Born again

We are still breaking out in smiles, remembering what a great week we had surrounding Cloudburst's baptism.  We don't have immediate family close by, and so we began planning this week sometime last year.  Thunder and I really wanted it to be special, and we were so happy that so many people were able to come!

Here you can see Papa (Thunder's dad), Sunshine, Uncle Robert, Aunt Jenny, Grandpa (my dad) and Grandma (my mom).

Here you can see Cloudburst, Grandma, Aunt Allie and Nana (Thunder's mom).

And here's Thunder.  Notice how he's not moving his left arm?  On Friday morning (the baptism was Saturday) he was weight lifting and blew out his chest muscle.  But more on that later.  We had people fly in from New York, California, Texas, Virginia and New Mexico.  We had such a great time just being together!

The day I picked up Grandpa, we had some time to kill until Grandma's flight arrived.  So we drove around Salt Lake City, visiting the apartment he lived in as a grad student, where me met my mom, and the church they got married in.  Well, at least we think it was the right church.  :-)  Thunder and I went to a BYU basketball with my parents.  It's been quite a year for them.

Once everyone arrived by Friday, we took Cloudburst out for a girl's afternoon.  Our fist stop was to Claire's where she got her ears pierced!  Both Grandmas were there and almost all of her aunts (we missed you Aunt Vicki!) so it was quite special.  She didn't cry and was so excited to pick out her new earrings.

While we were there we also got pedicures.  Girls day, right?

On Saturday morning we all made a mad dash for the showers to get all 13 people ready on time.

Cloudburst was beaming from ear to ear.  We had a very special service for her.  Grandma gave a talk, Aunt Jenny gave the opening prayer, I gave a talk and also sang a song I wrote just for the occasion, and Sunshine gave the closing prayer.  Thunder baptized Cloudburst.  I had both grandmas help with getting Cloudburst dressed after she got baptized.  Thunder and I both got a bit choked up, me during my song, and Thunder during the baptism.  It was such a neat feeling to have everyone there to support her.

And then it was off to eat!  We went to a restaurant called The Mayan, which has an awesome indoor jungle theme and cliff divers.  My Aunt and Uncle Soderquist, and my cousin with her children were able to join us.  It was so fun to see everyone seated at one big long table.

We also surprised my dad with a flaming cake- it was his birthday too!

Here are Nana and Papa.  It was a short trip for them and they missed us so much that Nana came back to visit us shortly after.  (Well, actually it's because by then our family was slowly falling apart from medical issues and it would have been hard to get through that next week without her!)

Here is my cousin with her kids.  I haven't seen her in a few years.

Playing around outside the restaurant...

That evening we rented a room at Noah's, which has rooms with wallyball courts, pool tables and places to hang out.  We let Cloudburst invite several friends and their families so we had quite a crew.

When Cloudburst turned 7, she decided to read the Book of Mormon all by herself, and she did it.  She has asked us a lot of questions, and made the decision herself to be baptized just like Jesus did.  We are so proud to be her parents.  We feel so lucky to have had so much support from family and friends.  We had an amazing week, and it all traces back to one special girl and her decision.