Slick Stuff: We Arrived: Part 2

This story is LONG overdue but it is so special to me that I don't even know where to begin... so I'll just jump right in.

After 2,300 miles and 5 days in a minivan we finally made it to Palmyra, New York. I was overwhelmed with the JOY. This 2 week experience has been part of my life in since I was a youngin.' It's been part of my family's life and now it will be part of my children's life. I have been shaking with JOY for SO LONG! Now, we get to have this experience of participating in the Hill Cumorah Pageant together. It literally has been on my list of Life's Goals to do with my children since I was 16 years old. I never gave up hope and now here I am sitting at the Hill Cumorah with my 4 beauties ready for greatest experience of our life.

Driving into town and passing the Hill for the first time I was overcome with a flood of memories and emotions of 9 years of my life that have happened here.

It was the 4th of July.

We had stayed the night before with the Slichtas in Fairport. I woke up early to go to Wegman's to load up on food for the next 2 weeks then picked up the kids, dumped our stuff into our new home, the trailer at the Palmyra Fairgrounds, then booked it to the Hill for cast registration. This is our picture just after registration.

Shaking with excitement...

We ate dinner in the Study Shelter, had a welcome devotional, were cast in our parts and met our cast teams. Maryn immediately hit it off with Ashley in her cast team who happened to be participating with her grandparents, the Murphys. Her grandparents were staff members when I was a teenager. These 2 girls acted as if they knew each other their whole life. We invited them to our trailer for some 4th of July sparklers.

About half way through the 2 weeks we took pictures with our cast teams. This is Adys.

Emmy's cast team.

Kaden's primary group.

my adult cast team.

Maryn's cast team.

That first night of arrival was casting.
They called all the women 14 on up to go out to the Bowl for some dancing/movement tryouts. I went out there with with the "lower impact" older women. Ha! I wasn't really trying my hardest but wanted to record Ady and Maryn dancing. The first one picked was Maryn and her friend to be a Nephite dancer. It was just like Maryn to be picked first thing.
Ady kept dancing and dancing until all the women's parts were picked. She finally got assigned to be in King Noah's court. I prayed and prayed and prayed for her to be chosen as a Harvest Dancer or ANYTHING. She wanted to quit but didn't. She was dancing far to the side where the directors weren't looking. She didn't move to the center until the very end. I have to admit I was disappointed but I was also so proud of her for sticking with it until the end. She didn't give up. She was so disappointed with her part because all her friends were dancers. Her lessons in life will be to step out and shine in her own awesomeness being confident with how great she is and taking what comes!
Emmy's whole cast team is an Alma Convert. She was a bit disappointed too but she makes the best of it like she usually does in life.
I got chosen to be one of the 3 Sariahs. I was so surprised to be picked from literally hundreds of women to play that part. For any woman to get any part is awesome, but Sariah? So unexpected. I came to Pageant for my kids. I wanted them to love their part and have their experiences, I wasn't expecting anything but a crowd scene for myself. I almost cried when the director pulled me out and asked if I would be Wilderness Sariah. "Really? Me?" I said. I took that as a little gift from Heavenly Father reminding me that I'm worth it and not forgotten. With my part I was also an escort for the New World children when Christ comes which was awesome because Kaden was in that scene and he and I had a cute little girl we were to take on stage with us.
Before I post these pictures be reminded that the majority of these costumes were sort of new. My mom was the Costume Director for 5 years and on the costume staff for MANY years before that. After she left they came in and redid them all. So... I had to really not get myself worked up when I saw everyone's costumes. Some aren't so bad now, but some costumes really made me cringe.

Ady King Noah's Court.

Maryn Nephite Dancer.

Kaden New World Child.

Emmy Alma convert.

Me, Sariah.

My wig.

The 3 Sariahs together.

We were amazed how we all looked similar, same coloring and shape and weren't even cast at the same time.

Loved getting to know these ladies.

The Before picture.

Right after dinner I had to get ready to change quick.

Maryn and Ashley helped every night to braid my hair while we waited for the devotional to start.

After my Sariah scenes I changed quick and met Kaden and Lyla. She was the cutest girl who made our scene so fun.

Maryn with her cast team leader who was King Noah.

Maryn and Ashley.

Me with Tammy Henderson. We went several years together with our families when we were teenagers. It was fun to reconnect here at the pageant.

This was my stage FAMILY. Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Nephi, Sam, Jacob and a few daughters and then Ishmael, his wife and children.

I LOVED getting to know these great people.

Ishmael, his wife, Lehi and Sariah.

Kaden and I got to go out together before the show to greet people and hand out programs. We got to spend a lot of time together. Love this boy!

Maryn enjoyed holding the Kofoed's 1 week old baby. He was the youngest cast member and the youngest of 11 children.

Maryn and Ashley talking to the crowds.

This is an absolutely exhausting experience. We went to bed every night after midnight and woke up at 7 every day. Kaden usually fell asleep during the devotionals.

My tired baby boy.

We were all exhausted.

Ady had to doodle to stay awake.

In all my years of being in the Pageant I never had been a front row devotional sitter. This year we always sat on the second row front and center partly because I didn't want to miss out on anything and partly because I wanted to sit by my longtime friends, the Campbells. Because of sitting so close I could get a picture of the Pageant Presidency with Brother Hansen the Artistic director.

Elder Scott Runia on the right was part of the Pageant Cast with his family. He had just spoken to our Bluffdale Stake Conference a few months earlier and made an impact on me with his story of his son dying a few weeks before he was called to be a member of the Seventy. I had a few good chats with him during the 2 weeks. Elder Aidukaitis came with his family and spoke to us during a devotional. They were both amazing men and helped us all feel the Spirit!

I took this picture of all my kids walking towards me while I waited for them to drive back to the trailer for lunch. They were looking like happy, powerfully-filled-with-the-Spirit kind of kids at that moment. I had to pinch myself thinking of being in that place with my kids.

A terrible picture but this was one of the highlights for me... accompanying Michael Campbell singing the "Song of Cumorah." Before he sang he told how both he and I had been part of the Pageant in 1989 when the new pageant was presented. We were both there when Crawford Gates, the composer sang this song to the cast. The next year, 1990 I was the accompanist while Michael conducted the cast in singing it every single night after the show. This year Michael was asked to conduct the song and said he would only do it if I played for him and if we sang the original music... which I might add is much more difficult than the music they had been singing from in recent years but oh, so beautiful.

SUCH A HUGE HONOR. I love Michael. He was actually the choreographer of the show back when I was a teen. I believe it was my 2nd year when I was 17 that Michael and I performed a piano duet for the cast talent show. We go way back. But, doing this every night this year was a huge honor for me.

We ate our meals in the Study Shelter to simplify the experience for us. Kaden loved to eat with his friends.

Ady was a dinner server several times and was so cute talking to everyone that came through the line.

Eating dinner with my fam., except for Emmy who we could never find. Since I rarely saw my kids during the day I asked that we at least eat dinner together and sit at devotionals together. We weren't 100% but we tried.

Maryn headed up to eat in the Study Shelter.

Kaden hanging out after eating.

Kaden was in the group called the Primary which went up to 8 years old. He was considered one of the big boys. Those leaders are amazing entertaining those kids constantly with super awesome activities. Kaden loved it.

This was a day when my cast team decided to be crafty.

It wasn't hot very many days but one day while we were there the Primary passed out headbands. They sprayed themselves with water to keep themselves cool. These girls took an interest in keeping Kaden refreshed.

Kaden and some boys made this water city during some free time. Kaden was in heaven with so many boys, friends and the great outdoors constantly to play in.