Aubrey's Baptism and Sara's dance Competition

We've had a lot of things going on but I have failed in the photo department so I will just talk about each event and when I finally snag some pictures I will add them.

Aubrey's Baptism

My darling little niece Aubrey was baptized on May 21st. A lot of family came in from out of town and so both my home and Karen's home were filled with fun visitors. We had my parents, my sister Cindy and her two boys, and my sister in law Rachel, and Karen had our Great Grandma Brown and Aunt Penny. Ryan's parents (Karen's husband) and Sister stayed at a local resort. As family arrived, we celebrated Aubrey's birthday swimming at the clubhouse and eating yummy cupcakes. We also had several meals together and enjoyed visiting with one another. I can get Grandma to talk for hours if we go into politics or health care. All in all we had a lot of fun.

On Aubrey's baptism day we had a special service as a family. I gave a talk on baptism, the cousins all sang "I like to look for rainbows" and my mom talked about the Holy Ghost. Ryan baptized and confirmed Aubrey and the Bishop shared a few words at the end. The spirit was so strong that I struggled to get through my message. Just before I had to speak I had a very strong impression that the room was filled with several unseen guests. That her Grandparents who had recently passed away, her sister Jenny and her cousins Josh and Junior were all there. It was a special day. I am grateful to have been a part of it.

Sara's Dance Competition
On Saturday May 28th we drove up to Scottsdale for Sara's second ballroom dance competition. I had planned to take the small car in order to save on gas, but it started shaking as soon as I got on the freeway, so I ended up switching cars with Chad at the hospital.

We arrived at the resort around 12:45pm and waited for the first heat of competition. Sara's first dance was the Waltz. She danced with Jim from her class and ended up placing 1st. After an hour and a half wait Sara had her second dance "the ChaCha" with another little boy named Ben; they took 3rd. And for her last dance, the Jive, she was partnered up with Jim again and together they took 2nd place. Sara's ballroom group performed the Hip Hop ChaCha number they have been working on this year "Fire Burning" and took first place in the group category.

At the end of the day, Sara left with several medals and a smile a mile wide. The first year that we attended this competition, Sara didn't place in any events. She has come a long way in the last year and I can't wait to see where she goes in the future if she decides to stick with it. Great job baby girl.