This weekend we went to the Manti Pageant. The temple was so beautiful. We camped across the street and as the sun hit the side of the temple, it seemed to glow!
We got to our campsite super early, so we had most of the day to play and relax. The kids played frisbee, dug holes (yeah, I don’t get it), and read.
The pageant was wonderful. I had seen the pageant before, but it was many years ago. I couldn’t remember too much about it. I was kind of expecting more of a musical, but this one was more of a dramatic presentation. More than 900 people participated. I was impressed with how many of them were under 18. We were able to get pretty close seats since we got there so early- and it was pretty cool when we saw Elder Bednard arrive quite near us to come and watch the pageant as well.
The pageant didn’t end until after 11 or so. My kids did great. My baby had taken a good nap and he watched the whole time. It took awhile before all the scout campers around us were finally ready to go to sleep- but we did. In the morning, before we drove the 2 hours home, we had a nice easy breakfast (bagels w/cream cheese and cantelope) and walked around the temple with the kids.
We had a lot of fun. It was kind of like a “preview” of what is to come. We tried to pretend like it was the real thing, and used our packing lists for the trip. We only forgot a couple things we’ll want to remember– a hammer, and maybe something to sweep out the tent each night. Pretty good, I’d say…
