Family baptism

We had a great time in Lakewood this past weekend. Amy and kids left on Friday, stopped at Soak City in Palm Springs and then on to Kathy's house for the night. Kathy has her 3 grandkids from Surprise, AZ staying with her for the summer, so Cameron and Faith slept on air mattresses with them while Amy went just down the street to Ray and Brandie's house. In the meantime, Ray, Ryan and I got up early Sat. and drove to Lakewood. All of us Boltons then went to Santa Monica Pier and beach. We enjoyed driving with windows down and sunroofs opened. Just to get out of Blythe's heat is a treat, but the ocean was great too. I have not enjoyed being in the water like that for a long time. I scared Ray and the grandkids because I went so far out, but I loved it. The waves were just right.

We all ended up at Josh and Angie's house for a great barbecue that night, thanks Middoughs. They have a above-ground pool set up there and me and all the kids enjoyed a good swim. Then we went back to respective homes, showered all the kids and put them in a huge tent in Kathy's backyard (9 kids in all). They slept reasonably well when they settled down but it was early up on Sunday since Ray and Brandie's ward starts at 8:00am and we were all going together. Needless to say, we all took good Sunday naps. Then at 5:00 pm, we all went back to church for the baptisms of Anthony and Josh (our 2nd and 3rd oldest grandsons, Ray Jr's ). Grandpa Ray had the honor of baptizing them and I was asked to speak. It was a nice baptism and well attended by their new ward. We met people in the ward who we knew 20 some years ago when we were in Long Beach 2nd ward, one guy from our Diamond Bar ward, and one guy in this ward knows a guy from Blythe who I know well because he used to be an assistant superintendent in our school district.

Amy and kids, with little Alisa (Ray&Brandie's 2 yr old) left for Blythe from there. Amy also took Ryan so that Ray and I could stay an extra night ourselves. We slept in Monday and then went for a leisurely day of sightseeing and reminiscing , visiting the Queen Mary, Shoreline Village and Seal Beach. After a nice lunch, we went back to Ray's and got the boys to go home with us. They will stay the week with us and then Brandie will come to Blythe this weekend for her "Love" reunion and take them all home. It should be a fun week.