(Posted by Jill in the middle of the night)

We have completed our first 2 days of rehearsal, and it feels like we have been here for at least a week. The days are long and packed, but so fun. We had ice cream tonight after the rehersal ended at 9:00 (an early night!) with many of the women in the core cast. Maybe we were all just really tired, but we laughed and laughed.

Here's a couple of pictures from yesterday's costume fitting:
The laundry baskets hold slips and bloomers. It took trying on 3 slips to find one that wasn't too long. I got 3 tops and 2 skirts, and both Erin and I got 2 hats and 2 shawls. It's a lot to keep track of and very heavy to carry around. Colors are assigned by district, and even though we are in a different district this year we got the same color costumes as last year. Erin's 2 dresses are the exact fabric she had last year! She and I decided we have to keep coming back to the pageant until we get rose or blue dresses. Just about any color would be better than brown and gold. Craig got 2 shirts and suspenders which means he came up in the world - from poor immigrant to tradesman. Weston looks amazing in his vest and "newsie" hat.

Mayflies

After dinner tonight we took a walk around the pageant site and down to the Mississippi River. It was great to see everything taking shape. The stage, light towers and chairs are set up, but the stage needs some work. We saw all the damage caused by draining the field - huge areas had been dug up then smoothed over by tractors. They will need to bring in sod before the pre-show activities start in a week. Down on the river bank we saw hordes of Mayflies. This picture was taken with a cell phone at sun down, so it is not great, but you get the idea. Those fuzzy branches are fuzzy and drooping because they are covered with Mayflies. The trees had a halo of insects, but (thankfully) the bugs weren't interested in us. The fireflies were also out in abundance, but they don't freak us out like the Mayflies do.

We're back!!!

We made it back to Nauvoo without incident. Weston and I left Scout Camp Friday night at 10:00 PM after the closing ceremony. We got home at about midnight and started packing. We were at the train station at 5:30 AM on Saturday. The trip was beautiful and uneventful, and we are now in Nauvoo.

It is a "cool" 86 degrees today; Nauvoo has been in the upper 90's for a couple weeks, with very high humidity. The pageant area was a swamp, so some of the crew dug a special drainage system to "drain the swamp".

Let us know if there is anything you would like to read about or anything pictures you would like to see. We will start uploading soon...