Ben Wrestles, Lily Jane Turns Nine

Quite a crazy weekend here at the Sanatorium.
Ben had the City wrestling meet Saturday morning. Luckily, it was at our high school, so we could come back and forth.
He had a bye first round, and the second and third rounds he handily pinned his opponents.

The final championship round wasn't quite as great. The kid from Fremont had Ben's number in the first round, and he went down 6-0. If the second round had gone 5 seconds longer, Ben would have pinned him, but alas, it was not meant to be. He ended up losing 10-5 on points. But in his typical Ben optimistic fashion, he came out of the round and said, "If only the second round had gone just a little longer. I almost had him!" Second place and we were mighty proud!

We celebrated Lily's ninth birthday on Saturday as well. She was thrilled to get box after box of new clothes (little does she know that she really needed all of them and it was just an excuse for Mom to wrap them all up!). Ben said, "That would be my birthday nightmare!" I'll have to remember that later this month!

We had the whole family over Sunday afternoon for her choice of dinner--crepes. And of course a birthday cake!
The highlight of the weekend, of course, was General Conference. Although we missed the Saturday morning session because of wrestling, we did get to see the rest. And what a motivating, uplifting conference it was. I came away with the need to improve my temple attendance, be more service oriented, and have gratitude for all my blessings.
Elder Holland, always my favorite anyway, gave a masterful talk on the Atonement, one that will surely be added to the list of greats. I am so grateful for my Savior, and that we have general conference twice a year to feed our spirits and redirect us in the paths we should go.
Just a vaseful of Brad's flowers. Yep. Even the bird of paradise!