Summer-cousin time

Ryan, Annie, and Megan did a session of swim lessons once school got out. They all improved by leaps and bounds. Ryan got good enough at freestyle to do side breathing, Annie picked up backstroke real quick and started learning breast stroke, and Megan went from working on strong kicking with sandwich hands to swimming with big arms and being able to take 4ish strokes, take a breath, then take 4 more strokes, and repeat several times. She can swim all on her own about 15 feet now (not super great form, but moving through the water and taking breaths).

Todd and Eloise were able to come into town for McKenzie's baptism. It was good to see her get baptized.

 We missed the other Knights that couldn't make it this time, though.

 The cousins all sang "the rainbow song" also known as "When I am Baptized" and did a great job.

 After the baptism we went out for lunch at Eegees, per McKenzie's request, then headed to the pool (without even waiting a half hour after we ate!). We went to Quincy Douglas Pool, which has a splash area in the beach entry area, a splash pad, and a big slide.

 The kids all had a lot of fun. Except when I convinced Ryan to go on the slide, then traumatized him by sending him down the slide when he wasn't ready. He yelled at me the whole way down.

 We had to pull out the waterproof camera to cheer him up.

The next day we celebrated Peyton's 7th birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

From McKenzie to Peyton we've got 4 girls turning 8 within just over a year: McKenzie, then Annie, then Eloise, then Petyon. It's fun to have cousins so close.

After Eloise and Todd had to go back home, Rachel and Annie participated in a drama club my friend, Karolee put on for that next week. They met a couple hours every day and by Saturday had a series of skits/plays ready to perform. Unfortunately Annie was sick off and on for several days that week and missed out on some of the fun. And she was SO sad to miss it. It was really fun for her. But she was feeling better for the performance and they all did a great job.

 Annie was the sign man for the Rocket Man skit, and Rachel was one of the Engineers back in Houston.

 It was a funny skit.

They did some other nursery rhyme sketches, and a big play with everyone called Rockin' Robin.

 It turned out great. It was also a fundraiser for Jessica Schillinger, Karolee's neighbor whose one-year-old baby was born with bad kidneys. He's been on dialysis since he was born and has to travel up to Phoenix so often for hospital stays and treatments. He's old enough for a kidney transplant now, but waiting to be healthy enough for one.

 She was able to come to the play and feel everyone's love and prayers for her. And the kids were able to help raise a lot of money to help her family out.

Speaking of prayers, the LDS members in Arizona were asked to fast and pray for rain for Arizona on the first Sunday of June. We did, and the kids did a great job at remembering and reminding us to pray for rain every time we prayed for weeks. As the week of drama club was wrapping up, a storm system moved in and was projected to rain all day Friday and Saturday. Karolee had everyone pray that the rain would hold off in our area long enough for the performance to go forward. It rained good on Friday, and on Saturday there were lots of rain clouds. During the performance we could tell it was raining in town, but we stayed dry. Then as we drove home afterwards the rain drops started falling. It was a double-decker faith builder for the kids and all of us. It never rains that early in June, almost always waiting until the end of June for monsoons to start. But it did. And looking at the doppler radar, our area of town was like a donut with rain all around. I'm glad Karolee had the faith to ask the kids to pray for that, so the show could go on, and they could have that faith building experience to know that God answers prayers, and cares about what we care about. Sometimes he is just waiting for us to ask.