Carly's Baptism

There were a lot of special things about this little lady's baptism. 

First, a year ago she got a violin for her birthday and said that she was going to play "I Like to Look for Rainbows" on her violin for her baptism.  She started violin lessons from Melanie Bryant in September.  She worked really hard and improved so much.  We told her teacher about her goal in January, and she gave us another Primary song in D key that she could play.  I wasn't giving up that easy. My mom helped me figure out how to get the baptism song into the D key.  Then Carly practiced for months.  At her baptism, Grandma Carol played the piano while Carly played the violin. 

Carly also decided that she wanted Aunt Sarah to make her a baptism dress.  We sent her measurements to Sarah and she sewed her this beautiful dress that Carly loves.

Carly's baptism date was Sunday, May 1.  We got to church and there standing in the foyer of the church was our adopted grandma from Utah, Karma Albiston.  Martha and Sarah had been to Women's Week at BYU and while they were down there Martha had the idea (from the Holy Ghost she says) to invite Karma to ride home with them and then Karma could go back with my Mom and Dad.  After a few phone calls and facebook messages, it was all arranged.  

I was so surprised and I couldn't stop crying all the way through Sacrament Meeting.  I even bore my testimony about our adopted Grandma Karma and about Carly's baptism.  It was so great to have her come for Carly's special day.

My Mom and Dad were able to come to Canada to be with us, too.  On Saturday they got to watch Jill rope in a breakaway jackpot, and then come to Lethbridge to watch Hanna play in a basketball game.

Carly asked Hanna to give the talk on Baptism and Grandpa Randy to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Grandpa talked about things that comfort us like Ding Dongs (my Dad's favorite treat - Hostess chocolate covered cake with cream in the middle)  and blankets.  My Mom had crocheted this blanket for Carly to have to always remind her about the Holy Ghost as the Comforter. Carly's Bishop/Dad baptized and confirmed her.

Jill says that only the 4th child got special baptism invitations. Life is rough.

The day was perfect, and I am glad Carly made an eternal covenant with Heavenly Father.

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland!

We decided about a 1 1/2 years ago that we wanted to save up our money and go to Disneyland. So we saved our coins, U.S. birthday money, and our stall cleaning money so we could fly to California.

During spring break, we drove to Great Falls and flew to Los Angeles. We changed planes in Salt Lake, and we had just sat down and this young man stopped and handed us a small wad of money and said, "I am headed to boot camp and I can't take this with me."  He gave us $43. 

This was the first time Lucy and Carly had ever flown in an airplane. Jill did when she was 2 and Hanna and I had a few months ago when we went to Vancouver. They were all as excited to fly as they were to go to Disneyland. It was fun to watch them on our first take off and landing.

We landed in LA and were walking to the curb to find our shuttle, and Carly said, "This is like a city." We weren't in rural Alberta anymore:)  

Our hotel was about a mile from the entrance to Disneyland, so the next morning we walked down to begin our adventure.  Our favorite ride was Splash Mountain.  There were really a lot of people there. The lines were pretty long, but we had a really fun day. 

Carly had bought some new pens at Target in Great Falls so she could get autographs. On our first ride, they must have fallen out of Austin's pockets.  This is Carly feeling very sad about the lost pens.

The first day we stayed from opening to closing. The parade and fireworks are such a great way to end the day.

Day two we went to the California Adventure side of Disneyland. During the day, each kid said to me separately how much more they liked this park more than the Disneyland side.

Lucy was not impressed with the tower of terror. We offered her $100 to go on it again, and she refused.

We did go back to our hotel in the afternoon for a swim and for dinner.  Then we went back to watch the night water show.

Our adventure was short but fun!

Our shuttle driver back to the airport was from Jerusalem.  Our flight from Salt Lake back to Great Falls was a little bumpy from stormy weather. We were glad to land.  Going on vacation and visiting big cities is so fun, but we really love our small town life!

Hanna turned 15!

We celebrated Hanna's birthday a day early. We grilled steaks and had a delicious dinner. Carly dressed up in a costume to give Hanna a mini quilt she made for her birthday present. We had ice cream cake and Austin thought she wanted to wear it too. On her birthday we had sticky buns for breakfast. After school we went to rodeo academy.

Happy birthday Hanna!