Natalie is 8!

The big news of today is that it is Natalie's Birthday! 

And she turned 8 years old! And that means she can get baptized! She's a lucky girl, because not many 8 year olds get to be baptized on their birthday! But Natalie's 8th birthday fell on the Saturday, so yippe! 

Yesterday when we left Lake Tahoe, we prayed that the cars would work and that we'd make it back in time for our baptism deadline. Ready to check out:

Wesley drove Corey's car and they didn't crash and die, so good. Wesley was happy to get in some hours behind the wheel.

We arrived last night at 8, with time to unload the bikes, clear out the cars and unpack. Today we were up and ready to go for her baptism. 

I told Natalie to get a picture with Corey. Peter joined them, he's so cute.

One of Corey and our birthday girl.

Ethan was able to phone in for just a minute to say hi, and Joseph, Mel, and Hyrum were able to watch the baptism service over messenger video. They are so proud of you, Natalie!

We've been teaching Natalie that baptism is a covenant and promise between her and God. When I was in the changing room with her afterward, she said "I forgot to say my promise when I went in the water!!!" I tried to say "It's ok, you don't have to say it, God knows... it's not your words, it's the act of being baptized that is the promise..." but before I got to any of that, she said "But it's ok, cause I just said a prayer and told God my promise." I thought that was cute. She is a very special little girl and we love her.

A rare photo of both sets of grandparents together!

Back at home, we had cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you!"

Natalie shook her head as she blew out her candles, in an effort to blow the flames out faster, but it didn't work.

Opening gifts from grandparents. 

It was a special day. We spent the rest of the day just letting kids relax and play, and we unpacked and tried to clean up a bit. Abi and Wes are leaving for EFY on Monday, so we ran a few errands for them. Abi went to a friend's house and accidentally dropped her phone in their pool. She was picking up her towel but it was in her towel and it flipped into the water, so sad. That is too bad for her. We put a low heat hair dryer to that, we'll see tomorrow if it survived. It's in a bag of rice right now. Wes is still working on homework, although he didn't get much done during Lake Tahoe. I hope he finishes.