The Minnesota Twins...

This weekend, Jason, Marin, Lindsay and I hit the road for exactly 24 hours of visiting, and a little over 15 hours of car travel. It was worth every "are we there yet" groan by Marin in the back seat, and every truck-stop-junk-food calorie consumed by me! We headed to Minneapolis, Minnesota (actually, Lake Minnetonka, just outside Minneapolis) to meet the Minnesota Twins. No, not the baseball team. We went to meet the Chilson Twins! Twice as nice and doubly special.

Jason's cousin, Bob, and his wife, Gretchen, had twin boys, Jacob and Robbie, six weeks ago and they were baptized this weekend. Bob and Gretchen asked Jason and I to be Jacob's Godparents; an honor you can't ever quite sum up in words. Jacob and Robbie are just two adorable little peas in a pod, and we were so glad to hold them, snuggle them, feed them and love them every second that we could possible get away with.

Marin enjoyed meeting the twins as well. She was very gentle with the babies and very attentive to them. She liked rocking Robbie in his car seat at one time, and liked patting Jacob's little head. Although she almost pet the twins as if they were dogs, we were glad that she didn't bang on them like little drums, and understood when we asked her to be gentle with the babies. She was more jealous of thier pacifiers than the fact that her parents were sometimes immediately unavailable for her because they were holding a baby. I did manage to snuggle with both she and the babies at one point, and she liked that the most of all.

We had a great time on our short visit and loved getting to see Jason's family. Even though we were missing a lot of them, it is always so much fun to be together with our "Patterson" cousins. We are hopeful that we will all be together soon enough. We have to get the twins on the boat since we gave them their first tiny life jackets, and I'll have to teach them all of my knee-boarding tricks so they think I'm cool enough to hang out with.

Of course on a road trip with kids, half the fun is the hotel indoor pool. Who am I kidding, that's fun for me as an adult, too. Marin had a great time swimming with her cousins, Jack, Ella and Elise. She even got to try out her new bikini, a birthday present from her friends Madeline and Charlie. When she came walking out with that adorable suit on, Jason wanted to know immediately who approved of it. :) It is just too stinking cute, isn't it? Marin had such a great time, she never stopped moving, laughing, jumping or climbing. Other than the small amount of sleep she got in the car, she took zero naps the rest of the weekend. And the 24 hours we were there was basically one giant long party. She did sleep well on Saturday night, although she was hesitant to go to sleep with her Daddy and me just a few feet away, once she was out, she slept long and hard, and happily woke up to her cousins knocking in the morning to ask if she could go to the pool. She was perfect in church at the baptism. She played with her childs rosary and wanted to wear it as a necklace. I have to say, that was something I hadn't seen before. We sat in the front row, and Marin was waving to the three alter boys the whole time. During the actual baptism, Marin sat on Lindsay's lap. Lindsay said that when everyone clapped for Jacob and Robbie, Marin clapped too. That girl LOVES a party. But whew... she was c-r-a-b-b-y by the end of the day on Sunday. She was literally reaching for the door to leave. She fell asleep before we were even out of Bob and Gretchen's neighborhood.

It was a whirlwind, but it was definitely fun. Congratulations, Bob and Gretchen! Jacob and Robbie are perfection! Two adorable Minnesota Twins who hit a home run straight to our hearts.