Hill Cumorah Pageant

Our first adventure!
We were so excited to be taking off on our first adventure. With the kids and the kitty all buckled in we were ready to go. Our destination was Palmyra, which is about as far away as Vegas is from Payson. I was a good Mother and brought my scriptures. On the way there I read to the kids about the first vision and Moroni visiting Joseph Smith. We talked for about an hour about Joseph Smith and how the Church came to be in the latter days. They we changed the mood and blared music the rest of the way.

The drive is beautiful! There are trees and Meadows everywhere. We had some animal sightings during the drive. We saw a total of 24 deer, 1 big owl, and Nathan and I saw 6 bald eagles. They were grouped together with 4 on one tree and 2 right next to them. Dave did not see them so in his opinion they are an unconfirmed sighting. I think he is just jealous.

We drove directly to the Hill Cumorah and arrived at about 3:00 p.m. It was raining a little but we still had hopes for the day. The weather had said that there would be scattered showers. We hoped they wouldn't scatter on us. We saved our seats and then went over the visitor center.



The kids were able to learn more about the area and we watched a very good movie about Joseph Smith. They also got to see some old artifacts like this first addition of the Book of Mormon.



While we were inside the visitor center it started to rain in earnest. So we took our time there hoping it would let up. Nope! They only let people climb the hill until 6:00 p.m. so we finally decided that we were just going to have to brave it.
We are just about to leave the warm, dry visitor center to brave the elements and climb the Hill Cumorah. This picture doesn't show just how bad it was raining. I mean it was pouring like someone was dumping buckets of water on us. As we started to walk up the areas that had sidewalks were a 3" rushing river. Then we started to walk up the dirt or should I say MUD path to get to the top of the hill.
Hiking the Hill Cumorah was dirty, wet, and amazing. I still can't seems to process that Moroni was actually here. He buried the Gold Plates here. The final battle for the Nephite nation was here. Moroni and his father Mormon were actually here. Joseph Smith was here. He lived here. He received the Gold Plates. They were all here in this spot. Now I am here. It is a little hard to grasp.
The statue of Moroni holding the Gold Plates.
Ashton playing in the water.

The boys over looking the pageant area.
By now we were soaked to the bone. We headed back to the car to warm up and relax for a while. Then we braved the elements again to eat dinner and found poncho's for sale. Maybe we should have looked earlier!

While the kids waited for the pageant to start they got to meet their favorite Book of Mormon characters.
Craig with Moroni his all time favorite hero of the Book of Mormon.
Daniel with one of the Three Wise Men. With Daniel standing next to him I am looking at two wise men.
Nathan with Joseph Smith. He was excited to tell Joseph how he was his favorite prophet. Especially since Nathan got sick and was just like a little Joseph himself.
The boys with some Nephites and Lamanites. They are all ready for battle.
We were a little nervous to see if the pageant was going to still go on even in the rain. Yep! It rained through the whole thing but not nearly as hard as before. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the pageant but it was wonderful. It was the story of the Book of Mormon basically from beginning to end. I loved the grand scale of it. There were a lot of special effects too like waterfalls, fire, and lava. Ashton was always asking if we were seeing the real person or just someone pretending to be them. Later she asked if it was the real baby Jesus up there or another baby. Then she decided that it was probably just a doll since the baby wasn't moving at all. It was so cute to watch her try to figure it out.

After we were hauling soaking wet blankets, snacks & water, and a sleeping Ashton back to the car when Dave realized that the keys were missing. They were in the pocket of his hoody and could have dropped out anywhere. So he ran back to the chairs and started to look while I lugged the kids and all of our stuff to the car. I couldn't believe it. It was dark and there had been so much mud that the grass was turning to mud. How was he ever going to find them. When the kids and I got to the car we saw Dave waiting for us with the keys! He found them close to our chairs and apparently is much faster they us. I was soooo grateful. The kids raved about how good the pageant was and how much fun they had. I asked them if it was worth it (being soaking wet and all). They all said yes! Then Craig added, "But I'm not sure if hiking the hill was."

The next morning we drove past to get a good picture of the actual hill itself.
This is the Hill Cumorah