Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Monday

Monday morning we started sending people home.  The Party Van pulled out and then I drove Rachel, Brad & Devin to the airport.  After breakfast and time to pack, I drove Nick & Drea to the airport.  After that trip, our family and Dave and Atza met up for the Seattle Underground Tour.  It was really interesting!  

Goodbye Party Van!

Libby and I waited for the rest of the group at a fun toy store in Pioneer Square.  I had to take pictures of her with several things she is hoping to get for Christmas.  

Ben wasn't a fan of the smell of the underground tunnels (that used to be the sidewalks) of Seattle.  

It was really interesting to see the Seattle Underground.  

An original "Crapper." 

Enjoying our last few minutes with family.  

A rare moment downtown.  I almost never go downtown, so this was a fun outing for the kids.  

Everyone left.  Always kind of hard on me.  But, I didn't have time to dwell!  Towels, sheets, and floors to wash!  I may have yelled a few times at the kids during this process.  My new plan is to take the day off after vacation (or having guests visit us) so I can recover properly!

Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Saturday

Saturday started with a circuit workout with one of my clients.  Then, we had a birthday brunch.  We celebrated Sarah, Devin & Bryn.  Rachel and Brad made the Christmas eggs, so it felt like Christmas!

This sparkler candle added some excitement to the event.  Don't worry, I scooted those matches away before things went up in flames!

Sarah's new doll SCORED!  3 outfits and a car!  Sarah was also excited to get a locket so she has one like Libby.  

We normed our outfits for family pictures.  

We did some singing.

Then we had  shower for Drea!  She is expecting a boy in January.  We are so excited for grandchild #7.  

We had lunch together and sent to boys off to the Family Fun Center (and Derek to the Husky game) while we had a fun shower.  

Drea's diaper cake.  Many Randall poop jokes are written inside these cute little diapers.  We also played a word scramble, did a Nick and Drea pregnancy quiz that I made, decorated bibs, guessed how big around Drea's belly is, and tried to keep James from eating all the cookies.  (At least by the end he realized that he needed to eat at least one carrot for every cookie.)

Ben got to play Laser Tag too! They also played mini-golf, which apparently is not his best sport.  

After the shower, we did some CTR cookie decorating, Husky game watching, napping, and Libby gave a few lucky people pedicures.  Atza has some experience in this area since her mom used to own a nail shop.  So she gave Libby a pedicure too, to show her how it is done.  

After the Husky game, and some baked potato bar, Family Game night!  A rousing game of Catan Junior (really fun!) and Go Bling!  

Emily and Soren showing off their bling!

We finished the night with a long awaited DANCE PARTY!  The new LED lights I got for the ballroom have all kinds of fun light settings.  Add to those lights the flashing rings and glow wand things Uncle Davey got Libby for her birthday and we had a great dance party.  Dave did the DJing and we jammed.  My dad was watching from the sidelines and I could see him thinking--WOW!  All of these people are from ME.
The best quote from the weekend was during the dance party.  At first Ben was just watching.  He said, "You guys are being ridiculous!"  Then he disappeared.   He came back downstairs wearing a pair of pajama pants on each arm and one on his head.  He said, "I'M ABOUT TO GET RIDICULOUS!"

We went to bed exhausted but happy.  

Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Sunday

Sunday we had an amazing breakfast prepared by Atza and Dave.  Spanish Omelet.  Wow.  It was SO SO good.  I am still craving it!  Then church, family pictures, the baptism & the after baptism dinner.  It was a tight schedule.  Add to that the fact that our poor photographer got rear ended on I-5 just 2 hours before our scheduled photo shoot!   Miraculously it all came together.  Only the party van was late for the baptism because they forgot James at home, and then took a wrong turn.  (Don't worry, we waited for them).  There were over 100 people there!  It was a full house!

Sarah loving her day!

 Having fun with Family pictures!

Derek and Sarah.  So happy!

Grammy and Grandpa Norton flew back from Boise that morning so they could be there for the baptism.  

Norton/Barretts.  We are so blessed to have so much family around!

Sarah with Auntie Maren (who also flew back that morning to be there for the baptism).

Uncle Clarkie!

Sister McEachern has been Sarah's primary teacher for a few years.

Sarah's other Grandparents.  

Sarah drew this picture for her baptism cover.  I wish I had scanned the full original for the blog.  It had Jesus' baptism written at the top (J backward) and a surfer on the wave just to the right of John the Baptist.  It was epic.  

Grandma had this picture drawn by Roccio (a 2nd cousin) for Sarah.  Isn't it fun!
It looks like Sarah so much!

It's over!  Feet up!

Zonking out!  (Dave's friends Anna and Ben joined us for several things this weekend).  

Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Thursday & Friday

Sarah's Baptism Weekend was spectacular!  I prepared and prepared and prepared, and for the most part, things went off without a hitch.  But I was exhausted!  It is tough to steer a ship of 20 people.  But spending time with my family was totally worth the effort.  I hung copies of the schedule all over the house.  If we were going to accomplish everything we planned, we had to stay on schedule.  And for the most part we did.

Rachel and Devin were the first to arrive.  This cute young man is so much fun.  I spent the weekend alternately missing this stage in my kids' lives and being SO GLAD that I am done with it!  Devin didn't get much sleep, so neither did Rachel or Brad.  I don't miss that!

Sister Selfie!

Devin got to walk to school to pick up the kids!

We have developed this strategy to help keep the cup wasting to a minimum.  Everyone has a cup with his/her name on it that they are supposed to use all weekend.  This worked more or less.  Drea wins the prize for using her cup the most and never losing it!

Ben was fascinated with the baby chair.  He wanted to eat in the chair.  

Devin slept in Ben's room.  We were worried that someone might forget he was napping and walk in and wake him.  (I was worried about myself forgetting!)  So Libby made these amazing signs.  Can you tell that her teachers (last year and this year) feel that spelling tests are a waste of time?  (Urgh!)

James (the 3 year old) doesn't read, however, and he managed to wake Devin once by barging in to play with Ben's toys.   

The Randall Party van (or Captain Soren's Party Van) arrived on Thursday night.  On Friday afternoon we took Sarah to the Alderwood Mall to (finally) get her American Girl Doll.  I am way to cheap to buy anything but the doll there.  But the dolls really do have better hair than the knock offs.  Clothes and everything else comes from somewhere cheaper!  Sarah picked Josephina.  Somehow I didn't get a picture of that.  But I did take some of the amazing American History Legos displayed throughout the mall.  We visited all of them so that the girls could get the prize from the Lego store (a super lame poster).  

Then the kids went swimming at the hotel with Bryn, Brian, Grandpa & Derek.  My mom and I worked on prep for the next couple of days.  

AHHHH!  A hot tub!