlights of the week is always the annual Olympics. All the grandkids are divided in 2 teams. They compete in a team cheer and dance to music. There are many single events and the final crazy relay. all to be judged and scored!
It always ends too soon and we all part ways and truly look forward to the next summer!
It was super foggy and rainy so this photo does no justice to the amazing Cliffs. To get an idea of their majesty there is a 200 vertical drop from the top down to the water. It was truly worth the 3 1/2 hour trip there to see. The countryside was everything we imagined.
