A Beautiful Baptism

This past weekend we had a very good reason to travel all the way up to Kansas City and celebrate.  Our oldest niece on my side, Kayley, was getting baptized!  This is a momentous occasion because she is the first ever baptism on the Bell side.  Now that she has done it, there are many more younger cousins heading that way soon.  

We headed up to KC on Thursday night (after celebrating John's birthday).  I specifically planned it this way because I thought we would have a nice enjoyable drive while the kiddos slept in their carseats.  I don't know why I even bother "planning" these things.  They didn't sleep....at all.  Instead they were still good and just watched movies.  It's a good 3 1/2 hour drive so they are known to get a little antsy when we are almost there.  Every.single.time.  Luckily, Aunt Michelle was awaiting our arrival (although her kids had to go to bed) and she had quite the accomodations waiting for us as well.  Addison and Jonas got to sleep on a nice airbed in her living room while we slumbered in the cold, crisp air of the basement bedroom.  This is one of John's favorite places to sleep folks.

We were lucky enough to have Daddy take Friday off so we got to spend an extra day playing with cousins.  And we ALL love playing with cousins.  Well mostly Addison and Jonas and I love that they are entertained and out of my hair with constant questions/needs.  Brooklyn even got some good bonding time in with Aunt Michelle.  We had nowhere to go so we just stayed home and had a lazy relaxing day.  Bliss.  We were very spoiled.

Especially so because Friday evening, Grandma Bell came up and helped watch kids while John and I (and Kyle & Cassie) got to enjoy a temple session.  It's heaven really.  The Walker's live about 10 minutes from the Kansas City temple and they are always happy and willing to babysit so we can visit the temple.  Every time.  Thankfully Brooklyn was cooperative as well since she has now mastered the bottle and was able to eat without having Mommy there.  It was a nice relaxing evening followed by a quick family birthday celebration at the park.  Cousin chaos and lots of catching up between us adults.  Especially hearing the exciting news that another cousin will be joining our crazy family soon.  :)

The following day was Kayley's baptism.  We were very excited but I was a little nervous because she had asked me to be one of her speakers.  I was beyond flattered that she picked me!  But, I was also nervous since I have never spoke at a baptism before.  Luckily, my subject was on Kayley and how proud I was of her example she was setting for all of her other cousins.  It went well and I managed to choke back most of the tears.  I was so glad we could be there to support Kayley on making such a good choice.

As with all Bell get-togethers we managed to spend the evening celebrating Kayley and Cora's birthdays with a special swimming pool party.  It was so fun to hang out together.  Addison even got brave and started swimming more than she ever has.  She was jumping in the water left and right and even going under.....on purpose!  We were very proud of her accomplishment.

By the time it was time to go home our kiddos were exhausted and so were we.  We set off on our adventure back home and luckily were able to nap a little.  We were very grateful to crawl into our own beds that evening and catch up on some much needed sleep.