The First Step On the Covenant Path

On Saturday, Topher was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's been looking forward to this day for many years. It was wonderful.

Bryan performed the ordinance.

I think it's really special that Bryan has baptized all five of our children.

There were programs here at the beginning of the baptism, but I didn't take a picture until the end. Was I this prepared and organized to bring a lovely tablecloth and potted olive branches? Nope, these were in the foyer, so we borrowed them for the baptism.

I took these pictures before the baptism started. By the time we began it was really standing room only. The chairs are facing the baptismal font. When the ordinance was over, we all relocated to the chapel because we had overrun this room. It made my heart happy that so many people wanted to be there to support Topher.

We're thankful that Bryan's parents were able to be at Topher's baptism. Not only that, but they gave a really wonderful talk about the Holy Ghost. And they had made goodie bags for all the kids in attendance that directly connected to their talk. It was amazing.

This tie and the tie bar were gifts from a family in our ward who attended the baptism. Their oldest son, who is in Bryan's primary class, was one of the witnesses for Topher's baptism. Both witnesses were primary boys that are just a little older than Topher that he looks up to.

Topher tried so hard to be extra kind and helpful the rest of the day. That included helping Papa Ron carry the trash from the church out to the dumpster when we had finished cleaning up.

Topher insisted that we take one more picture when we got home. "We need to take a family picture with all of us in front of the fireplace, now that we're all baptized."

Topher, thank you for making this wonderful choice to be baptized! We love you!

Fun at the Fest

While Cooper was at prom, Topher and Sophie were at our elementary school's annual fun fest. There were several inflatable bouncy houses and games and a DJ running a dance party. Topher spent most of his time on the school playground with friends. Sophie debated if she was too old to attend, but she came at the last minute. She quickly found a friend who needed someone to hang out with.

Have Your Picture Took*

Friday evening Cooper went to his senior prom with his lovely friend Delaney.

His prom-posal included roses and a box of donuts.

One challenge was finding both the right color suit and the right color tie. His date wanted to keep her dress a surprise. Her mom showed me and the girls a picture a few weeks ago, but we were having trouble remembering exactly what we'd seen. Thankfully, she texted me a picture when I promised not to show it to Cooper. We ordered four ties from Amazon and one of them worked!

Even though he went with a group, Cooper drove himself and his date. That meant he needed his in-house tech support to connect his phone to the Bluetooth in the car he doesn't usually drive.

The group decided to meet at a university about five minutes from the prom venue for pictures. I drove separately and got to play photographer. I think Cooper looked quite dapper and his date looked beautiful.

These girls did not coordinate their dress selections. I guess the southern belle look is in right now.

Now that prom is over, Cooper is one step closer to graduation...

*Name that musical, without Googling it.

Seize the Day

Sophie had her spring orchestra/chorus concert. She was the second chair violin in orchestra and has come a long way since she started. For the chorus portion of the evening, the sang the opening solo for Seize the Day. My friend, whose daughter is the sweet redhead who sand at the mic a little later in the song, took this video and shared it with me. I think she sounds great!

Bonus, Bryan's parents arrived at our house a few hours before the concert and were able to attend!

Just Voices

We interrupt this wedding recap for a few concert posts!

On Tuesday, in an act of school-night bedtime defiance, we took our kids to see BYU's a cappella groups Vocal Point and Noteworthy in concert! We drove an hour toward Philadelphia to watch their touring performance. It was such a fun night!

A wonderful bonus was running into my friend Danika from our MBA days.

This is Sterling, the beatboxer for Vocal Point. He was amazing. AMAZING! Topher was really impressed. He talked about doing his own beatboxing and Sterling asked for a demonstration. Topher felt a little overwhelmed at first, but he beatboxed a bit. Sterling was sweet and encouraging and told Topher to keep at it.

Phoebe loved talking to the singers from Noteworthy. She told them that she's auditioning for her school's a cappella group, which is also called Noteworthy. They were so supportive and gave her one of their posters for good luck. Then they made sure that every member of both groups signed it! She said it was the best day of her life.

Peter and Cooper got to meet the director for Vocal Point and Peter shared that Cooper wants to audition for Vocal Point after his mission. In keeping with the pattern that had been established by all our exchanges to that point, the director was kind and encouraging.

It was a great evening!

Oh So Fancy

On the day of the wedding, the girls and I joined the other women in the family for hair and makeup. Initially I had only singed Phoebe and Sophie up to get their hair done and Phoebe for makeup. Sophie was so sad to be left out, especially when she saw her younger cousins get their makeup done. I quietly asked the makeup artist if we could add Sophie to the list. She said yes. When I told Sophie she was shocked and thrilled. At the last minute, I added myself too. So we all left much fancier than when we arrived.

I had planned to just wear my hair straight, but after spending the day watching other people get curled and coifed, I realized I needed to up my game. Bryan's sisters came to my rescue and let me borrow their curling iron and flat iron. Then Bryan's sister Kate curled the back of my hair while I curled the front. I felt like it came together.

While we did all of this, Bryan and the boys went to the park and tried to wear Topher out. Spoiler: he still had plenty of energy for the festivities that night! When we got back to the hotel, they were all getting into their Sunday best.

And with that, we were ready to go to the wedding!

Sightseeing and Costume Changes

After our very late (or very early) arrival, the girls went off to a bridal luncheon

and the boys went to visit a Battleship.

Not to be left out, when the luncheon was over Phoebe, Sophie, Kate and I went to the Battleship too, at least the exterior.

We saw alligator tracks, but no actual alligators. I'm very okay with that.

Here's a closer look.

Then we walked through the quaint downtown area near our hotel. We found a bookstore!

Then we got all fancy and went to the rehearsal dinner where sweet things were said about Bryan's brother Paul and Paul's fiancé. We ate some food too.

Fun (and some mild exhaustion) was had by all.

One Last Time

We had a whirlwind trip down to North Carolina last week for Bryan's brother Paul's wedding! It was wonderful to see family that we haven't seen in ages and the wedding was lovely. Also, after nearly twenty hours in the car for the roundtrip, we're all still exhausted. Hopefully I'll get a bunch of pictures up soon of the adventure. 

But for today, I'll share this picture of Cooper's last track meet of high school. We delayed leaving for the wedding until after he had finished his race on Wednesday afternoon. That means we arrived at our hotel at 5:00 in the morning on Thursday, with the first wedding activity (the rehearsal) starting at 9:00 that morning (but only for Bryan and Topher since they participated in the wedding).

Hopefully we were all coherent that day.

For his final event, Cooper ran the 3200M, the two-mile run. He finished sixth and ran a 10:44. It's amazing how much he improved since starting just over a year ago.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

Just over two weeks ago, Cooper submitted his mission papers. On Monday evening at about 8:00, his call came! 

I asked Cooper if he wanted to open the call in front of people or on his own. He said yes to people, so we sent out texts with a Google Meet link so family could watch him open it. Then we sent messages to local friends and invited anyone from church and seminary to join us in person. People started showing up around 8:45 with the plan that he would read it at 9:00. By 9:15 the last people had arrived and logged on. Topher had already gone to sleep for the night, but we knew he would be so sad to miss this, so we woke him up. 

Bryan recorded the call and I took a shorter video of Cooper opening his call.

He's going to Juiz de Fora, Brazil! He'll speak Portuguese and go to the Brazil MTC. He starts on September 23. This call is extra special because Cooper's mission borders where Bryan served his mission in Rio de Janeiro. In fact, Bryan was looking at the mission boundaries and it looks like they've been redrawn since he was there. There's a chance that Cooper will serve in some of the same places Bryan served.

Cooper is really excited! And it was so special to have people show up to support him when he opened his call, both virtually and in-person.