You will always have your family

Last week the Mears household headed back to Indiana to visit with family and to get Evan baptized. We drove on July 4 and had a BBQ complete with homemade ice cream. Evan got to meet his Aunt Jen (Jason's sister) and cousins for the first time. Here they all are posing for a festive 4th picture (from L to R: Olivia, Kiera, Connor, Zach, Evan)... Can you tell who lives in Florida?

Evan really liked hanging out with his Aunt Jen... The next day Evan got to hang out with more cousins. My sister, Susan, brother-in-law, Jim, and their children, Clayton, Nadiya, Isaac, and Arianna all came over to my mom's house and, along with Aunt Wendy, we celebrated Isaac's 2nd birthday. Evan and Arianna played more this time around. Ari was born a month before Evan. She is crawling all over the place and is pulling herself up onto things. You can tell who the older cousin is in this picture as Ari was all ready to "get" Evan. Aren't they adorable? Clayton and Nadiya were hamming it up... Uncle Jim and Isaac were accessorizing Evan with Jim's hat. Do you think it fits? Grandma got to feed Evan for the first time. He's a challenge as his right finger wants to go straight into his mouth and his left hand grabs the spoon. Here Grandma was doing great...

Oops! Evan got a firm grip on the spoon. Good luck prying it from his fingers! Grandma was laughing so hard! Time for a nice picture with his cousins and Daisy dog... The weather was pretty nice. It was hot on most days, but if you sat in the shade, with the breeze, it felt great! Daddy and Evan are chillin'... During this trip home, we were able to visit with our friends, Betsy, John, and Miles and their pugs Stamp and Whisper. I grew up next door to Betsy from childhood to college. We were pregnant at the same time and it was nice sharing our experiences with each other. Miles was born 10 days after Evan. So now we get to share our sons growing up.
Miles and Evan were playing on the floor. Miles has a toy...

Look who has it now...

Evan took it from Miles! Next lesson...sharing.

The King family had fun watching Evan eat his cereal. Evan actually was a great eater that night and didn't smear his food too much.

Evan was baptized on July 8, 2007, at Trinity English Lutheran Church. This is the same church where Jason and I got married and Pastor Hasecke presided over both ceremonies. Here are Mommy, Aunt Jen (Evan's sponsor ("godmother")), Evan, and Daddy.

Pastor Hasecke joined the picture as well...A quick family photo...After the baptism, we celebrated with a lunch reception. Evan got lots of attention from his grandparents, aunts and uncle, cousins, and great-grandparents. Here is Evan with Great-Grandma Mears (Jason's Dad's Mother)...

Here is Evan with Great-Grandma Catherine (Jen's Mom's Mother)...

Here is Evan with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Gerardot (Jason's Mom's Parents)...

All in all, it was a great trip home. We really enjoyed seeing everyone. We are blessed to have such great family. That is something we will be teaching Evan...no matter what happens in life, you will always have your family.