Dallan-What a Blessing!!!

We blessed Dallan in Beaver last week and it was great! We were able to see so much family and spend some time with them. It was a pretty quick trip but we were still able to do quite a bit in the shout time we were there. We flew into Salt Lake on Thrusday. Mark's mom flew in at almost the same time as us so we got a rental car to share. We met up with Mark's brother, Neal then had to run a few errands to get some things for the blessing dinner. We then drove down to Beaver. When we pulled up to my parents' house Mason's cousins were there to greet him and he was thrilled to see them and couldn't wait to go outside and play. I can't even describe how good it was to be home and see everyone. I know it hasn't been that long since we saw everyone but it is different knowing you CAN'T see or visit.

Basically Mark's whole family came to the blessing. They all live so far apart that it is rare to get together. On Saturday the guys drove to Provo to the BYU game. The cougars won -a miracle ;). Mark loved spending time with his brothers and nephews. I stayed in Beaver with our boys since they are too little to enjoy a whole football game and adding 4 more hours of travel to our weekend just didn't sould good at all. So me and the boys had a blast just hanging out playing outside (we can't do this in DC) and swimming in Grandma Graff's hotel pool.

The actual blessing was great. I was pretty nervous that Dallan would cry through the whole thing since he was wide awake and surrounded by an army of men. He didn't make a single sould though. Even Mason was good through Dallan's blessing. Dallan is so blessed to be surrounded by so many priesthood holders. It was touching to see so many men supporting and blessing my baby. Plus, considering that Dallan is over 4 months old, and huge for his age, I'm sure Mark appreciated the physical support they gave as he was trying to hold Dallan through the blessing.

After the blessing we had a big dinner. Man, I don't know what I would do without my mom! I didn't do a single thing as far as planning or preparing for this dinner and we had about 100 people there. Thank you so much to everyone who brought salads, desserts, and everything else. I am reminded again and again of how great family is. We had such a good time just visiting with everyone. After the dinner we all went over to my parents' house and hung out in the backyard. All the nieces and nephews loved playing around, the guys loved checking out the cars, and the girls just hung out visiting with each other.

We had to leave the next morning and it was hard to say bye but we had such a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who came and to those who helped with the dinner. We love you all and hope to see you again around Christmas!