MICHIGAN

We had a "bonus" Fall trip to Michigan this year.  My dad won tickets to the MSU vs. Notre Dame game and invited Eric to go, so we all road tripped it up to Michigan.  Eric just stayed through the weekend and the boys and I stayed on for some additional time.

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures on most days so I don't have photos to go with a lot of the events of our jam packed week.

Thursday:  Drove to Michigan.  An uneventful trip and the boys really did amazingly well being stuck in car seats for 11 hours.   We spent the night at Eric's parents and his sister and her boys came over for dinner.  Alex was thrilled to see his cousins!

Friday:  Alex spent the day with Grammy (Eric's mom) and his cousins.  He got to play a lot with Kasjen and loved every minute of it.  Then Alex he had a special sleepover at Grammy's house with Kasjen.  He did a great job sleeping over without Mommy and Daddy there.

Saturday:  Alex was pretty exhausted by his sleepover, so we just laid low at Grandma and Papa's in Grand Haven. 

Sunday:  We spent the day in Grand Haven and Uncle Todd and Aunt Jen came over for the day.  Uncle Todd and Alex played some golf - pretending to be Tiger and Phil.  I took Alex down to the beach.  The water felt like melted ice cubes but that did not stop Alex from swimming in it.

Monday:  We met Grammy at the zoo.  Sadly most of the animals were quite lazy when we were there.  Alex loved the reptile house and seeing the alligator and big snakes.

 
 
 
 

These birds were seriously aggressive and they would not stop landing on me!
 
 
Tuesday:  On Tuesday we went with Grandma to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.  It was a great place with so many great exhibits.  Alex loved it and could have spent all day playing there.  
The Farm -



Sandbox -

Grocery Store -

Diner -

Fire Station -

 
Bee Keeper -



Helicopter-


Veterinarian -

 
 
Drums-

Puppets

Bubbles-

Brodie got in on some of the fun too....


 
 
 
Wednesday:  We went and played at Alex's cousin -Isaac's house.  He has a lot of Toy Story toys that Alex loved playing with.  In the afternoon Papa took Alex fishing and to the fire station where he got to drive fire trucks and turn on the lights. Big Fun!  One of Alex's favorite things to do at Papa and Grandma's house was to pick tomatoes from the garden...


Thursday:  We spent the day at Aunt Ang's house.  Alex played with Kensi while he waited for Kasjen to get out of school - they had big fun splooshing rocks in sewer grates and picking and opening up milk weeds.  Once Kasjen got home from school they played outside on the tramp and we went to a play ground. 


Friday:  Long long drive back to Alabama.  The kids did well, but it is just a long day!  My mom drove for all but 10 hours so I could sit in back and entertain the boys.  We pulled off at an exit to change Brodie's dirty diaper - lucky for Alex it was the Dinosaur World exit and there was a big Triceratops in the parking lot..

Grandma came back to Alabama with us.  It was wonderful to have her here.  Eric and I got a date night and I got to get a lot of errands and appointments taken care of.  Grandma spent a lot of quality time with Brodie so I could do some one on one things with Alex.  Alex loves weeding in the garden with her and Grandma even played lots of tackle football.  Alex was beside himself today when Grandma left.  He was literally sobbing and saying how much he missed her and wanted her to come back.  He had tears running down his face and said "Momma I am crying so hard my eyes are dripping" :).