New Jersey trip

After we left Buffalo we headed over the Summit, New Jersey to visit my sister Tina and her family. It was great to see them especially because Tina had just had a baby girl. Her third, Penelope Eve. My sister Sherri was also there she has a daughter too, Addy, who is two years old. So there were three two year old girls Ayla, Camila, and Addy. Raquel who is the "big" girl at four. And two babies Caiden 4 months and Penelope 1 month. We had our hands full but it was so much fun to be together and watch our kids have fun and play together. Saturday we went to the Jersey Shore. I kept my eye out for Snookie and The Situation but failed to see them. No actually we went to Point Pleasant beach which is the Jersey shore but not the same beach where they film the TV show. It was a great beach, not very crowded and the water was nice. Ayla had a fantastic time. She loves the beach and we don't have any nice ones close to us so we don't go all that often.  

Here she is enjoying herself filling up her bucket and watering her "plants".

 My cute little niece Addison Faye (Addy). I think you can see the resemblance there between her and Ayla they both have the blond curls.

 My handsome little boy Caiden who I was trying to keep out of the sun.

The cousins having lunch. (Thanks Sherri I stole this from your blog, along with a few others).

 Baby Penny

 I took Caiden into the ocean and put his feet in the water. I wanted him to be able to say that he was in the Atlantic ocean before he was a year old. Here is his look of terror as I walked out there, almost as if he knew what was coming. In case your wondering, No, he didn't like it. He gasped in surprise and then screamed. It was a quick dip.

 One of the main reasons for the whole trip was because baby Penelope was going to be blessed. A baby blessing in our church is when the baby's father lays his hands on the baby's head and gives a special blessing to the baby from the Lord. It is similar to a baby baptism in the way that it is a big special event however it is not a baptism. One of the things that is different in our religion in comparison to others is that we do not believe that people are held accountable for Adam's sin. We believe that people will only be held accountable for their own sins. Therefore there is no reason to baptize a baby because a baby is pure and has not committed any sin therefore does not need to be baptized. We believe that children should be baptized when they are old enought to be held accountable for their own sins, which is not until they've reached eight years old.

  Felipe (Tina's husband) gave Penny her baby blessing the Sunday that we were there in church. It was a good blessing and a moving experience. Afterwards we attempted to take some family pictures. I say attempted because when you have six children who are four and under it doesn't always work out the way you planned.

Here is a pictutre of Tina's family. Camila would not smile. She was being a little stinker because normally she is very smily, but of course because we wanted her to smile pretty for the pictures she wouldn't.

 Group shot attempt #1

 Group shot attempt # six or maybe seven and they were all looking so this is the best one we got.

 Cousins and friends! AWWW!

 My pretty sister and her pretty baby

 Little Mila

 The cousins started playing "ring around the rosie" (or "ring around the romy" as Ayla calls it) and it got out of hand pretty quick. But they had a great time.

 Caiden was a big hit with his older girl cousins. They always wanted to hold him or talk to him. Addy especially was really cute with him. She spent quite awhile sitting by him and talking to him at the beach. He loved it, he thought she was hilarious and laughed and smiled everytime she came around.

Here is Raquel holding Caiden. Raquel is such a big girl now, it hadn't been that long since I'd seen her but it seemed to me that she had really grown. She seems so much more mature and grown up now. She's such a good girl and so pretty.

  The cousins sitting together minus Penelope. From the left Caiden being held by Addy, Camila, Raquel and Ayla.

The girls really loved playing together. Ayla still talks about her cousins and wants to go see them. She asks at least once a week if we can go to "Mila and Quel's house". I was so glad that Sherri was there and that we got to see eachother's kids. It had been way too long since I'd seen Addy and she had grown up so much. Still the same cute little face but she talks now and is more interactive with people. It really was great to see my sisters and spend time together it happens way too infrequently. But, alas I don't see that changing anytime soon as we live so far apart.