Rebekah's Baptism

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend our niece Rebekah's baptism. Even better was the fact that Aaron was given the opportunity to confirm her. 

Rebekah with her Uncle Jim (who baptized her) and Uncle Aaron (who confirmed her)

Mary gave a really great talk on the Holy Ghost. I thought that she did a great job of being insightful on a level that was accessible to both Rebekah and adults. One thing she said that really hit home with me was that she remembers at her baptism how her mom was trying to explain to her what the Holy Ghost felt like. Mom Blood said that Mary could think of it as the feeling she gets when she sat on her Dad's lap. That comparison to feeling safe and secure as a child on your Dad's lap really hit home to me, especially thinking about young Mary and my incredibly tender-hearted father-in-law. 

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Mary and the kids. 

I was totally juggling dirt clods in the background to get the kids to laugh while taking family pictures

Meanwhile, Elliot was busy overcoming his fear of slides

It was more than a little adorable

The lightning progression from "terrified of big slides" to "going down headfirst with cousins" was striking.
A few days later, we had a series of slide mishaps at our local park that effectively eliminated all his progress. 

We drove up the following weekend for Rebekah's birthday party. We also participated in great chats with Mary and a trip to the temple. 

Elliot and Eli. Elliot gets really excited about drinking "Eli's milk," which is just the same as regular milk but drunk from one of Eli's bottles

Birthday girl

 I was in charge of games, so the kids played pokemon themed duck, duck, goose, pokemon themed fruit, blob tag, sharks & minnows, and sardines (they really sucked at sardines). Rebekah's dad did a fun scavenger hunt that was a huge success. 

Very high energy party

Elliot playing with Flubber. The Bears have super fun stuff and Elliot never wants to leave!

I'm going to throw these pictures into this post too. We spent a day with Mary when we got home from West Virginia because we flew in and out of Phoenix. That makes 3 Mary visits in one month, so we are definitely best friends now. Anyway, Mary has a friend who has several naval orange trees in his yard. He let us come pick some. It was super fun, and those oranges were SO. GOOD. 

Very willing to scramble up a tree to reach gigantic, delicious oranges

This was before I accidentally dropped an orange on his head from up in my tree perch