The car trip to New Jersey worked out pretty well. We left at 5:24, and Maggie slept (mostly) until we reached Hartford and stopped at my brother Steven's house for breakfast. (BTW, Steven is Maggie's godfather.) The rest of the way went smoothly with company for Maggie in the backseat and plenty of toys to keep her company! We reached my Aunt Susan and Terry's house around 11:30ish. This left us enough time to get settled and have a few bites to eat to tide us over until the party. At this party Maggie was not the center of attention as there were almost 100 people there! Many of the people had kids, and I'm pretty sure Maggie was the youngest, but certainly not the only one getting attention. Mikelle and Kevin's house (my cousin and her husband who were hosting the party) is set up for kids to have tons of fun. I can't wait to go back there when Maggie can play with their toys. They have a swing set, a plastic castle, a blow up jumper (seen with Esme in it to the left) and a huge backyard. Even though there were almost 100 people there, it didn't seem crowded since there was so much room. Maggie was the hit of the party for a few of the people attending. My grandmother, on my father's side, was there and was very anxious to finally get to meet Maggie. They happened to match! Also there was my dad's cousins Carol and Jack, my cousin Scott and his wife Wendy. She had a lot of fun playing with Maggie as her little boy, Brandon, is seven years old now. On this side of my dad's family (Susan's grandkids) there are only boys. Mikelle has Justice, Caden and Ty. So, it is a special treat for them to get the chance to play with girls, Maggie, Esme and Baya!
Maggie was having a photogenic day. I love this picture of her
sitting on my lap. It must have been a very overwhelming day for her, meeting so many new people, traveling, and being away from home. She didn't sleep very well that night, and neither did her dad since he started feeling sick as soon as we left, so I had a hard night and then had to do all the driving on the way home. We spent a leisurely morning at Aunt Susan and Terry's house and then left when Maggie feel asleep around noon. She slept until around 2:30 and then was happy to play for a little while. Then, around 4:00 she started to freak out. We stopped and I tried to feed her, but she was much more interested in looking at me and all around then eating. So, we tried to keep going and it didn't work. We had to stop again after listening to her cry for about fifteen minutes. I guess she realized that she had to get down to business and she ate until she feel asleep. We stopped for dinner shortly after that and she woke up while we were in the restaurant. Luckily, after leaving she feel asleep fairly quickly and managed to be happy the rest of the way home! The trip went much more smoothly than I imagined it would, so I can't complain. In fact, I hope we get to visit more with our relatives. It is always so nice.