Maryland

Caution: Very long post, but lots of pictures! Also a surprise appearance by someone very unlikely so it's worth the read!

Like I said Avery and I flew out to Maryland, my sister Charissa lives in Cumberland and her beautiful daughter Emma was getting baptized. We flew out with Sarina and I was grateful for that because she gave me some help with Avery.

On her first plane ride!

Avery did really well and didn't really cry at all. Maybe about five minutes towards the end of the first flight when I was trying to get her to sleep. I'm so grateful for my sweet daughter. She won over the flight attendants especially one on the first flight, he loved her whenever he'd walk by he'd say, "Hi, Avery". It was sweet and she really liked him too, she'd follow him as he went up and down the aisle. The second flight she slept through the whole thing, what a good baby! I love her!

we put this mask on her to help her sleep, it worked!

The first night we stayed at Sarina's parent's house who live about 30ish minutes away from the Baltimore airport. Her parents are terrific, well I actually never saw her dad while we were there, but I've met him a few times before. Her mom though is so sweet and generous and of course loved Avery because she's so cute and sweet and smiley.

The next day we headed over to the Washington D.C. temple to meet my parent and Ben who drove with my parents. They were all going to do a session and since I had Avery I was going to be waiting in the visitor's center. Little did I know but the day before John had e-mailed saying he was going to be at the visitor's center with an investigator! Ben had seen the e-mail and told me so after they went into the temple I asked one of the Sister's there if there were any Elder's showing an investigator around. She said there weren't any, and I told her the situation and my brother's name and she looked in their appointment book because sometimes they will call to make an appointment so they can have a tour. He wasn't in there darn! So Avery and I just walked around and started looking at the things. As we were listening to the prophet's testimony of Christ. . . (this is Avery looking at him)

. . .the sister missionary I was talking to and some other women came up to us and said "Your brother's here!" Aaaah!! I was a little in shock, they said he was in the bathroom so I got my camera out and waited outside the bathroom and snapped a . . .well, pretty bad picture. . .when he came out

John gave me a hug, but sadly can't hold babies! So he didn't get to hold Avery! She gave him lots of smiles though and she held his finger. The women that was with the sister missionary was the investigator he was showing around (Alyssa) she's pretty awesome and a wonderful person. I told John that if he wasn't comfortable with it I would go somewhere else,but he said he was fine with it so I got to spend two hours with him seeing how he is as a missionary. He's pretty much the same, just more spiritual words coming out of his mouth. The people in the temple also got to see him. We were walking around the temple and my dad saw me and told my mom and I guess she basically went off running, but acted cool when she got to us, like oh John hello. Fancy seeing you here.

walking around the temple

Our family with Elder Keeffer

After that exciting afternoon we headed to Charissa's house! Emma's baptism was Thursday and it was really great. Emma wanted a wedding looking cake for her cake and a lady in the ward made an awesome one. I was able to find a cute little girl topper for it too! There were a lot of people there that love and support Emma. A lot of non members were able to come too, and while Charissa was getting Emma ready after the baptism the missionaries shared a short message. I didn't hear this but Charissa told us later what Emma said to her as she was about to send her into the font. She said, "I can't believe this day is finally here, I've been waiting for this for so long." Is that not so sweet, little children just amaze me with the things they say, and how spiritual they can be.

Friday we went shopping, I'm not sure where we were. It was fun and we found some awesome deal including buy one pair of shoes and get two free! I got Louis two pairs and I got one for myself. It's always fun to go shopping with girls because they actually enjoy shopping, unlike Louis :) We ate at five guys burgers, it was delicious, I had the bacon cheeseburger and it was fantastic. The bacon was very good and crispy and they fries were great, I love good fries.

Sarina with her urban sombrero she found while shopping

Sunday after Sacrament meeting where Emma received the holy ghost my parents left to visit my other sister Jessica in North Carolina for two days and I went to the rest of church with Charissa and Don. Before dinner on Sunday we went to Rocky Gap and put our feet in the water and played in the sand. Avery didn't really think much of it, it seemed like she didn't really even realize her feet were in water!

I've been trying to remember but I can't remember what we did Monday! I have a bad memory when it comes to this. Tuesday Charissa and I went to get pedicures. Ben had come back to stay with us again so he watched Avery for me. It was very nice they had massage chairs to sit on while you got the pedicure, very nice. The guy who painted my toes did not do a good job at all, he didn't even get to the top of the nail on one and it was just sloppy. Charissa called the man who did her toes over and he completely redid them for me. So they turned out good. Later that night we went bowling together, I really don't want to tell you my score. Let's just say that all the kids beat me. Of course they had bumpers and the adults didn't.

Emma and Avery at the bowling alley

After bowling Ben and I left to head back to Sarina's parent's house. Then on Wednesday morning we headed to the airport and now I'm home!!! It's so nice to be home, I always have fun, but miss Louis a lot when I leave. I've been so lucky to see Charissa and some of her family for the last three years.