Baptism-aka Family Festival of Fun

According to an African proverb, it takes a village to raise a child. In our case, it takes a village converging on St. Louis to baptize a child. We received news a few months ago that my grandfather, great aunt, and two cousins were coming to St. Louis for a visit. Then I learned that my brother was going to come into town to see the visiting family. It seemed only right that we hijack this visit and turn it into Annie's baptism weekend. I know myself, and if I didn't get this done on this particular weekend, it might never happen. GB got all hyped up on the idea and the ball was set in motion.

Gaddy (grandfather) and Annabelle (great Aunt) arrived late Thursday night. They toured the City Museum and Annie and I surprised them for the visit. Jay and Elizabeth (cousins from Atlanta) arrived on Friday and Annie and I headed from the Museum to pick them up from the airport. Annie greeted them to St. Louis by screaming her head off at poor Jay the entire ride to the house. Friday night was spent eating and drinking (reoccurring theme for the weekend) and awaiting Patrick's arrival from San Fran. Saturday was spent recovering and then bustling around to Parker and Chloe's various sporting events. We celebrated David's birthday on Saturday night. Rick and I bailed early as I was seriously afraid of being hung over for Annie's big day. It appears that we made the right call as there were tales of fire pits into the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully everyone arrived at the church on time, which in our family, is quite an accomplishment.

I don't have any photos of the actual event as we were somewhat occupied what with the service and all, but Annie was a perfect angel. The thumb was firmly implanted in the mouth during the baptism and she didn't even flinch when the water was poured on her. We may or may not have been practicing this move in the bath tub in preparation for the big day. Looks like that paid off.

This was the spread at Mom and Dad's. As usual, GB went over the top with great food, drinks, and everything was beautiful.

Yummy desserts supplied by Chaney.

The family checking out a video we made of Dad and Gaddy's trip to Africa.

Annie and Uncle Happy getting some hang time. She's grown quite a bit since his last visit!

David and Shisha. David appears to have reached his girlfriend family threshold at this point. He's a real trooper.

Rick made sure to get in some Annie time when she wasn't being loved on by other family members. You had to act quick because she got snatched up quickly!

This beauty is cousin Elizabeth. She's gorgeous, smart (a lawyer, good to have one in the family), and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. If she wasn't family, I would probably hate her.

Annie and Grant Horten. Grant is the son of Stephanie and Matt. There is a rumor of an arranged marriage. I think they make a lovely couple.

Annie with her Godparents, Stephanie and Matt. They drove in all the way from Chicago for the event! It was so special to have them and their three beautiful children there to celebrate with us.

Annie spent lots of time with her great grandfather, Gaddy, over the course of the trip. Gaddy is a master of the bottle feed thanks to all the deer and lambs he has nursed back to health at his ranch. Though he never has to burp the wild animals, you would never know it from the massive ones he got out of Miss Annie!

She was clearly a big fan of his.

It was a beautiful weekend and the weather was excellent for mid-November. It meant so much to have so many special people travel so far to celebrate our baby girl's big day. It was such a thrill to have four generations together at the same time. It truly was a weekend full of blessings.