Weekend Getaway

Elder Johnson and family. (He's in the pink tie.)

Last weekend, we escaped to Maryland to visit my aunt and uncle and bid farewell to my cousin Philip, who is leaving for two years to serve as a missionary in Brazil. We've found that, by leaving on Saturday morning and using our new E-Z Pass, we can get down there in 3 1/2 hours. Not bad.

I love visiting my Aunt Jill's. They live in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood not too close but not too far from Washington, DC. Her home is warm and welcoming, cozily decorated with her famous quilts and Relief Society crafts. Her three sons are all teenagers, but they're not terribly annoying. In fact, now that we have Elizabeth, they are even more excited to see us when we visit. (Though they still have to be dragged away from the Wii to greet us when we arrive.) My uncle is very kind and quick to laugh and always has interesting things to talk about. My aunt is wonderful. Like a second mom, only without all the baggage. (Love you, Mom.)

Most of the weekend revolved around Philip leaving the next week for his mission. We had a family BBQ, the essential trip to Rita's, Philip's farewell talk on Sunday, then an open house later that night. The farewell was actually for three young men so the house was packed! I think there were more people in my aunt's house that night than there are in our entire ward here in Brooklyn. We're really happy for Philip and excited to hear all about his adventures, spiritual and otherwise, in the Amazon.

Our little trip also gave us a chance to get a jump-start on celebrating Halloween. Here are my cousins as Mario and Luigi:

And here's Elizabeth at her very first Trunk or Treat:


We even managed to get to a real, live pumpkin patch.


Unfortunately, the patch itself was closed so we had to pick our pumpkins from a wagon by the barn. But Elizabeth still enjoyed it.