Tuesday the 16th of February was a special day for Brigham! It was his real birthday. We woke him up with fireworks outside his window and then served him breakfast in bed. We had to go to the restaurant for a few hours and then we went out to lunch and came home to play football and then we went skating. I was sooooo sore the next day. I used muscles I haven´t used in a long time.
Friday was the begining of a crazy weekend. After I taught my english classes we prepared for a campout. We invited Monkeys family to come from the city, The whitney family and another homeschooling family that the whitneys introduced us to. The first Guatemalan homeschoolers we´ve met. They are the pioneers for Guatemala. We also invited Rodolfo and Melva´. Also a bunch of neighbors. Some we invited couldn´t come and some we didn´t invite came, but we had about 40 people. It was super fun. We roasted hotdogs and made smores and then the girls camped out in the house and the boys slept in tents outside. The challenge was making enough pancakes for everyone the next morning but the teenage girls helped me out a lot.
The neighbors all went home at about noon and we took a few families to the restaurant for pizza. Then we rushed back home just in time for the birthday party. We invited a few of the neighbors to his party and word got out. We ended up with half the village at our house I think. It was fine though. We just had to cut the cake really really small! Brigham was so happy and that´s all that mattered. He got some great gifts. A soccer ball from Monkey´s family, a coloring kit from the Whitney´s, an Uno game (called dos here) from Lilly´s family, and then some other gifts from the neighbors, soap, clean socks, a red polo shirt, a towel. I think some of them were giving him a hint that he needs to bathe more! Just Kidding. I think practical gifts are common here. He is super dirty the days we are home though, because he is outside playing so much. I think he is only clean in the morning for school, and right before he eats and then he gets a nice shower before getting into bed. He´s happy though being a boy.
The party ended at 6 pm. We then rushed and bathed and changed and ran over to the church for the baptism. I was so thrilled with all the support we had for his baptism. Kristina and Lilly came with their families to help with the music, and of course Monkey´s family was there and Rodolfo and Melva´s family came. Rodolfo and Monkey were the witnesses. I think the whole ward came to support us. They were great! We did have to start thirty minutes late though because Nathan´s white pants didn´t fit so we had to send the elders home to get him a pair. The primary children sang for him and Xela and Gabby sang a duet. It was so precious. I wish I could have video taped it. The elders gave the talks which was wonderful because they did it in Spanish and English so all could understand. Ammon said the closing prayer.
We had a super crazy weekend but the only thing that could have made it better would have been to have had our family and friends here with us. We missed all of you.
For more pictures of Ammon look at his birthday post. I had posted pictures of him there but after the post went out.
Monkeys
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