Fireside

Like a lot of families who found themselves confined to their homes and yards during lockdown, Brent and I made a lot of improvements. We spent weeks pruning, weeding, mulching and ripping out trash trees. Over the years we've been using the fire pit more and more but we had it in tip top shape by the time everyone came into town. After a delicious dinner of Lou Malnati's pizza (the BEST!), we invited everyone outside.

As a family, we read the entire Book of Mormon whenever one of the girls is baptized. This time around we made the decision to save the very last chapter, Moroni 10, for when the entire family was in town. We gathered around the fire pit and per tradition, starting with Brigitta, everyone read a verse. The Spirit settled on us as we read those wonderful promises that if we read and pray, we will know if this is true. I knew that our little family was in need of some edification, but it became clear that everyone gathered around the fire pit needed it too. 

By the time we finished the chapter, Brent had the fire up and running and we had lots and lots of supplies for s'mores. We brought out the Echo and put on some oldies music which was fun to have in the background. 

I have no idea what I'm laughing about in this picture but I'm standing by my sisters so that's par for the course. 

Love those ladies.

Whitney really attracts mosquitos for some reason and even though she brought her own repellant device (you can see it there on the edge of the fire pit), she still got some nasty bites. Memo to me, memo to me, fog the area around the fire pit next time!

There's something about the glow of a fire that makes everyone look so lovely.

This was our first time meeting Reagan's boyfriend Doug. As he is a man who constantly asks, "How can I help?" we quickly became big fans.

Joey is always keen to look out for someone who might be left out so he and Ireland formed The Glasses Gang. She snuggled up to him while her sisters played and chatted with cousins. 

Time with Julie is always time well spent.

We were hoping to have the trampoline installed. Ok, honestly we were hoping to get Doug to help us install the trampoline while he was here, but it was backordered. The little ones still had fun playing with giant bubbles so it turned out ok.

Julie took some of these amazing photos.

Twighlight turned to night...

...and we finally stopped stoking the fire and let it die out while people headed inside.

Somehow the evening evolved into Tik Tok dances:

And Hamilton sing-alongs:

Heaven help the man that Sydney marries. If he can't grow a decent beard, I don't know what she's gonna do! She set up camp around Doug and I saw her constantly rubbing his beard, just like she does with Brent's.

Eventually she snuck off with Rockwell to read together.

The evening was just magical and set the tone for a beautiful baptism the next morning.