Blessing Rachel Anderson

Matt Mercker and Mike Anderson are both good friends of mine from USC. We started as Freshmen together in the fall of 2000, went on our missions at about the same time, and finished our undergraduate degrees together (well, almost: Mike did a 4+1 program, so he finished a year after us two). As we each got married and started families, and after graduation, we all ended up in different places (well, sort of: I'm still in LA doing graduate work, and both of them, independently of one another, ended up with jobs Las Vegas).

I love to see both of my good friends whenever I get a chance, and that opportunity came up last weekend. The Andersons recently had their first child, Rachel, and blessed her in church on Sunday, so Kimberly and I left Joy with Grandma Hendrickson for the day and drove out to Las Vegas for the blessing. The blessing itself was sweet, and it was wonderful to see Mike and Shelly, and Matt and Julie.

Mike is in the middle and Matt is on the right. If Mike has anything to do with it, Rachel will grow up to be a Trojan through and through - he's already teaching her to make the fight sign!

Here we all are together (starting from bottom left, and going around the semi-circle): baby Rachel, Shelly, Mike, Kimberly, me, Matt, Julie and their baby Grant