NJ Visit for Noelle's Baby Shower

Noelle and I grew up more like sisters then cousins - we always were and still always are there for each other. Naturally when I got the call from her about 2 months ago about how important it was to her that I be at her baby shower I knew I would stop at nothing to get there! Alex, Dylan, AJ and I split the 12 hour drive in half on the way home, leaving on Wednesday afternoon stopping overnight in Salem, VA and arrived Thursday afternoon. We the trekked the whole 12 back on Sunday - the kids are troopers in the car! I was thrilled my brother in law Mark took us and and we were SO happy to spend time with him and cousins Ethel and Winnie. While home we got to see lots of family members and a few friends! I was super excited to meet my beautiful niece Madison and love her up for the first time - she is truly a happy and great baby. Such a good spirit to be around! It was so nice to see the kids play with their cousins and AJ & Chris and AJ, Julia & Dylan run around like old times! It was great to catch up with our old friend Jared and his beautiful wife and beautiful kids - it was so fun to see the kids all finally play like we always talked about back in the day! We loved hitting up Red's Pub! We got a little date night in for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants where we ran into another high school friend who it was great to see! The shower was nothing short of wonderful - great food, folks and fun and tons of gifts for baby boy Hart! Hanging with Mark, Noelle, Brian, Eileen and my mother after was great and Mark still knows how to put out the best spread on this side of the Mississippi! Even my brother who worked like crazy stopped in for a quick hello to see us which was very nice considering how exhausted he was! I miss everyone already and can't wait to get back for our longer visit after Christmas!

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