Jim and I were planning to go to the temple on Saturday; we even had a babysitter lined up for the kids. Then we realized it was the last day for the pageant, and decided last minute to bring the kids along and make it a family day.
We took turns in the temple. While we waited for Jim, we watched a short film in the visitor's center (it was raining outside). The kids thought it was fun to be in a movie theatre. I guess that was their consolation for the fact I didn't take them to the Family Living Center to make all sorts of stuff. :) Then we went down to the Mississippi River for a bit.
Then I took my turn in the temple, while Jim and the kids played at Pioneer Pasttimes. They never get tired of that spot!
After I had a nice session, Jim picked me up and we had our dinner picnic on the banks of the river before heading over to the 1840's Country Fair.
The fair was SO fun. I could spend a lot more time there. They do it every night right before the pageant. I guess next year we need to go more than once (so I can learn the scottish dancing).
We were actually there before it started, so we wandered around a bit. We stopped for a picture in front of 'little Nauvoo'.
We did the hoop games, and then moved on to the stilts. These were fun to try. Alex was particularly interested and Jim actually had some success walking on them!
Next we wandered over to the tug of war. We could have done this all evening. Logan was SO serious on that rope, and he had SO much fun. At one point he decided that the other team was stronger, so he switched sides in the middle of a pull! It was funny, but I still pointed out that he needed to stick with his team.
I was surprised that Annie enjoyed the tug of war as much as Logan.
This is how much Alex loved the stilts. We had to carry him away, and then he cried for the first little while that we were doing tug of war.
He got into it, though. He was extremely cute on that rope, and very good at letting go whenever he would have been trampled or pulled down. I have some fantastic videos of these kids (and Jim) doing this.
The pull got bigger and bigger with more kids and adults joining in. Logan insisted on being the anchor for their final pull, and his team lost. It was so funny watching him being dragged across the ground (he was laughing too).
We convinced the kids to try something else, so we headed over to the handcarts. This was something else that Alex didn't get enough of. He again cried when we had to leave.
Jim was a good sport and pulled all of them. I asked him if he'd like to pull one of those across the country, and he didn't hesitate to say, "No." All the same, he really enjoyed pulling them.
We watched a puppet show, and the kids all were able to choose a sock puppet to take home. Then, there were a ton of kids' games/ crafts/ toys set up, so we ended up dividing ourselves. Jim took the boys and I took Annie since they wanted to do different things. I don't even know what the boys did. Annie loves this toy/game. They also have it set up at Pioneer Pasttimes, so she was experienced. It's a race to get the wooden figures all the way up their ropes.
She made three of the crafts.
We had to peel the kids away from the kids' area so we could do a couple of final things before the fair was done. Logan was fantastic in the sack race (though I didn't get a picture), and Annie was happy until the race actually started. She knelt down and hid her face as soon as they said 'go' because she thought her sack was too big. Silly girl.
Jim was a good sport too. He won his race.
The last thing we had time to do was some log sawing. I think Logan felt very grown up doing this.
We quickly finished collecting the kids' beads (the kids could get a bead for every activity they tried and put them on a string they were given at the beginning) and then Jim took Annie and Logan to join the parade. Jim thinks marching in the parade was the highlight for Logan. They invite all the children to join the parade as the band and flags march to the stage for the start of the pageant. Alex and I watched from our seats. We gathered our loot (homemade doll, fabric hair braid, stamped wood, necklaces, puppets, homemade games, etc.) before the pageant started and settled in our seats.
I took one picture at the beginning and one at the end mostly to show we were there. We really enjoyed the pageant. The singing, dancing, and stories really caught the kids' attention. All three were captivated. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me feel very grateful for the blessings in my life.
I'm really glad we decided to stay for the pageant. Even though it was quite late when we arrived home (we think next year we'll camp down there one night instead), it was well worth it.
