Emma's Birthday Dinner 2008

Church was interesting as speculation and gossip was proved to be untrue. Neal was not released. Instead, he had called a new counselor. Fred Stamps is now his second counselor and Evan Van Orman is now his first Counselor.

The Stake called Charles Forcht to be the Melchizedek PH Leader. His counselors are Joe DeCamp and Keith Stewart.

After church we worked on computer stuff until 4:15 when it was time to head for Washington for Emma's birthday dinner.

We had hoped to see Teresa and the kids but they were unable to come. Dennis and Jackie had decided to take a trip to the coast and Gr. Grandma decided to stay at home.

It was nice and quiet at Don's and Gaylynne's so I had the opportunity to have some one on one time with each of the kids.

Being the oldest and quite responsible, Courtney had been given her Dad's old palm. She was enjoying it very much. She played the piano for me and taught me how to play Lemmings.

Dayton was mostly concerned with the presents. He's talking quite a bit now and is just the sweetest little boy.

I love how the camera caught his tongue in this photo.



I let Melanie take the camera outside and she took these photos.

This is the little fairy that Grandma Coates bought the day Neal took her shopping after a Dr. appointment.

The house was decorated from the party yesterday.

I have no idea what Miss Courtney is thinking about so seriously.

The table was packed with wonderful food. Don's potato salad and Gaylynne's jello salad were wonderful. We were all quite stuffed after the hamburgers. Yummy!

Then it was time for presents. Look how the camera caught Emma jumping. Cool!

Dayton thought that it was his birthday. Well, he didn't think that really, he just wanted to claim a couple of the gifts.

Courtney made this really wonderful pop-up birthday card.

Here is Emma with all her gifts. She is holding the computer game we gave her and on the floor you can see Great Grandma's baby dish. It is close to 100 years old. Don and Gaylynne seemed very touched by this gift.

It was truly a Tinkerbell birthday wasn't it? There were a few more gifts that didn't manage to get into the photo like the great clothes that Far Away Grandma had bought for her.

Gaylynne did a nice job on this cute birthday cake.

Dayton wanted to help Emma with the candles and she didn't mind a bit.

In the end, though, she took a great big breath and blew out all 5 of the candles. It was a wonderful evening. Thanks Gaylynne and Don.