Temple Celebration

I've decided I am getting just as bad at blogging as I am at journal writing! Kind of like the same thing, so it really isn't such a shock to me! But I am sorry you have been looking at the same lovely picture of Justin now for 2 weeks, wondering what that was all about! As it turns out, it has to do with the new LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple that has just been built. We are lucky enough to live in that new temple district, and because of that, all of our youth had the opportunity to participate in a Temple Celebration. It was a huge production, involving about 8,000 youth from the Salt Lake Valley here in our district. For 3 months they practiced every week to learn dances and songs to perform in the Conference Center in Salt Lake for the Prophet and General Authorities of the church as well as thousands of family and church members. Each stake was assigned a different dance theme depicting the history and different cultures of the state. Our stake was assigned the Polynesian Culture. They learned the hula, the poi balls, a Samoan dance, the Hakka, and I believe a Tongan dance. Justin, of course, was demonstrating the final pose in the Hakka in my last post. Everyone worked so hard, and the final result was an amazing production! Youth who did not participate in the dances were a part of the choir--2,000 strong! It was incredible! I was lucky to be friends with the gal in charge of the whole thing for our stake, and she asked me to be a captain over some of the youth from our ward. That meant I was at every practice, helping and watching as it all unfolded and progressed. What a great experience, for myself and our youth! Here are just a few pictures from the day of the event.

For the final dress rehearsal and production days, we were assigned the same kids to ride in our cars. I had the best group of the bunch! They were all so much fun. Their excitement and enthusiasm was contagious! Here are a couple of shots of them.

On the way out to the car after the performance, it was so crowded and busy, the girls were afraid we would lose Jordan among all the people since he was one of the shortest there. They decided to be his protectors....oh yeah, he was lovin' it!

Check out my friend Amanda's blog for photos from the actual performance...she was our stake photographer and has some great shots from inside the conference center.