Monday, September 1, 2008

Palmyra Pageant July 2008

We left for our trip at about 7:00 Thursday night...grabbed some dinner on our way out of town and headed East! We made it until about 11:00 pm when I was already asleep and Steve couldn't hack it anymore! We pulled into the Quality Inn and went to bed! The kids woke up a little late...8ish since it was PITCH BLACK in our room (thank heavens for black out curtains...I need to get some of those for their bedrooms back home!) and were hungry so we went down to the complimentary QUALITY Breakfast (that was held in a bar attached to the hotel...curious? yes....Quality? hmmmm....the food was good but the place smelled like smoke!

Choosing our seats and laying our claim was hard work...the boys loved messing with the cones and chairs...I think they sat in a fair portion of the chairs that were set up in our section...finding the best ones! Thanks guys the view was AWESOME!

After our spot was staked we headed up the Hill to take a look around. It was a beautiful little hike through the woods (perfect for the kids) and a great view! After that we went over and did all the Church sites in Palmyra...



Our loaded stroller...Oh how lucky we are to have so many CUTE kids!

At the Cooper's Shop...notice that they are in the barrel inside the rope partition...leave it to the Dad's!


How much fun can you have trying to jump up and grab a branch that's just out of reach?

After hitting the sites we needed to eat so we headed into town to find something that wasn't fast food and we stumbled upon this little jewel.....

(of course Gordon had to climb the fence rather than use the cute little gate!)
The food was great and the portions were huge...plenty for everyone! Now that we were all fed and rested we decided to head over and wait for the show to begin!

Gordon and Oscar were so excited seeing all the Nephites & Lamanites running around before the show...they spotted this guy who Gordon was convinced was King Noah...and actually he was right! Good eye Gordy! It was funny though, once it was confirmed that this was indeed King Noah--Gordon tried to ask him why he chose to be so wicked!

...my best attempt to take a picture...since you're not supposed to use any flash my camera couldn't focus! It was such a great show! The effects were fabulous and the music was wonderful!

I bought a bunch of glow bracelets for the kids and they had a Blast!! It also saved our lives because you couldn't lose them...they were glowing from every appendage...which we needed since the field is SO huge and so dark during the show!

After the Pageant we braved the onslaught from Anti-Mormons...who frankly were mostly funny on their P.A. systems but also disturbing now that we have kids that understand what's going on... and headed the mile back to our cars...then drove the hour home to the "Crow's Nest Lodge" to CRASH! We were so exhausted from the last leg of the drive plus a full day of sight-seeing and all! The kids did remarkably we since Oscar didn't nap AT ALL and Ellie got 2 crummy car naps! Needless to say that all the kids were OUT within minutes of the drive!

Upon arriving at our accommodations...aka "The Crow's Nest Lodge" well after midnight we found that the whole place was locked up like Fort Knox....apparently the agreement to leave the doors unlocked was forgotten...so we had to call the owners and have them come over to unlock the doors for us! Lovely...luckily they lived close...and only had to listen to Oscar SCREAM at the top of his lungs for about 15 minutes (he is a BEAR when you wake him up and he's still tired!) we then transfered all the sleeping and screaming kids to their beds and all quickly went to bed!

The next day we had a lazy day at the condo and then headed back over to Palmyra to attend the Temple and visit the last few sights in town. We had some Ice cream at a cute little place called Brad & Dad's...it was a great day!



We got a pretty good family picture finally...at least everyone is looking at the camera!

Our dear friends the Buchanan Family met us in NY from Maine...we all used to live in Tampa but have since moved up north...it was so good to see them!
Time to go....Oscar led the way out...he was D-O-N-E!
We loved spending time here at the temple!

We stayed one more night at the "Crow's Nest" then headed out the next day after church. It was such a great trip for all of us! We'll definitely have to plan another road trip vacation for next summer we'll probably be better at scheduling in advance so we have more selection of accomodations! Who would like to meet in Nauvoo??

2 comments:

Erika Anderson said...

I was dying laughing the whole time! From being inside the bucket behind enemy lines to king noah's cross examination from Gordon! LOVE IT!

Elizabeth said...

how cute! I love your little kids! when do I get to see them in person? Cute family picture too!!