Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend we headed out to Indiana.  My sister Stephanie's baby James was being blessed and the long weekend made it a perfect time to travel. 

The cops were pull-over happy that weekend, especially in Ohio. They were practically everywhere! I did not notice the speed limit change at all and the cop did not give me any grace. Blah......there went some hard earned money...over $150.


We met up with our family at a park for dinner that evening.  It's sooo fun seeing the cousins play together!




That evening the sisters and sister-in-laws went out to the Quirky Feather, a fun cafe/bakery place outside of Indianapolis.  I am "old-fashioned" and do not agree with mixed gender bathrooms that have stalls in them.  The bathroom at this place was just a single toilet room. By all means, anyone who wants to use it, great! Lee only has one bathroom at his office.  Like I said, when there are stalls I like it when only one gender uses that bathroom. Anyway... Probably weird, but I did think the sign was kind of funny.


We attended church on Sunday (of  course!).  Andy gave a sweet blessing. There were three baby blessings that Sunday!  Something their ward does that is so cool is after the baby blessing the mother is invited up to share her testimony.  I thought that was so neat and appropriate especially since she birthed the baby and helped give the child life.

I attended Stephanie's church 3 times this summer.  The second time Steph's bishop asked Andy if I served in Los Angeles.  Turns out, he was an Elder in my mission!  After finding out his name I totally remembered him.  I thought he looked slightly familiar but didn't think much of it.  We were never in the same district, but saw each other a few times and of course knew the same missionaries.  He's been a bishop for about 3 years and he's 35, quite young.  And yes, he was a happy, smiling missionary too.  That is something I remember about him!  Something fun is that the very first Sunday after Stephanie moved in, it was Easter Sunday.  His wife invited Steph, Andy and Maggie over for Easter dinner.  I love when people are kind and thoughtful and reach out to my siblings.  I think it's cool that a missionary from my mission was able to bless my sister and her family by the kindness of having them over to share a meal.   


After the baby blessing.  Seven of us siblings (out of ten) were able to be together that weekend.  It was awesome! 43 of us were together that weekend!  And that doesn't even include my parents and three other siblings and their families. 


Love these people!


Kirsten and Shanna have the same glasses.  The perks of your dad and uncle being an eye doctor.


Seven of the 10!  The 3rd, 7th and 10th siblings weren't able to come. And my parents are serving an awesome mission on Temple Square in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' church history library.


Aunt Ruth and baby James.  He is such a cutie.  Love baby yawns.


After family photos in Steph's backyard we headed to a near by park....minus the park.  It was perfect for Sunday. There were walking trails and two pavilions.  And the best part, it was just us. Only 43 of us...


Not sure how this happened, but we ran out of water.  We brought our drink cooler full of water and some people even had water bottles.  It was pretty warm out though.  Lee went back to Stephanie's to fill up on water, and Jon our nephew drove on the way back.  Lee was nice and brave to do that.  I am sure he is the favorite Uncle right now.  Jon didn't say why he wanted to go back with Lee to the house, but that was why....so he could drive the Chevy back.  Too funny!  It worked!  When they arrived back there was a line of kids waiting for the water.  After filling up on water and a short walk, we headed back to Steph's for Lois' birthday party. 


It was so fun that we could celebrate her birthday on her birthday! 


My phone does not do well in dark lighting, but Lois looks great anyway!


Love the friendships these cousins are building!


I brought a few party hats...I should have brought more!


Present time!


The next morning we met up at a fun splash pad for a little while.  Some of the pictures in this blog post are Mike's.  Thanks Mike for sharing your talent with all of us!




Some cool playground equipment here!


Lee showed me this awesome photo of Elden.  It's like he's doing a muscle pose or something.  And he looks like a buff kid. 




I love it when kids light up with wonder about nature.




I think Cal is trying to be the baby here?




We had a fun afternoon with homemade pizza for lunch, a little bit of cleaning, and visiting.  We headed for home around 2pm.  Thanks for the terrific weekend Steph!  Love being with family!