My very sweet and adorable nephew, Ayden James, got baptised on July 23rd. It was an honor to be asked to be his Godmother and there was no way I was going to miss the special event. Plus, what a great excuse to get our family together for some fun times. So, we made it into a mini vacation.
We flew into Charlotte, SC late on Thursday, July 21st. Tara and Ayden picked us up. After an exhausting day of flying, we grabbed dinner on the way home and hit the hay.
On Friday, Dad drove up from Tonnie's house and the big boys - Dad, Jon and Greg - went "sweaty" golfing. They were lucky enough to have an almost 100 degree day. So, during our girls' shopping trip to Wal-mart for forgotten toiletries, we got a call from our "sweaty" men to bring a change of clothes since they were soaked.

Friday night, we headed for a true southern BBQ dinner at Woodlands in Blowing Rock, NC. After stuffing our belly's with BBQ chicken, ribs, pork, cole slaw, hushpuppies, and fried okra, The Tripletts showed off the quaint little town of Blowing Rock. Such a cute town! We played, relaxed and strolled in the beautiful park. What a nice evening with my sister and her family!

Saturday was the main event! We had a beautiful private family ceremony and Ayden was a doll throughout the entire festivities, talking and being his cute little self. Again, I feel honored to now be Ayden's Godmother and feel blessed that Greg, Rowan and I could be there for this very special event.

Since the temperatures were record-high again that day, we decided to spend the afternoon at an Bo's Family Entertainment, an indoor game place with bowling and archade. Seriously, what could be better for a bunch of boys! Rowan was so incredibly excited to be with his cousins!. And, his cousins - Ben, Evan, and Carter - are all so good with him. And, as you can see from the pictures, he's practially attached to the hip with Carter. At the end of the day, the boys turned in their arcade tickets for prizes and Rowan got a ring like Evan and Carter. He called it his "Cousin Ring" and refused to take it off for days. And, when we got home, he put it in my jewelry box because it was so special. (Of course, we've lost it by now. I'm sure it's in the house somewhere and he'll be thrilled if I ever find it again.)
On Sunday, we drove to The Woody residence in Fort Mill, SC and spent the day in their hood. We set up camp at their community pool all afternoon and stayed cool for a few hours. Then, mom/Nana & dad/PapPap treated us to the yummiest pizza ever for dinner. When it was time to go, I told Rowan to say good-bye to his cousins and he said, "Bye guys. See you tomorrow." It broke my heart when I had to tell him we were saying good-bye for good since we were flying home the next day.



What two wonderful and fun days with both of my sisters, my nephews, my brother-in-laws and my parents! I don't think they could have been any better (although, a drop in temperatures by15-20 degrees would have been appreciated by, at the very least, the men of the group.)
Monday was bittersweet. Time to go home and get back to reality. We were exhausted from the time zone change and having Rowan in our room with us and from all of the family fun. But, we were certainly sad to go! But, before leaving, we met Jon for lunch in the cute little college town of Boone, NC where he works for some delish Thai food at Cha Da Thai.
Thank you, Tara, for getting Ayden baptised and bringing us all together for such wonderful family memories. Thank you to the rest of my family for making it such a fun, blessed trip. We couldn't have had a better time and can't wait for our next trip back to the southeast! Love, Love, Love to you all from The LA Drews!
(pics taken July 21 - 25, 2011)