Baptism

Nathan was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Oct 8th. We were so lucky to have so many family members come into town for the big evens: Charity and her 4 kids, Brittney and her 4 kids, Corbin, Grandpa and Grandma Dick and Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen. The program went as follows: Conducting: Bishop Shawn Pearce Chorister: Andrea Sorensen Pianist: Charity Brooks Opening Song: My Body is a Temple Opening Prayer: Rick Sorensen Talk on Baptism: Grandma Dick Baptism of Nathan by his dad, Sean Dick Musical Number: When I Am Baptized sung by Ben and Megan Dick Talk on The Holy Ghost: Caelan Dick Confirmation of Nathan by his dad, Sean Dick Welcome by Primary: Amber Pearce Welcome to the Ward: Bishop Shawn Pearce Closing Song: I Love to See the Temple Closing Prayer: Mike Dick We had root beer floats for a treat. Then we went home and had smoked brisket and the fixings. He has been so excited for this day, and he was so happy to have so many family and friends there to share it with him.

Balloon Fiesta

While family was here for Nathan's baptism we wanted to let them experience the ABQ Balloon Fiesta which was going on the same week they were all here. We got up early Saturday morning and headed into town. After waiting in long car lines for a while we decided to just park on a side street and walk the rest of the way. We got there and the kids wandered around. We waited and waited and waited. No balloons. It was a bit overcast and so they weren't getting the green light to launch. Finally (just when we thought they were going to cancel the launch for the morning) the clouds lifted just enough to get the green light. It was so late by this time, however, and there still was some cloud coverage, so only about 40-50 balloons actually went up. All the visitors still were impressed. We were bummed out because for a good Mass Ascension there will be close to 500 balloons that go up. But we made the best of it and started back to the car. It started to sprinkle as we walked back and once we got to our cars the skies opened and it poured and thundering and lightning shot across the sky. It was awesome. We had to hurry because we had to rush to 3 soccer games. Good thing we left when we did.

Score Another Goal

Nathan is playing soccer again. His coach last season (also a good friend of ours) recommended that we request to have Nathan play up an age group. When it came time for registration I decided to keep him at his own age group. I thought it would be nice to have him be a strong player with some of these younger kids, and also then I could ref a U8 team (as opposed to a U10 team). He has been playing like a champ all season. He won the first game, but have had mostly losses since then, but not because of Nathan. He is definitely the highest scorer in the game. In fact during one game they were up by one and then during the 3rd quarter when he had to sit out (all the kids have to take a turn usually once each game) they fell behind by 4 goals. He tried hard, but just could not make up those goals during the 4th quarter. During another game they did fall behind during the second quarter (by 4 again - Nathan was sitting out), but they came back with a vengeance in the 3rd quarter and were tied again. Nathan had to sit the 4th quarter (every so often they have to sit twice depending on if every kid is there, and our coaches set up line up far before the game happens). Those boys played so hard, Nathan was screaming his head off from the side lines and we ended the game in a tie. We were satisfied with that!

Cub Scouts

One of the most exciting part about Nathan turning 8 years old was that now he could go to Cub Scouts. He has been looking forward to starting Cub Scouts for months. In fact for the past several months he has been begging me each Tuesday to stay at the church after we drop off the other kids for their activities so that he can hang out there with friends. On the days we aren't staying he begs me to leave him there with Ben. At the beginning of September we were finally at count down time - "only 4 more Tuesdays until you get to go to Scouts on your own," "only 3 more weeks and then you'll be a Cub Scout," etc. It was almost a dream come true his first day. And he ended up being the only Wolf there because there is only one other boy that is 8 (he has 2 friends moving up soon in a couple months)and he only makes it about 1/4 of the time. Bro. Valenzuela and Bro. Clements are his leaders.