Nina and I made a quick trip to New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, last weekend for a couple of very important family events. Madison was to be baptized into the Church and Jillian was to receive a name and a blessing. We spent a delightful weekend in New Wilmington.

We flew from Denver to Pittsburgh Friday evening and flew back on Sunday evening. While there we stayed two nights at the delightful Jacqueline House bed and breakfast (check the link! Click on "Virtual Tour" and then "The Master Room". We slept there!). All the arrangements worked out very well.

The baptism and blessing took place on Saturday afternoon February 22nd at the New Castle Branch building. Jim and LeeAnn and family drove up from Kentucky for the festivities. Our niece Vanessa along with her husband and boys drove over from Ohio as well. Kirks parents Boyd and Jo were there from Montana. Family was well represented.

We got there Friday night to find that Rachel was sick with the flu. Saturday morning, most people were feeling OK. It turned out that doing the blessing together with the baptism was a Good Thing! By Sunday morning, Dawnmarie and Spencer were both down with the flu which has since spread through most of the family out there. By doing everything Saturday afternoon everyone was able to be in attendance.

We enjoyed the trip. It’s so amazing to be in Colorado at 4:30 p.m. MST and then be in Pittsburgh at 8:00 p.m. MST that same evening. New Wilmington is in very rural countryside. The roads meander through rolling hills, across small streams and bigger rivers. Trees are everywhere and on cloudy days it’s very easy to loose my sense of direction as there are no big mountains to act as landmarks. We’ve lived many years in that part of the world and it still feels like home. I think I could live there again!

We stayed for the first time at a bed and breakfast on this trip. Dawnmarie’s house is small and her inlaws were staying there for this week. So we decided to stay somewhere nearby. There aren’t any motels in New Wilmington and the nearest accommodations of that sort were about twenty minutes away. Dawnmarie located two bed and breakfasts and scouted them both out. Her recommendation was for us to stay at the Jacqueline House which was about five minutes away, just south of the college. It was a lovely choice. The house itself is about ten years old. The owners had an old farm house on the property torn down and then built a modern home built on the foundation. The home was built to look like an elegant old farm house but has all the modern conveniences built in. They then built an addition to the house for the family living quarters. The current owners bought the property about six months ago. There are four rooms available for rent. We could come and go as we wished. Breakfast was served in a common area at whatever time we wished. The room itself was nicely decorated with a bathroom almost as big as the bedroom, including a claw-foot tub. Nina enjoyed a morning bath each morning we were there. We will definitely stay there again on a future trip to New Wilmington.

In the next few days I’ll post some pictures from our trip, including some of Jillian. She is a delightful baby. She wakes up and grins with beautiful dimples! All of Kirk and Dawnmarie’s children a delightful. It sure makes raising Dawnmarie worth it (grin)!