Last weekend was a big one for us - the dedication of the Indianapolis, Indiana temple! We have been waiting literal YEARS for this temple to open! I still distinctly remember when it was announced - it was during the first General Conference in this house. (I was feeling the morning/noon/night sickness with Tess. Blech.) We were watching conference through the internet on our TV and it happened to die RIGHT when president Monson announced a temple here. We totally missed it. Family members were emailing and calling us to let us know. It was crazy! We were SOOO excited! I was ready to go out there and start digging the foundation myself!
Fast forward 5 years later to last weekend:
Actually, no, the weekend before. See, before any temple dedication they have the youth in the area (ages 12-18) put on a big Temple Cultural Celebration. Think a big outdoor pageant-type-thing. Songs, dancing, descriptions of what the culture is like in the area of the new temple. Tickets to these events can be hard to come by, and here in Indiana was no different.
I was already bummed about missing out on so much prep for the temple dedication because we were in UT for so long right before. I had resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't get to go to the celebration, either. But the Sunday before our Young Men's president (Dave Miskin) slipped into Primary and gave me 6 tickets. What the what?!? I was so surprised and happy! When I asked him why, he said that he "figured the Madsen family should get to go". (Along with a warning not to tell anyone he had done this - he didn't want to get harassed from others for tickets he didn't have!) What a great guy - I totally owe him one.
Saturday night was a little crazy in Indy - it was the last weekend for the State Fair and there was a pre-season NFL game between the Colts and the Bears. We tried to get dinner reservations somewhere close to the IUPUI soccer stadium where the celebration was, but no dice. So instead we ate Subway sandwiches on the way, which I think turned out better what with the traffic and whatnot. (They made us all park in a parking garage. Crazy.)
Anyway, we had to sit in stands and it was crowded but not, thank goodness, hot! We sat by Gigi and Bergen, so happily took this picture for us. (No, we didn't intentionally hide Cole. He did that on his own.)
Oh Cole. Will there ever be a day when I am happy to sit next to you at some sort of event like this? (Or at all, in general?) That day can't come soon enough, because you were an absolute PILL. Not exactly terrible, but enough that you made things somewhat miserable for all...
But let's forget about Cole and this oh-so-fun phase of life we are all enduring with him.
There were a ton of youth involved in this. It made me both kinda happy and sad that I wasn't in YW anymore. I mean, it would've been really cool to be a part of this. But also A LOT of work! The youth in our ward are in the center of this picture in the yellow shirts.
It was a pretty neat sight! I'm bummed Spencer wasn't born 4 months earlier because then he could have participated. How cool would that have been? (Answer: very.)
President Eyring was there to start things off. He kept his remarks short and sweet and directed to the youth.
I didn't get pictures of every act, and they're not the best quality because all I had was my phone. And I don't remember everything that was said or done because I was dealing with the child mentioned above. (Remember, he wasn't THAT bad. But I had to direct a lot of my attention to him.)
The first section was about the Mormon pioneers and the missionary work that went on in Indiana. They did a great dance and pulled out handcarts and everything. (In between acts they had a slideshow of pictures that went along with the descriptions of that act up on the jumbo tron. It was really well done.)
The second act was about Indiana's agriculture and economy. We're well known for popcorn so OF COURSE they did Popcorn Popping. It could've been really cheesy, but I think they pulled it off.
Then they talked about the war and all the war memorials around Indianapolis. It's hard to tell, but those are sailors dancing with the poodle skirts.
OF COURSE they had Indy car racing. (Cole was bummed that the car didn't go fast or make a loud noise.) ((It was just pushed.))
They sang a jazzy rendition of "Back Home Again In Indiana" that I really liked and have had in my head all week.
All the kids in the middle are waving yellow flags to tell the "race cars" (those in the different colored jump suits) to slow down. It was awesome when they "crashed" and had to be carried away by medics.
They also had a section about how important education is in Indiana and about how many universities and colleges are here. All of the kids below had on shirts from different universities.
It started with a pretty great drumline.
And ended with them dancing to "Take Me Back to Indiana" by the Jackson 5. (Can't mention Indiana without the Jackson 5, right?!)
The last act had the narrators telling the story of the First Vision, with interpretive dancers. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or thought it was a bit strange. A bit of both, I think.
It ended with all of the youth in white shirts and black pants/skirts marching out and singing the theme song again. ("Gather to the Light)
It was pretty cool.
By this point Cole had definitely had enough. (So had the other kids, but they were better behaved.) Since we had eaten so early we stopped for ice cream on the way home at Dairy Queen. Staying up past bedtime and getting ice cream? Pretty sure this is what the kids will remember of this once-in-a-lifetime evening. :)
I'm just so happy that we got to go - and even more happy that our temple is finally open!
1 comment:
Hey we were there too! Sam was dancing in it. He danced in the race car one and the boogie bugle boy one. I thought about all the Lafayette people that must be there, but didn't really see any. We were sitting on the far right...looks like you were on the left side.
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