FRIENDS

Pageant is now over. It's always a bitter sweet ending. We are excited to have things, hopefully, be a little less chaotic. To have a little more time to breathe. But, we will miss being on the temple grounds everynight & we will especially miss all of our new friends. As I've said before we are placed in family groups every year. This year we were lucky enough to have the best family group ever! We truly enjoyed everyone in it. Here's a fun photo of our family group....

We will miss our friends. The girls loved playing with this guy..

His name is Bryan Crosland & he plays John the Baptist. He's even John the Baptist in the Reflections of Christ photos. He is an awesome guy. He got married this past year to Lindsay who is equally as cool. Our girls loved to go on stage with Lindsay whenever they could. Bryan was nice enough to watch Jadyn for us half the time while we were doing Kylie's scene. It was his favorite scene to watch so he was always watching us on side stage & he would lift Jadyn up so she could watch us.

This is brother & sister powerhouse Ryan & Brooke Jackson...

They are quite possibly some of the coolest people in the world. I joked with Ryan the last night that I wasn't saying good-bye to him because he's going to be my brother-in-law soon. I want him to marry my sister Stephanie because he's so dang awesome! They were so nice to our girls & keep asking to come babysit them for us. What 20 year olds want to babysit? Our girls sat by them as much as they could & they were glad to hang out with them. Poor Brooke had a hurt knee. She ended up being on crutches during performances & went on stage when she could. She used a brown cane to go on stage with. Hopefully it heals for her soon because she has a scholarship to UofA for basketball.

Then, of course, is the men who played the Savior. Tyler Maxson played the Savior on the spanish nights & he was so fun. He was always telling us how wonderful Kylie was & how she liked to help him out. This was his first year & he said Kylie would give him his cues to let him know when to do things. Silly girl! Robert Allen is the other one & he is wonderful. He just looks the part. That's probably why he gets his picture taken a lot. wink, wink He is such a nice guy & was so nice to my girls. They loved to run up to him & say hi any chance they could like little groupies. Here's some pics of them...

The last night is always an emotional night, but this one took the cake. The devotional is always a tough one. The directors & everyone on the stage sang "Love One Another" to the cast which lead to everyone in the cast eventually standing up & singing with them. Always a tear jerker. We were lucky enough to hear from Elder Mask of the Seventy on the last night. Elder Anderson that was just placed in the Seventy during the last conference spoke to us on Friday night. The hardest part, however, was Kylie's scene. We've been telling Kylie all year that this is more than likely her last year because she's just too big. So, when she jumped into Erik's arms that last time & he gave her his usual kiss for good luck - Erik started crying. Which, in turn, made me cry. So, those that were in the audience that night wondering - yes, we had real tears on this performance. Kylie did wonderful, of course. When I was walking off the stage Joe Tenney (he plays the male narrator) gave me a loving little nod. He's such a cool guy.

When we, Erik & I, walk off stage I go to pick up Jay & Erik picks up Kylie & then we meet for Triumphal Entry. When Kylie came walking up to me she was crying. She just told me that she didn't want it to be her last time. She made it through the scene & then we went back to our group. She spent the rest of the pageant sobbing in my arms. She was so sad that it was over. Right before we had to go up for finale she went to give Brooke a hug & completely lost it again in Brooke's arms. She will really miss pageant more than anyone. She just loves it! And loves all of her friends their.

I just have to quickly comment on the weather. It was a rainy day on the last day - which jsut made for a crazy day on many levels. The rain stopped a little before the pageant, but it was cold. When walking to devotional after make-up I took this picture....

If you look close you can faintly see a rainbow to the left of the tall palm trees on the left of the temple. It was brighter in real life, but I love this picture. It was a cold, cold night, but one we won't forget in a long time. Hopefully, we will be lucky enough to be cast again next year. We look forward to seeing everyone at our FHE party in a couple of weeks!!!