The Month of Celebration

February has been an incredibly busy month for our family.  In fact, I can't remember the last time I have been this consumed with activities and events that take most of my time, thoughts, and prayers!  Our beautiful new temple here in Gilbert, Arizona is completed and we have been so involved with the Open House and Cultural Celebration.  What a tremendous opportunity for us here and what a blessing it has been.  The work involved and put forth by THOUSANDS of consecrated servants (25 stakes)has been most evident in this undertaking.  It's been such a testimony builder to me.

 Here is our ward chairman, Rachel Hixon (one of my faves) giving the kids direction before we began our Super Saturday rehearsal which went from 6:45 a.m.-about 9:00 p.m.  Our ward was so amazingly organized and that made it fun for everyone!

 Hot breakfast burritoes and fruit for everyone at 6:30 a.m.  Who does that???  Our awesome ward leaders!!!

For the Super Saturday, I was asked to be the Regional Music Director which was really fun because I was able to go up on the scaffolding and get a bird's eye view of our kids rehearsing!

I love these two kiddos more than I can express!

 My sister, MaryKay was the Stake Dance Director for her stake and also asked to be the Regional Dance Director Assistant for the Super Saturday Rehearsal.  It was SO fun to find her among the crowd and experience this with her.  She is an amazing teacher and had one of the largest stakes in this temple district to teach!  They did such a fantastic job!  Her Region wore the kelly green shirts and ours wore the yellow/orange shirts.

 LOVE this beautiful Arizona sunset the night before the performance.  

 During the day, the dust levels increasing got worse and kids were complaining of allergies.  The bermuda grass was really bad and with 12,000 kids dancing all over the loose grass, it became a real problem.  With inspiration, the director, Rosanne Tidwell, had a run-through early in the afternoon, which went surprisingly well for a first-time run through!  It was smart of her to do that, since later on---after dinner, the dust levels were unsafe and they had to cancel the evening run-through.  It was a blessing, though because we had all been there since 7 a.m. and kids (and leaders :) were exhausted!!

You can see the layer of dust hovering over the kids.

Here is what 12,000 youth look like from an aerial shot.  Pretty cool!!!