In San Antonio for Rea’s baptism

And my mom was here to come along. It was a great visit. She came for one week and stayed for two. Of course, it wasn’t long enough but it was wonderful. After she came, we went and saw a re-release of “Wizard of Oz”. It was showing in the theater for a one-night special. Mom came with Rob, Kyr & me as well as Tyler and Emma which was a real treat. She watched much of it pretty stoically except for the crazy laughter at anything the Cowardly Lion did and the shock & awe over the Horse of Many Colors. It almost made me cry, it was so sweet. Unfortunately, the theater had many a technical issue so we ended up leaving before the very end but it was fun.

Kyrie also had a chance to go to the Herd Museum with my mom and Terri’s family. I’ll post more pictures on my Picasa Web Album soon but I just loved this one too much to pass it up.

Mom rode down with Terri’s family since she was coming back with us. We had a great time down there. It was a full house with us, Terri & family, Mom, and Josh’s parents, Rene & Norman. It was fun. Rob & I slept in a tent in the back yard.

Rea’s baptism was wonderful. She looked so lovely in white. It was a very intimate baptism. It was all the family, the bishopric member & the Primary president. I played the piano & Kyr led the music. It was so nice. Rea’s two grandmas gave the two talks. Her Grandma Rene started a lovely tradition of giving the talk from a chair pulled right up in front of the lucky about-to-be-baptized grandchild. She did it with Joshua too and now my mom’s jumped on that bandwagon.

Here’s Mother Teresa (aka Grandma) hanging with some grandbabies. (I think Violet’s making the “in the know” Mafia signal. Or maybe just trying to pick her nose.)

We went for some family shots afterwards. Here’s one of the millions that were taken. Terri even let me borrow her sweet baby, Violet!

After the fun at the church, we headed back home to get ready for the birthday party for Rea. (She got baptized on her birthday like Kyr did.) I will definitely be posting some fun pictures from that and I really hope I can figure out how to do the video because there is some deeply embarrassing stuff that I captured. And speaking of embarrassing things captured on film, here’s Hatty with her dad.

Here’s Rea opening her baptism/8th birthday blanket from me. It’s something I’m doing as a tradition for my nieces & nephews.

Since my mom arranged to stay an extra week, she wanted to spend some extra time with Leslie. She stayed a couple of extra days and then I came back down to pick up her & Kyr (who also stayed). It was a fun day of driving since it’s about 5-1/2 hours each way. It’s fun to have a full day of driving every now and then. On the way home, we got a bit of a startle, though.

Right as I was looking to the direct front, the Carter Express truck on the right, moved over to the lane and we saw what looked like a truck heading right for us. It was all in just perfect timing to make me jump pretty bad while my brain registered that it must be being towed…which is was. Ha, ha!

It was so wonderful to have my mom here…and not just because she spent hours & hours organizing my insanely out-of-control hobby room for me. (I swear Kyrie & I both offered to help many times but were refused.) I loved spending time with her and did especially appreciate her help with something that I really struggle with. And completely independent of her slave labor, I am so thankful to have a mom as loving and wonderful as she is. It doesn’t matter how old I get, it feels so good to get to be her daughter and have her be my mom.

Next time…Kyrie & Felicity’s wild birthday party.