More Cumorah

It was unusually cool this summer in the Rochester area. We didn't usually mind that, though. Can you imagine how hot it would have been in our heavy costumes if it was hot and humid? We did have one night when the pageant had to end mid-way due to heavy lightning.

A few of our primary children. Aren't they adorable? They usually were, but it was also hard work!

Rehearsing one of the batle scenes. None of us were in this scene, which is why we were able to take this picture. The battle scenes were the "cool" ones to be in.

The destruction scene. Gives you an idea of the scope of the staging.

Hill Cumorah

Well, here we are several months later, finally getting around to updating our blog. We have way too many photos to include here, but here is something to whet your appetite. We really had a fantastic experience and I couldn't possibly explain all the spiritual experiences we had. We had moments of shear exhaustion, but loved meeting the interesting people, reliving the scenes from the Book of Mormon, giving, serving, and having lots and lots of devotionals.

Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick

This is the trebuchet at Warwick Castle. Pretty major slingshot!

This is a sample of what the wax figures inside the castle were like.

An outside view of the castle. We had Noah with us, so poor grandpa was the workhorse, carrying him on his back in the pack all day. It was a very entertaining castle for all of us.

We did the "ten-minute" tour of Stratford. Basically we just walked around and saw things like the outside of the Shakespeare museum, etc. It's a picturesque town on a nice river with cool looking buildings. That's about all I can tell you.

We prefer the tan and brown to the fakey black and white that you see in the above picture.

Day Two in the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds is an agricultural area that used to be the "wool" district. Now it is a place people love to visit because the villages are well preserved and the farms are so picturesque. We went on two long Cotswold walks, the last of which was about 7 miles and we went to 3 villages.

This is the lovely, quant village of Snowshill.

We stayed overnight on the spur of the moment in this B and B. This is the back yard. We just weren't quite ready to leave the area after our day at the farm and the playground.

We were walking through a field when we had this scary cow encounter. We had this huge herd of cows running toward us and we didn't quite know what to do. Luckily, we discovered that cows are mostly just curious, and not aggressive!

One of many thatched houses in the Cotswolds.

Cotswold Farm

We planned to stay in the Cotswolds for one day, but we found this fabulous farm and spent a lot of time just at the farm. Noah just loved it! This is a picture of a really hairy cow. This farm has a lot of rare breeds of animals. They also had a lot of fun things for kids, like the scooters below.

They also had great petting areas where the kids could actually get right in with the bunnies, piglets, etc. He had a great time and we actually enjoyed it as well.

England

This is one of the many pubs in Birmingham.

This is a boat in a locke in Birmingham. The boats are super narrow in order to fit in the lockes.
Robyn took us to a large pond that is close to her house. There were tons of swans. Here is a mommy with her two babies on her back.

After about 20 hours of traveling, we finally arrived! Even though we were majorly jet lagged, we stopped of at Oxford. This is part of the Oxford campus.