Book of Mormon Marathon

Well now what was I thinking?!!!
It all sounded sooooo good!
Jonathan downloaded the Book of Mormon from www.lds.org onto our computer and we played it on our computer so that we could all hear it. We played it at an accelerated speed with the goal of getting through the entire BofMormon in one day. We started at exactly 7am and I finished as the sole survivor at 1am. Actually on the second computer, they finished earlier and then started it over again and put it on the slowest speed as a test to see how long it would take to go at the slowest speed. They made it through the introduction in one hour and then gave up :)

It was our family throughout the day with Alee trying to hang in there, too. And then we had about 18 people total spend some amount of time visiting and "reading" with us. It was fun at times, challenging at times and definitely fulfilling.

I am not sure why the inspiration came about 8 weeks ago. I think a conversation with my Dad gave me the idea. I will let my family add their comments on their experiences and on how this all began for us( the California Ellsworth Clan). But it has become somewhat of a tradition in my Dad's (Grandpa Ellsworth) ward and stake.
It seems like there were a couple times when there was a very nice peace in the house. We do have a 2 year old running around so that kept things interesting.

There was pretty much the same reaction in the first hour as if we were watching conference. (Several naps when no visitors were around for the kids to interact with)

Pictures (in the first hour): On the Kitchen floor-Michael, On the couch with hand on face-Jonathan, Toddler-Kathryn-wide awake, on couch nestled with book-Christian, on couch ready to run for the door-Alee


Things I think I would change:
1) I would have the food in another room
2) I would encourage more people to come. That makes it more fun
3) I might even start earlier so that if a break has to happen, the marathon can still end at a reasonable hour
4) I might even have a chart for each person to mark off the chapters as we go