New York Day 10: Concert Day, Blackout

Day 10 was the big day! The whole reason we went on this long, expensive trip to New York was because our girls had an opportunity to sing in Carnegie Hall with their choir, Millennial Choirs and Orchestras. They were scheduled to be in the second concert which was a matinee on Saturday. Because of this, they had to be there nice and early for rehearsal and a run through. They also wanted to have extra kids sing in the Saturday night show, which we volunteered them for. So we got them up nice and early, did hair, packed lots of food, and John took them over to the city. Fortunately, there weren't any hiccups for that part of the day. Holland got to sleep in and it was kind of nice to relax for a few minutes before we needed to go over there. 

We made it over there was a well, and, boy, it was crowded getting through to find our seats. Fortunately Holland found a nice place to rest. 

But we had awesome seats. John was in charge of getting our seats and he did a great job. Front and center. Just a few rows back. This was my view.  Unfortunately we didn't realize that the girls would be singing on the balcony exactly behind us. It worked out just fine, we could see them great. It just took some swiveling in our seats. 

Everything was so fancy--I can't really believe that my girls performed in Carnegie Hall. So cool.

I was concerned that Holland would get restless and whiny, but we snuck in a couple of snacks, and she made it through okay. Actually I am just really grateful that we could take her. I was nervous that one of us would have to stay behind to watch her. At the concert hall in  Phoenix the age cut off is 8 years old, but at Carnegie Hall it is 4 years old. So lucky!

The concert was fabulous. The girls sang in four of the numbers. I think my favorite was "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Wow, it really blew me away. Seriously so amazing! 

They had an amazing soprano and violinist come play with them too. It was incredible. 

We feel so lucky to have had this experience. Once in a lifetime opportunity. We actually almost weren't able to do it. In all of our planning and packing and checking every detail, we left the girls security badges at home!! Fortunately we remembered this right at the beginning of the trip, and Erica saved the day by finding them in our house and mailing them to us at our rental in NJ. Thank Heavens!

The concert was very similar to the one that they did in April, especially the kids songs, but I was surprised at how many new numbers they did especially with the grand chorus. It was awesome! I don't know if I'll ever make it back to another performance at Carnegie Hall so I took lots of pictures. The one of above was of their poster advertising the concert. I can't believe that guy stood right in front of it for me and just smiled. Seriously man?!

  

We were able to pick up the kids for a little while between concerts and get them some food. We ate hummus, crackers, and pita chips in Central Park, which is surprisingly close to Carnegie Hall. We saw a wedding party who seriously all looked like models and chatted for a while with a couple who were so impressed they our kids ate so healthily. :) 

I couldn't resist taking a few photos of the girls in the park. 

After John and the girls went back to Carnegie to get ready for the next concert, my mom, Holland, and I walked around Central Park some more. We had to get a couple of coconut ice cream bars. Then we walked over to see the Manhattan Temple. It was pretty fun to see the Angel Moroni peaking through around all the skyscrapers. 

Pretty cool! It probably would have been a better experience, but Holland was super grumpy for some reason at that point. It made it pretty painful because she wanted me to carry her and I needed to push my mom in her chair. 

I shouldn't complain though, honestly we were so lucky that day. If we had been counting on viewing the evening concert instead of the afternoon concert we would have been disappointed. There was a freak power outage that started in the late afternoon and went for 5 hours! John was volunteering, and the girls were rehearsing when the power went out. That was when he took the little video of the singing in the dark. So cool. Unfortunately the power didn't get restored quickly. It was so sad that everyone had to be evacuated from the building, and they couldn't even grab their bags with all of their things to do in them. They were stuck on the street for a couple of hours before the conductors called it and released everyone to their families. This was stressful for John because he had 13 kids to keep track of just sitting on the streets of New York. It was insane. When the kids finally did get released I am so glad that no kids got lost because it certainly wasn't the orderly release that they normally do. The kids just left and found their parents.

I feel so bad for the families that sacrificed and paid a bazillion dollars to bring their whole families to New York, and not get to see them perform in Carnegie Hall. The only kind of cool thing about it was that they gave a somewhat impromptu performance outside of Carnegie Hall. It was all over the news and a ton people saw this choir sing songs about Christ. Kind of amazing. Unfortunately though there was no way to reschedule the concert. It was just a loss. So so sad. I am incredibly grateful that we happened to attend the afternoon concert. 

My mom, Holland, and I were over at the apartment where I was looking at the darker skyline and just stressing about keeping everyone safe and how my family was going to get back to us. They ended being able to take a bus down to Port Authority where they could take a bus back to Jersey, but it was still a bit stressful. Thankfully though everything worked out.