Sweet Home...Michigan

Seventeen hours of driving with an over night stop in a hotel.  Just to get there.  With five kids, ages two to eleven.  Think we're crazy?

I hadn't been to Michigan to visit family in over four years.  I guess that will make me crazy enough to drive all that way.  And it went really, really well.

Not that the driving was fun, but there was minimal "are we almost there?"s and zero crying.  Hours and hours and hours of watching DVDs, mostly Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers and Madagascar 1 & 2 multiple times.

We stopped in Nashville at Centennial Park and what an awesome park!  It's huge and so green and so perfect.  We walked around the Parthenon there, ran through the big field, played on the playground, ate snow cones, and it was a great spot to take a break from the car ride.

This sweet little one picks flowers (weeds or not) anywhere she can find them...so precious!

Back on the road again, and more DVDs and on into Kentucky...

It's not a real road trip for our family without a stop at Cracker Barrell.

Had we known how bad the actual night in the hotel in Indiana was going to be, we would have driven straight through though.  Two beds for seven people just didn't work, but we hated to spend the money on two rooms that we only need to sleep in and then leave again early the next morning.  We had kids on the floor, which they were fine with, but the "he's making a weird noise" and "she's touching my foot" took a while to quiet down.

Finally...

Never mind the dirty windshield.

We spent two nights down in the Lansing area where my mom and grandma live.  We actually stay with my grandma because, although her home seems smaller each time I visit as I bring more and more kids into it with every visit, my mom's is much smaller.  I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but my mom has schizophrenia and couldn't really handle us visiting her home for very long anyways.  

We spent a fun day with her though out and about...

How fun is this old-school jungle gym toy!

And I have never seen this type of playground toy before...a take on the merry-go-round I think.

 Not so easy...big wipe out happening here!

After a hot afternoon under the sun, we would up at the theater and watched the new Madagascar 3 movie with my mom...very funny!

The next morning we packed up and headed north to the lake that my grandma's camper is on.  If you could see my hand, I'd show you exactly where it is...about two-thirds of the way up and in the center.  Much cooler weather, and a highlight of our trips to Michigan.

I've been coming to this lakeside camper since I was a young kid.  My earliest memory there was at about six years old, wearing an old eighties matching pink outfit and fishing.  We moved quite a bit when I was a child, and even more now as a military wife, so I'm thankful for my grandma and the consistency of her home in Haslett and her lakeside lot up north.

After just a day there, we went even further north, up to the tip of your middle finger if you used your own hand-map of Michigan, to Mackinaw City.  We spent one night up there, and there's a lot of fun things to do.  Fort Michilimackinaw was on the agenda the day we got up there.  It was pretty rainy, so our options were limited.

We ended the day with a stop at a fudge shop...a must in Mackinaw City!

The next day we toured the Old Mackinaw Fort Lighthouse.  Gabe turned out to be a tad too short, but they ended up letting him climb up anyways.  The girls had to stay down though, so Chris and I had to take turns going up.

On the west side of the Mackinaw Bridge is Lake Michigan.  On the east side, below, is Lake Huron.  Lot of education on this trip!  hahaha

My aunt, uncle and cousins were able to go up north at the same time as us, so we enjoyed spending the time with them also.

Then we ferried over to Mackinaw Island and now I daydream of going there with just my hubby.  No cars are allowed on the island (save a few "secret" emergency vehicles).  There are over 500 horses and a bazillion bicycles all over the place.

Chris took Matthew and Gabriel on a walking tour of the island so they could explore the fort and get a closer look at everything.  The girls, Christopher, my grandma and I took a horse and carriage tour.

love that he's not pulling her hair, but sweetly playing with it

We were so thankful that the rain stayed south of us and we could enjoy the whole afternoon on the island.  It's definitely somewhere I'd love to go back to and spend more time.

P.S.  This is the hotel I want to stay in when it's just Chris and me.  

After one night up far-north, we went back to my grandma's camper for three more nights before heading back to southern Michigan.  Lots of relaxing, enjoying the fresh air up there, and just making good memories with my sweet family.

Back at the camper, we enjoyed more relaxing, fishing, boating, giggles, and visiting with family we love and rarely see.

Oh, and rain.

We had access to a bass fishing boat and an uncovered pontoon boat.  After a couple of hours of drizzle, the men rigged up a tarp over the pontoon and set sail.  It was funny to watch, but it worked.

And the next day the rain stopped and there was more boating and fishing.

We even were able to get together with my mom's side of the family for an afternoon that stretched well into the evening hours.  It was so hard to leave my family knowing we wouldn't see them again for a long time.  Four aunts, three uncles, gobs of cousins, lots of second cousins, and even a few dogs thrown in the mix...it was a great visit with them all.  

This day was the first time I had ever been on a wave runner or jet ski.  And probably my last.  Chris took me out and went way to fast, made way to sharp turns, and flipped us over when we got back to shore.  I'm not a fan.

Back down in south Michigan, we spent another day with my mom, going to a zoo that I frequented as a child.  Again, taking my kids to these same places I went to as a child makes even more special memories.

The next day, we left bright and early so we could spend some time with our best friends from our Nebraska days, who now live in Ohio.  It was so great catching up with them.  Both of our oldest kids are the same age, as well as both of our second kids.  We met when our oldest kids were both just over a year old, and even at that young age, they became friends, actually playing together when most kids their age would have just 'parallel' played.  They were best friends until the military sent them on after five years to live in a new place.  We've kept in touch through the years, as Britney and I were also very close, and it was great to pick up where we left off five years ago.

I also love that when I told her I'd be homeschooling, she was the first to call me crazy (in a keepin'-it-real friend kind of way!) and now she's made the decision to homeschool both of her precious sons starting this year.  

Once we left her house, about 1.5 hours past when I had planned on leaving, we booked it to Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains National Forest.  Which I'll save for another day because this post has gotten so long.