Indiana trip

Amelia loves all of her many cousins, and she has quite a few.  

But the one thing she laments once in a while is that there are so many boys.  "Boy-trapped" is what she calls it.  Thank heaven for Abby and Brooklyn who live in Arizona and provide abundant relief from this situation. 

And then there's Kassie, who lives across the country, who isn't a girly-girl and who loves animals, Wild Kratts, and Pokemon as much as Amelia does.  

Kassie is a year and a few months younger than Amelia and they are two peas in a pod.  Kassie was baptized in October and Amelia and I went to visit her and her family in Indianapolis for the occasion.

Here are Tommy, Kassie and Amelia at a park.  Amelia didn't have to miss her brothers too much as Tommy filled the younger brother role just fine.  He's five months younger than Dylan and just as spunky.

There were costumes at the nature center next to the park.  Below are animals native to the area: a spotted salamander, a fox and a cardinal.

Kassie also wore the possum costume for a time as she couldn't decide which she liked better.  Amelia was definitely committed to the fox because,  "A fox is clever and tricky," she says. 

Amelia did miss Simon but she got in her taking-care-of-a-two-year-old digs by helping her little cousin Samantha here and there.  

The giant climbing apparatus...

The girls after the baptism...we kept laughing and they couldn't quite look at the camera at the same time. 

 the whole group who came to celebrate... 

We stayed for and extended weekend and by the end I told Lee and Katherine that according to Ben Franklin, "fish and visitors stink in three days."  The sleep over every night in Kassie's room and the displaced little people began to take a toll.  

We were starting to stink. 

Everyone was a bit tired by the end and so after going to church in Indy (where I was quickly spotted as Lee's sister because I am apparently a female version of him...or rather he is a male version of me because I was born first) we headed home.