Annie Kate's Baptism

We left on Friday morning first thing to attend our niece Annie Kate's baptism in Maryland. Ruth and Bruce were going to be there as well as her other set of grandparents so we were looking forward to this mini family reunion. We took our time driving up and took several breaks along the way at the rest stops in Virginia (that state has some good ones with jungle gyms and everything!). We arrived around 4 p.m. and Liam was so excited to see his cousins, especially Caroline...they are like two peas in a pod, the male and female version of each other...looks wise and personality! It is so fun to watch them play togethor, they are truly in thier own separate world.
That night we had dinner at Kristi and Jeff's with everyone and ate Jambalaya, which was delicious. After everyone had retired to thier places of rest, Kristi, her visiting teacher and I went to thier church to set up in the primary room for the baptism the next morning. We got the room looking great in no time, it seriously could have been set up for a wedding reception. Kristi had some great centerpieces she had put togethor.
The baptism the next morning was really nice. Lots of people from the ward came out to support Annie Kate as well as some neighbour's, the room was packed. Both of her grandfater's spoke which was so sweet. Ruth said a prayer and Sharon read a poem about baptism. Liam had never seen a baptism before so it was neat to see him so excited about Annie getting "dunked"!.
After the baptism we all went out to Macaroni Grill for lunch, and thankfully Liam mostly behanved himself. Then everyone took a nap! (Poor Annie was sick all weekend!)
After church on Sunday we had a fabbulous Sunday dinner of roast beef, potatoes and gravy, carrot souffle, asparagus, congealed strawberry salad and buttermilk pie. We were all stuffed i think. Then we went to the Festival of Lights at the Washington DC temple, which is something I have been wanting to do for several years now. We heard a bit of a concert by the The Chapel Ringers Ft. Meyer Memorial Chapel (bell ringers), saw a live nativity and all the lights, my favourite part though were the Christmas creches from around the world. They were beautiful.
We headed home this morning after having breakfast with Ruth and Bruce at thier hotel. It was nice to spend a little more time with them before leaving. We made good time getting back because the boys were so played out they slept the whole way, it only took us about 5 and a half hours! Since we don't have family nearby we really appeciated this chance to spend a little quality time with relatives, especially since it was to celebrate an important event like baptism. Congratulations Annie!