We drove up to St. Louis and then on to Michigan. It was a LONG trip but the kids actually were terrific. I packed all sorts of activities for the boys (printouts here), several great movies and a book on CD, "James and the Giant Peach." We sang nursery rhymes to Lucy and searched for license plates from the 50 states. Curtis and I had lots of good talks and I brought along my favorite singing CD's to help keep me awake when driving (Corinne Bailey Rae, Sarah Mclaughlin, Stephanie Smith & John Mayer).
We drove for a day and then stopped in St. Louis for 2 nights. It was so nice to just relax with my family there (and I had them all to myself). My sister made us so comfortable and she and my mom fed us well. Real cooked meals are such a gift when you're traveling. Em I still need that stroganoff recipe! We just relaxed at Emily's house, played Phase 10 and Quiddler and croquet and made a visit to Grant's Farm- I like feeding the goats the best! Anyway, after our little stop there, we jumped in the car for another 8 or 9 hours and made it to Michigan.
We drove for a day and then stopped in St. Louis for 2 nights. It was so nice to just relax with my family there (and I had them all to myself). My sister made us so comfortable and she and my mom fed us well. Real cooked meals are such a gift when you're traveling. Em I still need that stroganoff recipe! We just relaxed at Emily's house, played Phase 10 and Quiddler and croquet and made a visit to Grant's Farm- I like feeding the goats the best! Anyway, after our little stop there, we jumped in the car for another 8 or 9 hours and made it to Michigan.
When planning the visit to Michigan, we had our kids in mind the whole time. We didn't want to be trapped in a hotel or dragging them on long excursions everyday. We ended up renting a house on a lake in western Michigan. It's always a gamble when you find a place online but we got lucky. The place turned out to be perfect. A cute 70's house with everything we needed plus a hammock, some kayaks, a rowboat and peddle boat... There was also a dock about 50 yards from our beach that had a couple of diving boards. The kids had a blast taking boats out to the dock and hanging out for hours. The weather was fantastic, low 80's and we just kept drinking in the crisp air with low humidity. I had forgotten how much I missed trees. I mean Maple and Oak, Cottonwood, and the most perfect spruce trees you have ever seen! We layed on the hammock and on the grass (no fire ants!) for hours just looking at the leaves in the breeze.
We were orignally planning to head over to Detroit for a day or two but we just weren't up for more driving and so we spent the whole week on the west side of the state. We kept our activities simple: ie we layed around, fished off the dock, spent an afternoon at Lake Michigan, let the boys tend a fire for hours (they LOVED this), played board games, watched "The Princess Bride," and on the last day we rented a jet ski with a tube and spent the whole day playing on the lake. I had never ridden a jet ski before and Curtis threw me the keys and told me to take off for a bit. It was awesome and I felt like I was flying (even though I was only going 48mph!). My sister's family met us for a few days and it was so fun to see all the cousins playing together. They built dams on the beach, played pirates on the dock and never got tired of tubing! Of course Lisa and I squeezed in a couple of midnight trips to Meijer and had plenty of girl talking time- just what I needed.
We were orignally planning to head over to Detroit for a day or two but we just weren't up for more driving and so we spent the whole week on the west side of the state. We kept our activities simple: ie we layed around, fished off the dock, spent an afternoon at Lake Michigan, let the boys tend a fire for hours (they LOVED this), played board games, watched "The Princess Bride," and on the last day we rented a jet ski with a tube and spent the whole day playing on the lake. I had never ridden a jet ski before and Curtis threw me the keys and told me to take off for a bit. It was awesome and I felt like I was flying (even though I was only going 48mph!). My sister's family met us for a few days and it was so fun to see all the cousins playing together. They built dams on the beach, played pirates on the dock and never got tired of tubing! Of course Lisa and I squeezed in a couple of midnight trips to Meijer and had plenty of girl talking time- just what I needed.
We cooked most of our meals but did manage to eat at one of the restaurants featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." A little place called "Rosies" with an amazing Mushroom Swiss Burger and Onion Rings. Oh and did I mention the Banana Cream Pie... and the Blueberry Pie? I love pie. BTW... "If you get a chance between Pie Heaven and regular Heaven, pick Pie heaven. It might be a trick but if it's not, hmmm boy!" (maybe my all time fav Deep Thought). We also found a great rib place called "Sammy's Joint." The perfect ending to our day at the beach on Lake Michigan. Oh and maybe my favorite part of visiting beautiful Lake Michigan was observing how different my boys are. Isaac was obsessed with keeping the sand off him and out of his shorts. Daniel was rolling it and had what can only be described as a "sand goatee."
After a week in Michigan we caravanned with my sister's famiy down to Missouri for a Family Reunion. Five of the eight kids in my family were there with their families and several of my cousins. It was so great to see many people we haven't seen in years. And I loved seeing the cousins play together. Unfortunately I always seem to get a little overwhelmed at reunions. There is just never enough time and so many people I want to connect with. On top of that my kids were all totally sleep deprived and eating out for most meals. Oh and then add to that some PMS and I found myself a bit crabby toward the end. Dang!
But we had some great times, visiting the beautiful botanical gardens, swimming at the hotel, enjoying church and a yummy brunch together, to name a few. I think my favorite part was on Saturday afternoon. We had a water balloon toss and played frisbee, kickball and Red Rover. My boys just loved it. Oh and then Jonah started talking trash and saying that he could outrun me. So..I school him. But seriously it was a close race and it won't be long before he pones me! That will be epic. (I'm channeling some Jonah slang here.)
This trip was great but as always it was nice to come home and sleep in our own beds and eat our own food and just get back into our schedule. Curtis and I have lots of places we want to visit and western Michigan was one of them, so we've checked one off the list-still so many more: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Palmyra, Mexico, Vermont...
