Activities are escalating as summer moves quickly toward the end. Roy and I have had tickets to the Shakespeare plays for over a year. When we found that Elder Cook couldn't speak to the family on the 24th, but he could do it on the 17th, we had to shuffle our play tickets so we could be home in time for the Phineas Wolcott Cook 200th birthday celebration that our Cook Family Organization board has been planning for the last four years. With that shuffling, we managed to see all of the offerings at the Festival in 5 days. We even added in Sound of Music at Tuachan Theater in St. George.
We left Monday morning and drove to Beaver, where we ate at Cancun, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We made great time and were in Cedar City before we could check into our B&B, so we walked main street for a little while. Our first play was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, which we have seen before, but through experience we've realized if we choose not to see a play in Cedar City, we're usually disappointed when we hear people raving about it.
I don't think I ever realized how short this play is (especially compared with Shakespeare). It was only an hour with an added 15 minute sing along that was fun and entertaining. We enjoyed the play, but though the lead was talented, he wasn't Donny Osmond. After the play, we had time for a short rest before we drove to Gloria and Mike Toomey's home in St. George (Fern Rasband's sister and brother-in-law). They had a nice summer dinner prepared for us and we enjoyed visiting with them. Sound of Music didn't start until 8:30 (it's probably too hot to start earlier). The lead actors were fabulous and the music was excellent. They added a few unfamiliar songs, and both Roy and I felt they could have easily cut them and made the play shorter, but other than that it was excellent. We didn't get to bed until after 1:00 because of having to drive back to Cedar City.
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| Mike, Gloria, Catharine and Roy. |
Usually we see people we know, but this trip we didn't run into anyone that we didn't plan on seeing.
We saw Hamlet and Macbeth both on the same day. 6 1/2 hours of heavy drama! The other offerings were Twelfth Night, The Book of Will, Every Brilliant Thing, and finally, Henry the VI parts 2 and 3. They did this last one as one play and it was over 4 hours with an hour break in between. The break was only supposed to be 30 minutes, but one of the actresses got sick and we had to wait for an understudy to show up. The play was still interesting, but the understudy had to use her book and she was a little bit of a weak actress. In the final act she played Richard III, who had some important lines, and I think we missed some of them. Even the actress she took over for was weak for such an important part in the end. There were 82 different characters in the play, played by a cast of about 10, so her roles weren't very important until the end. I hope they get a better Richard III for the play of the same name next year. We saw Henry the VI Friday, and as soon as it was over (6:00 pm), we got in the car and headed home.
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| Catharine and Roy at Bulloch's Drugstore in Cedar City |
During the week we got in a lot of walking and one really good hike. I hiked the creek well, but tripped on the uneven Cedar City sidewalks and went straight down. Luckily, I only have a couple of scrapes on my knee (and a small one on the back of my hand) to show for it. Our hike was to Kanarraville Falls. The start of the hike is just road, but once you get into the canyon you're in and out of the creek to get to the waterfalls. We read that it was 3.8 miles round trip (which is how far we hiked), but you could go quite a bit further to get to the end and more Falls. Roy's shoes didn't have great treads and there was a rickety ladder to climb. We didn't bring lunch because we knew we'd be finished in time, so we weren't prepared to keep hiking. Next year we'll go prepared with water shoes and lunch. We also found out about another hike that is adjacent to this one but less well known. We'll try that one next year, too.
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Catharine and Roy in the creek just before we
reached the Falls. |
Henry VI is a play that is rarely produced, especially parts 2 and 3. I'm glad we were able to see it. Henry VI was a weak king because all he desired was peace when everyone around him desired power. During the sacrament today, I thought about the Savior, who has all power and could have come to earth to subdue everyone under his rule, but instead humbled himself to become an example for us and ultimately give his life for us. In the play, almost everyone who had any authority was killed in the crossfire of those desiring the title of king. It was literally friend against friend, and brother against brother. In part 3, the director took poetic license and we saw the costumes change from period clothing, to Hitler style uniforms, to the revolutionary war, the civil war, to desert storm and other modern wars. The weapons changed, too, and sound effects were added of helicopters and war planes overhead. The point the director was trying to put across is that history repeats itself and men are still desiring power, not caring what the cost will be. We can learn from history, which is why we have the scriptures to show us the mistakes of men, and the contrasting spiritual aspirations of good men.
We made it home by 10:00 pm which was good because we had the 200th reunion of Phineas Wolcott Cook scheduled for the next morning. Everything had been set up by others on the board and there wasn't much for me to do when we arrived an hour early, but it was nice to greet people and meet relatives--some that I knew and many that I didn't. Elder Quentin Cook arrived about 5 minutes before the meeting was to start. He probably knows that to be too early invites people to come and speak with him.
Dan Ditto (President) and Bryson Cook (Vice president of genealogy) spoke first. Dan said that at his home when they celebrate birthdays, everyone says what they love about the person being celebrated, so he talked about what he loved about "Grandfather Cook."
Elder Cook continued to teach about our ancestor and shared some facts from the history of the time. He had a power point presentation and it was an excellent talk. One thing that I took from his talk was, "This is my ancestor, and I'm grateful to him and he's important enough to me to take time out from my busy schedule and share my thoughts with other family members."
He spoke on Phineas' unbelievable challenges and how he always tried to be diligent, faithful, to live the commandments, to love the Lord, to raise our families in righteousness, and to endure to the end. Elder Cook said that these should be our goals also. One thing he talked about that I didn't know was that the wives got along well together. In Garden City, Ann Eliza was called to be the first Relief Society President. She called Amanda Polly Savage to be her first counselor. They worked in these positions for 8 years. After Phineas' divided his goods among his wives, they built homes next to each other.
He closed with a testimony, saying that he is a "sure witness of the Savior, he guides our church today, He lives. His atonement is the most significant thing that's ever happened in the history of the world." He then left an apostolic blessing on the family that we will have in our hearts an appreciation of those who have gone before, that we will have gratitude for our ancestors. He said that if we have children that stray, to be faithful--we will be united when it is most important. He blessed that we will find peace--individual peace inside us; that we will know that God lives, Jesus Christ is divine and that we can return to our loved ones.
In the 2nd session we saw a video about Phineas' life before he came west. Bryson and Janet spoke on "finding Janet Porter." An ancestor that they looked for for 30 years. Then Dave presented the video he made of Phineas' years in Goshen, Utah. He did a great job. Please look up and watch the videos (even if you saw them at the meeting).
www.cookfamily.org On the home page under "videos and pdf files..."
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| Russell Buttars, a relative, and me |
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| Matt, Ruby and me |
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| Crista and Eliza (almost twins) |
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| Caitlyn, Hyeji, Dojin, Jieun, Ori, Yuna and Dan |
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| Dan Rasband, Shea Sealy and family |
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| Dan Ditto and family (Dan's on the right--President of the organization) |
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| Bryson Cook and some of his family |
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| Alexa, Cynthia, Kelly and her husband, Corey Cook and 3 of Liz' children |
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| Gracie and another Saling. One of Liz' kids, Chris Saling, Becky, Catharine and Liz |
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Tasha, her husband and her two kids, Tiffany and Troy |
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Some cousins: Jorgesnson family. Top of table Laurel Jorgensen, Margaret Cook,
Susan Winterton (maiden name) and her husband. |
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Christine, Steve, Eliza and Crista, Sara and Colleen Wright (my cousin's daughter)
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I realized while labeling these pictures that I need to learn the names of my great (and great great) nieces and nephews.
After arriving home around 3:00, we napped and then the family came over. Jieun prepared a Korean dinner for everyone. She cooked the meat on little Korean grills out on our deck. It was delicious--Thanks, Jieun! The kids had a ball playing with each other.
But--the weekend was not over yet. Crista had planned to bless Bridget in our ward because we are a nice half-way point between Logan, where they live, and Mapleton, where the Vance family lives. It was fun to have most of my family in my ward. Adrienne and her family were out of town, and Elise, of course, was in Georgia with her family, but everyone else was there.
Matt gave Bridget a beautiful blessing and then we all came over to our home and ate. Crista had made pulled pork and cookies, and everyone brought something to add to the dinner.
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| Matt, Crista, Bridget, Greta and Ruby |
Yuna, Jordan, Jennie, Caitlyn, Roy, Me, Crista, Bridget, Matt, Jieun, Dan
Greta, Hyeji, Ori, Doyeon, Ruby and Dojin.
