Rachel, Jenna, Jared, & I were in Utah for almost 2 weeks, and they spent most of their time at my sister’s house with her kids and several other cousins. It was cousin paradise.
(bonus points if you see the extra person in this picture.)
On Saturday afternoon I went to Andra’s house to pick them up. It was kind of a crazy afternoon and by the time we left I knew we’d barely have time to get back to Cindy Lynn’s so that we could change before the YW broadcast. Then we hit a few minutes of bad traffic and that was it—there just wasn’t enough time. I thought about not going, but I just didn’t feel good about it. Sure, we could watch it later, but this was their first YW broadcast and I knew it wouldn’t be the same. So I convinced them—even strong-armed them a little—that we should find a church and go watch the broadcast, just sneak into the back of the chapel in our regular clothes. I promised them that it would be dark and that no one would see us or care how we were dressed. We dropped Jared off at Cindy Lynn’s and went and found a church. (Hooray for Utah with all of it’s churches.)
The broadcast was wonderful. I mean WONDERFUL. It was everything I hoped it would be for my girls, and it filled my soul as well. And when it was over, as we walked (quickly) out of the church and back to our car, I asked them. “Are you glad we went?” And they immediately answered that they were. Even in regular clothes. And then said that we had better hurry and get in the van before anyone saw us. 
It seemed especially appropriate that when we came out of the church this is the first thing we saw…
When we got back to Cindy Lynn’s house I told the kids they needed to go to bed because the next day was going to be a long day. Immediately they were unhappy—they’d stayed up late with their cousins every night and they just wanted to sleep all day on Easter Sunday. I told them that there was no way on earth I was spending Easter Sunday in Utah sleeping. I had already decided that we were going to go back to church with Russ’s dad for Easter Sunday in hopes that their awesome choir would be singing again. And I also wanted to go to see the Tabernacle Choir sing in the morning. They were not happy to hear this.
But you know what? We got to the tabernacle where we got to see the choir finish rehearsing, and that was pretty cool. The orchestra being there was pretty cool too. And the best—there was a handbell choir. We were entranced.
The choir performance was amazing. I felt on the verge of tears for much of it, the beauty of it touched me so deeply. As the final song ended, the words and the instruments and the bells swelling together gloriously, I hugged my kids to me and gave silent thanks that we had the opportunity to be there.
And they were glad too. They felt it, and knew that being there was the right decision.
Afterwards we walked out of Temple Square and to the picture taking place. I looked at them in their pre-teen cuteness and it was one of those moments when I was amazed at how far we’ve come.
The girls were lovely in their new Easter dresses that they designed themselves.
(Side note—I have grieved over the fact that my girls are no longer willing to dress alike on Sundays. Even though their Christmas dresses were different colors they still wouldn’t wear them on the same day. So I gave up and didn’t even try for matching Easter dresses. And do you know what? I found that I was pretty excited about not having to make the same dress twice!)
After we were done taking pictures we drove to Bountiful so that we could go to church with Russ’s dad. The choir sang beautifully, another missionary gave a talk, and in a huge surprise to us, we also go to hear Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone (who is now an emeritus general authority and is the grandfather of the missionary who was speaking) and Elder Neal Anderson speak. (His daughters live in that ward.) So it was a nice meeting.
We had dinner at Marilyn’s house. The highlight (lowlight?) of the day was that she had cooked a goose that her husband, Dave, had shot.
Dave carved it, but when Edwin (on the right) tasted it he asked “Does anyone here LIKE this??” Oddly enough my kids did like it, but I thought it was kind of nasty.
We had a great time eating the delicious easter dinner and talking with everyone there. Once again I came away thinking how lucky I am to have married into this awesome family.
I missed Russ & Josh who were back home, but what a terrific Easter Sunday!
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How fun- and haven't we all been travelling and forgotten church clothes and had to show up looking like a ragamuffin once or twice? No? Just me?:)
ReplyDeleteUtah is so crazy...I'll never forget driving around one time in Salt Lake, looking for Eric's mission reunion and I saw a chapel and said "Oh! There it is!" And Eric had to remind me that there was a chapel on every block...