Two of my favorite girls!

The weekend of March 10th was a great one.  Friday, all the Shelton family congregated in St. George for Shayne's mission farewell on Sunday, as people hit town they met us at WCCC for swimming since it was Shayne's last night at work as a lifeguard.  At 8:00 the pool closed and Shayne gave Kyle, Sophie, Joel and I our last swim lesson.

Saturday Emily and Tyler had another fantastic shared birthday party.  It seems like every year there is some major event that brings everyone to St. George for Tyler's birthday, and Emily's is just 3 days later so we have had a big party for 3 years in a row now......I wonder what we will celebrate next year?  Also, for the 3rd year in a row the weather did not cooperate as well as we would have liked, but it is always an improvement from Lehi's so at least there's that.

That was almost a foul on Emily for playing dirty....but Tyler was not harmed :)

The best blindfolds I could think of.....but it didn't stop everyone from cheating.

I put together several "minute to win it" games and this was my favorite..two teams and two fools, everyone wins!

She needed a nap....I told her she couldn't do something until I saw a smile....but this was all she could muster!

My birthday girl! 10 years old! (notice the photo bomber?)

George knocked the top off the pinata, but we kept playing....Kyle was the only one that got to taste test the spoils!

Great pinata idea Paula!

There was no stopping Evan once it hit the ground, luckily Jake didn't take one more swing.

Between getting the house ready for guests and prepping for the party I asked Emily what kind of Costco cake she wanted and she informed me that she liked my cakes the best and really wanted a homemade one. Oh boy....okay..... It was involved, but I am glad I did it because it was lots of fun.  Josh said it was the best cake he had ever seen, so that made it aaaallllllllll worth it.

Emmy thought it was really great too!

Sunday at 9:00 am (8:00 really thanks to daylight savings the night before) we all congregated on Joel's congregation for Shayne's mission farewell.  It was a beautiful meeting.  Joel conducting and was fighting the tears from the minute he welcomed us all there.  Andy, Andy, Brad, Jan, Ashley and Bradie sang the song "I Am Not Ashamed", a song I love and has never left me from the first time Brad and Jan sang it with Bridges.  I could not restrain the tears from then on.  Shayne's talk was beautiful, so sweet and pure and full of testimony and love.  She is awesome.

My first roommate and swim coach!  (Think we got some similar genes?)

On Tuesday we got to be there for her setting apart.  She is totally ready and excited to go, so it makes it a little easier to let her, but still couldn't keep the tears in when we actually said goodbye.

We will take another one just like this when she gets home and see how much they all grew while she was gone!

 God be with you til we meet again, Sister Beckstrand!  We love you.

Just after the setting apart Beckstrands got in the car and headed for Lehi and the MTC the next morning, and we headed home to prep for yet another Emily birthday party.  She had a few friends over for a few more games and they had a great time.  There are about 10 little girls her age in our ward and she is lucky to have such awesome friends.

Emily is an awesome girl too.  I hope she follows her cousin's example and becomes an awesome Sister Missionary one day.  She is a great example already to her friends and family and we are sure glad she is part of our family.