Fort Collins Temple - Cultural Celebration

Awesome Theme - Fortress of Faith

What a long, but incredible day!  We started the day off with soccer games - the last of the season. Jantzen and Aubrey both had so much fun playing soccer this year and both of them continue to get better and better.  Aubrey scored her first and only goal of the season, but now that she's scored in a real game, I expect that she will be a little striker - she plays very well!

Jantzen's Soccer Team - "The Slippery Penguins"

Aubrey's Soccer Team - "The Cougars"

After the soccer games, we did a few chores at the house before I headed up to Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins to meet our youth, who had been practicing for the cultural celebration all day long.  I will be honest - I was shocked at how hot it was when I arrived.  It's October 15 and it was near 90F in that stadium.  The youth went through hundreds of bottles of water - it was crazy hot! I was able to bring them some pizza as a bit of a distraction as well.  They where there from 9am to 5pm and they went through each of their numbers only twice - so there was plenty of sitting around.... Here are some fun photos that I captured throughout the day of practice:

View from the bleachers during CC practice

View of the miniature temple during CC practice

View as the kids took their final break from the sun

After the final break, I ran to the other side to make sure my reserved seats were still in place - good thing too, the line at 5pm was already very long - the stadium filled to capacity very quickly!

Line to get into the Cultural Celebration

View from the bleachers as the CC began

Amy and I have both commented about the incredible energy coming from the youth during the Cultural Celebration.  When President Uchtdorf arrived, they erupted in cheers and clapping.  It was as if President Uchtdorf was a rock star - literally.  That energy was the key to an incredibly success performance by the youth.  After watching them practice for months, they definitely left their best performance on the field that night - so incredible!! I used my SLR to capture most of the photos that night, but we did get a few more photos from after the performance from down on the field:

Miniature Temple - close-up view