Cumorah July 4 and 5

Here is Katie at the props shop after she got her farm implement for the harvest workers scene. This man ran up behind her and posed just as I took the picture. His name is Doug Hyde and he is one of Jewel's Cast team leaders.

Now for the rest of Michael's story. Does the smile say it all? He was cast as a crowd member in the King Noah scene and then got switched to Lamanite backline warrior and Lamanite warrior. A boy was double cast and his roles conflicted so they needed someone to take his battleman place and Michael got the role. He is so excited.

Here we are in the building called the study shelter. We eat dinner here, have sacrament meeting, devotionals, and other meetings. I am starving every day at dinner. Maybe because I am not grazing in the kitchen so much.

Here is Caroline and a few girls from her cast team. They are all destruction victims and will die in their scene. This role goes to all 13 year old girls. I am so happy for Caroline. She is having a great time. I don't think she has smiled for a picture for a really long time and look at this!!

Here is David on Stage 1. He is Nephi's son #2 and has a lot of rehearsal time. He was at rehearsal for almost 3 1/2 hours straight last night. It was 10:15 and he wasn't back yet and the rest of us had been done for a while. It was really weird to have the 4th of July here. No parade, no fireworks, no parade, nothing except patriotic songs at the devotionals.

Here is Katie and me rehearsing as harvest workers. She is making rows and I am planting seeds. We get to be front row, center stage, cool, huh? There are probably 60 girls on stage at this point.

Another look.

Last night for cast team time, our and Michael's cast teams joined Katie's for a campfire and smores. It was so fun. Well, I am so exhausted I fall asleep every time I sit down so I am going to bed. The schedule here is really intense so I may not post too much this week, we'll see.

The Hill Day 1

Well, we are officially here. Katie is modeling this year's cast team t-shirt. How lucky for us they are Orem High colors!

They will feed you 3 meals a day if you pay for that but we wanted dinner only. Here we are after dinner on Friday. We climbed to the top of the Hill Cumorah. It is beautiful here.

This is a statue of Moroni at the top of the hill.

Here are two pictures out of our motorhome. We are staying in Zion's Camp. There are 300 of the 700 cast members staying here. Every night they have munch and mingle around 10 PM where we get together, and well, munch and mingle.

This is looking away from the road from the other side of our motorhome. There are a lot of kids here. My kids have been a little shy and haven't joined in yet but they'll warm up once they meet some kids. A lot of these kids have been here several times and know each other already.

Michael and David wrestling on the couch.

Kristen Erickson and Jewel Wakamatsu came to visit us and have popcorn. It is fun to have neighbors here with us. They did casting Friday night and all of us except Michael has a role. He will be cast this morning. Nelson is a New world disciple and a vision litter bearer. Who knows what any of these titles mean at this point. I'll let you know next week maybe after we figure it out. Katie and I have the same parts. We are Harvest workers and nephite Campfire dancers. Both of these roles are dancing. Nelson says I should be proud of myself because almost all of the dancers are young girls. Proud or stupid, I say. This will either be my dancing with the stars workout and I will look fabulous in a week or I will sprain something or pass out from exhaustion and have to be hauled away. We'll see... Caroline is a youth destruction victim. Apparantly she will die every night. And David is Nephi's son #2. He was really excited about this. He gets to be in the boat scene and get wet every night. He may also get to be tossed in the air in a blanket. Maybe. We look forward to finding out what Michael will be. Nelson and I are Assistant cast team leaders. We will be working with another couple supervising 18 17 year olds. This is the 7th time the Matthews have done this. We totally lucked out because they know so much. Well, off to dry my hair and start our first real day rehearsing.

Orem 6th ward at the Hill Cumorah Pageant!!

Crazy Coasters and the Kirtland Temple

Cedar Point Amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio is the roller coaster capital of the world. There are 46 rides ranging on a thrill ride scale of 1 to 5. We went on10 of the 16 rides rated a 5, double black diamond - aggressive thrill. Well, I didn’t go on all of them, but most. There were hardly any rides that weren’t roller coasters. It was pretty amazing. The park is built on a jetty of land in Lake Erie, so the park is surrounded on three sides by water. It was really pretty and had beach and marina access from the park.

Here are the kids in the sky ride as we travel through the park.
Here are Caroline and Michael waiting to take off on the Top Thrill Dragster. This was the fastest and highest roller coaster in the world until a couple of years ago when a similar one was built in New Jersey that was 5 feet higher and traveled 1 mile per hour faster. Katie and I video taped and took pictures. This one goes from 0 to 120 mph in 3.8 seconds and travels straight up at a 90 degree angle. After you go over the top, you spiral 270 degrees on the way down.

This is them on top of the ride, 420 feet in the air.

Here are David and Nelson waiting their turn to go. They wanted to be in the front row also so they waited a little longer in the front row line.

After that ride, Michael’s shirt looks what the front bumper of your car usually looks like.

Katie on the Carousel. Giddyup!

On Thursday we arrived in Kirtland, Ohio. We got to tour through the Kirtland Temple. It was beautiful and very well preserved. I am glad we were able to take the kids here. I thought about the other modern temples we have been able to tour during open houses with the kids. What a blessing to be able to see so many temples at such a young age. The Kirtland Temple dedication was 8 hours long and you would’ve had a child or two on your lap the entire time. Things have sure changed. "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning" was written for this temple’s dedication. Then we went to the LDS visitor’s center and sites. Even though there was a special feeling in the Kirtland Temple, I thought the spirit in the other sites was so much stronger because of the truths that they were sharing as we went along. I am looking forward to our experience in Palmyra.

Here we are in front of the Whitney store. For those of you from our stake, President and Sister Buckwalter are serving at the visitor’s center and we got to talk to them for a few minutes. What a small world! We have been through Pennsylvania and are now in New York. Only 2 hours to go until our home for the next 16 days, Palmyra!

The Windy City

Here is Nelson's temporary office. It has been so awesome to have internet access on the road. We used it to find out where to get the L train into the city and tried to find a walmart to park in for the night nearby. Well, it worked but the internet doesn't tell you the type of neighborhood. It wasn't the worst one I've ever been in but let's just say I have slept better in my life. The car alarms at 3 in the morning was a little much but we survived.
This is what we saw mostly the first 2 days, corn.

Here we are on the L train into the city.

What a view!! This is from the top of the Sears tower. This was David's favorite part of the day.

After the Sears Tower we had a yummy sandwich and soup lunch and then on to the Field Museum. This is Sue. It is the most complete t-rex skeleton in the world. We also saw a lot of stuffed animals (not teddy bears). They had cool mummies also. We were getting tired by this point but a bus ride regenerated us.

Mostly because of the next stop. We (ok the boys ditched us at this point) went to the American Girl Doll store. Can I just say WOW! Doll salon, hospital, restaurant with chairs for your doll so you can eat together, photo studio to take pictures of you with your dolls. Boy were we underprepared. We left all of our dolls and matching outfits for ourselves at home. This was a way fun store!!

The boys couldn't find any stores they wanted to see (except Apple and Garmin) and then walked to the beach to put their feet in Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, we went next door to Macy's and tried on fancy dresses.

Katie's comment when she tried this one on was "Modest is hottest!".

Gino's Chicago deep dish pizza was recommended as a must do so that's where we went for dinner. This place is a sight. The entire restaurant is covered with graffiti from guests. Once again we were underprepared without our sharpies but oh well. The pizza was really great and one slice was enough to fill me up. I guess deep dish is quite an effort because it takes 45 to 60 minutes to get you pizza after you order. It was great to finally relax and we started getting a little giddy.

Somehow we started taking shake face pictures and here is the boy's picture.

I couldn't stop laughing so the girl's picture didn't turn out so well. It was so much fun, though. We had a terrific day and made it back to our motorhome safe and sound. We are driving through Indiana (We have the Music Man on my ipod and had to play Gary, Indiana as we passed through) and looking for the next place to spend the night. Good night Y'all...

Hill Cumorah or bust, day 1 and 2

Here is Michael during a sunny day of life guarding at the Scera pool.

Hopefully he will have a job after taking 5 weeks off.
Goodbye Mt. Timpanogas! For those of you who are just tuning in, our whole family is driving back East to participate in the Church’s Hill Cumorah pageant. We will be part of a cast of 700, rehearse for a week and then perform for a week. On the way, we are stopping in Chicago, Cedar Point amusement park, Kirtland, and the Palmyra for 16 days. After that, we will see Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Virginia. So far we have been on I-80 and Nelson says we will be seeing a lot of the same for a while. Yesterday we drove about 550 miles and today we will drive around 860. Here are a few shots of what we do when we drive.

Boys playing on their DS.

Nelson Driving (he does this A LOT)

Caroline watching a movie.

Katie reading Harry Potter 7. She just finished re-reading 6 in anticipation of the new movie.

We may have time to see it on our trip. We’ll see.
Well, highlights so far are crossing the Continental Divide, 50 Cent ice-cream cones at Little America ( and then rip-off gas at the station, we’re suckers), passing the Cabella’s world headquarters (it was in the 6AM hour so I didn’t wake anyone), roadkill, corn fields, Michael’s first motorhome driving experience, and the kids trying to learn to play our new guitar. Tune in later for more breath-stopping experiences. We will be in Chicago tomorrow...

Happy Father's Day and more

Happy Father's Day to all of the awesome dads out there, especially Nelson, my dad, John and Chuck. You guys are so great and special in so many ways. I love you!

Here is a picture of Michael, Katie and David. Michael got his new glasses a month or so ago and Katie and David just got theirs this week. David has been avoiding getting his even though teachers have been telling him to go home and tell his mom he needs to see the board. He did not want glasses but ever since Michael got his it has grown on him. Thanks to Michael for showing him it would not be the end of the world to have to wear glasses. Life is in HD now he says!
Katie has been taking art for a few years and recently changed art teachers. Her first project with her was a self portrait. Here is a picture of it. I am really proud of her! Her teacher wants to display it in an art show at the end of summer.

Here is Katie and her friend Nicole and their restaurant for the boys and friends. They had menu's and served them dinner. Don't you love summer? The kids do so many more fun and creative things without school in the way. David and his friends are into videoing themselves, and then editing and making movies. Very fun.

Here is a sample of Katie's less serious side of art. This is a poster she has made for our campsite at Hill Cumorah. They asked us to make 2 posters with our name on it so everyone can know each other better in Zion's camp(the campground). Only one week to go and we are off for 5 weeks. I hope to blog frequently during our trip...wish me luck!

Girl's Camp 2009

Well, we are back from girl's camp and it was a great success. Here are Lani, me and Joan. The weather was far better than it was supposed to be with only a couple of rainy moments. We went to Heber Valley Camp this year and it was so nice. It may be hard to ever go to Mia Shalom again after being spoiled...electricity, hot running water, bunks! Here are some of my favorite pictures of the week...

Here is Brinnan and Caroline. Caroline and Katie are so excited to have Brinnan and Aubree back from Costa Rica after a 5 month stay. They came back early even to come to camp with us.

Aubree, Caroline, Katie and Brinnan at the highest elevation overlook of our 5 mile hike. That is Mt.Timpanogas in the background.

Here are all of the girls at the Timp overlook jumping for joy that the rest of the hike is downhill.

They had a giant swing on our challenge course. Here is Katie swinging in the trees!

We went to camp as a ward this year instead with our stake. We had 8 girls who were 1st through 4th years so they each got a different color bandana to represent the 8 value colors. Caroline is Faith and Katie is Virtue. Aren't they cute?

This is the whole crew in our Charlie's Angels pose. Watch out!

It was a great week! We have such wonderful young women in our ward. The YCL's worked so hard to make camp great and I couldn't have done what I did without the help of my camp assistants and the Young Women Presidency. Thanks to all!!