Manti Pageant

MANTI PAGEANT
We had such a fun trip down to the Manti Pageant this year!  I loved it!  We grabbed Grandma Ruthie on our way down and enjoyed her company this trip.  Since we'd been turned down by all our friends, she was the distinguishing characteristic of this year's trip :).  It's been a while since I felt as stupid as I did after sending that text to all the families in our little friend circle inviting them to come.  So embarrassing.  Apparently we are really weird for driving all the way down to Manti and back in one day.  Oh well :).  Now we know.  But we did have a great time!  Grabbed our Subway as usual.  Didn't run into much traffic which was nice.  Only a little at point of the mountain. We found a closer parking lot (trying to accommodate Grandma Ruthie- for some reason she didn't have her handicapped tag), in the backyard of a family who coicidentally has 7, with one on the way, kids.  They wanted to know all about our van.  Kinda cool.  And his name was Nate :).  Best $5 we've ever spent :).  It was nice that we were a little closer so Ruth didn't have to walk too far.  Luckily Nate was able to arrange a golf cart ride for her at the end.  I still can't get over how cool it was that she even came though.  So brave and so tough!  She is an adventurer these days, I love it!  So another thing that made this trip different was running into Dr. Thackeray and his wife!  He is the Bishop in his ward (which just so happens to be Meg's old ward- small world!), so he was in charge of saving a spot for their youth on Youth Conference.  He just happened to be right behind us.  It was really cool that he just came over and started talking with us.  Good times.  We ended up talking for quite a while, then we stopped, then he came back over after his wife got there to ask if he could get a picture of our family with him.  How cool is that!  We were honored and got one with our camera as well.  Then we stood and talked to his wife and him for another hour or so.  Fun stuff.  The kids played cards and ran around.  Always a fun time on the temple grounds.  I just love this tradition so much.  We had all our snacks and pillows and blankets crammed into our big blue duffel bag, watched the pageant without too many problems.  A sign that our kids are getting older.  Molly was adorable, I guess, when Nate took her back to get some water, the volcano was going off and she asked him, "What be happening?" in her cute little inquisitive voice.  So adorable.  Jack was a sweetheart during the whole thing, asking me questions about who was who and how they were doing stuff.  That was adorable.  The volcano was cool, but definitely strange that they could make it go and then be put out so fast :).  I don't think I explained that one very well, but he took my answer.  I really loved that we had just read about the part in the war when the Nephites surrounded the Lamanites and then took them over in our family scripture reading.  Everyone thought that was cool.  There were a few new things in the pageant this year.  They had actual arrows being shot at Samuel on the wall, and Christ actually ascended and descended when visiting the Nephites!  Pretty cool.  Must have gotten a new special effects guy :).   It's always a long walk back to the car, and Molly was dead asleep, so even more so, carrying my big girls in my arms.  But the right home was uneventful.  With just a stop at a Chevron for potty and water.  We took Grandma home and then got to our house around 2:30.  Everyone melts into their beds and goes right to sleep, which is awesome :).  Always a nice time, but always nice to be home.  6-15-18