Cultural Celebration

Last summer, the youth of our area were asked to be part of a Cultural Celebration that the Church was going to do in conjunction with the rededication of the Ogden Temple, and our friend Dana was asked to be the dance coordinator for our stake . Both Jacey and Max immediately signed up. Then a couple of weeks before the performance a letter came out from the prophet stating that All Youth should be encouraged to participate. Jacey and Max had one of those moments when they could be proud of themselves for making the right choice before it was "strongly encouraged". In fact, we delayed Jacey's surgery so that she could participate. At the last minute, Max even had to make a hard choice too. By performing in the celebration he would miss his first mandatory Nutcracker performance and would get kicked out. When I asked him what he was going to do, he said that he was going to follow the prophet. Way to go cute kids of mine.

As it turned out, Max and his friend Landon were kicked out of Nutcracker, but after a week, when they realized they no longer had enough boys, they were called back. So Max got to follow the prophet and do the Nutcracker.

The performance was an amazing experience for all of the kids involved.

Taylor, Jacey and Madi

 Landon and Max

 Shine the Light Dance that Max and Jacey performed. (Opening number)

The audience while the visiting Church General Authorities and other Leaders were in attendance.

The celebration of the audience when the General Authorities left the arena.

Mom and dad actually were included also in the celebration. I was asked to be on the costume committee, and had to sew Mexican boy ties for one of the numbers. I also recruited Gregg to help me the day of the performance. Thanks Gregg.