Another Trip to the Mitten

We made our trek to Michigan last weekend, unfortunately without Bob (he was swamped with work and couldn't get away). The original plan was for Elsa, Claire and me to make the drive on Wednesday without him, and then he would join us by taking the train on Friday. Then we were all going to drive back together on Sunday. Sadly, he had too much going on even for that short trip. But it would have been a lot of traveling for him to stay less than 48 hours anyway, and now's really not the time for him to be slacking off!

The drive there went fine—both girls slept for most of the first half, and after that I just had a pile of toys and books on the front seat to pass back to Elsa whenever she either dropped or got bored with the previous item. I attached some toys to Claire's carseat handle and that seemed to entertain her. So they were both very, very good. The ride home, however, was awful—I was tired, and between stops and bad Chicago traffic, it took more than six hours! But the girls were very cooperative, so it certainly wasn't their fault, and I don't think it would have been a whole lot better even if Bob had been with us. He probably would have had to work in the car, so I most likely would have been doing the driving anyway.

We spent Wednesday night at Grandpa J.'s. Grandma made us a good dinner that night, and since Grandpa is now retired, we had a nice leisurely breakfast of toad-in-the-hole and bacon with him on Thursday morning.

Claire didn't get any toad-in-the-hole, but she enjoyed breakfast all the same.

As Bob likes to say, "She looks like a little person!"

Thursday afternoon, we visited Grandma B. and Grandpa P. at their temporary rental in Spring Lake. It was a cute little place on the marina, and it included privileges at the indoor pool at the Holiday Inn next door, so we all went swimming. Then it was over to Grand Rapids and Ellen and Dave's house for the remainder of the weekend.

I have no idea why Claire is wearing her sweater poncho but no pants in this picture.

Here are Claire and Mia playing on the quilt I made (and finished just in the nick of time) for Mia. The fabric has cute, googly-eyed little owls on it.

Elsa and Carter have breakfast. This was taken before Carter went crashing backwards off his barstool twice in a row!

Elsa and Carter finally got to exchange birthday gifts. Elsa got Dog from Word World, Dora and Little Miss Chatterbox books, and a little dry-erase board for drawing and practicing her letters, which she used in the car on the drive home. Claire also got a gift–Bug from Word World.

We got Carter Diego and Finding Nemo games for his Leapster.

Elsa and Claire had so much fun playing with their cousins!

Mia looks a lot like Ellen, especially in this picture.

The final event of the weekend was Mike Pries's wedding (which was a lot of fun) and the infamous grandchild cattle-call/photo session, for Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas card. We actually got a decent shot this year, without any crying, screaming, or escape attempts! The shot above was definitely the best of the bunch. Unfortunately, Elsa's smile is ridiculous. I may try to do a little Photoshopping and switch out her head with one from a better shot of her. But that's significantly less work than what I've done to this group shot in the past. : )

Our kids did not actually attend this wedding—Grandpa and Grandma J. were nice enough to agree to babysit for all four of them, so we took them up on that. More fun for us. : ) So in order to get the grandchild group picture, we went home between the wedding and the reception, got Elsa, Carter, Claire, and Mia all dressed up, and brought them to the reception just long enough to get a few shots. Then we immediately loaded them back up in the car and took them home (fortunately, the reception was only five minutes from Ellen's house).

Poor Elsa was all ready to party, since she had such a good time at Lisa's wedding a few weeks ago. They must have thought it was the shortest, lamest wedding reception ever. But I'm sure eating pizza and watching Wall-E with Grandpa and Grandma J. was a good alternative.

Claire and Mia were just along for the ride, as usual.

We had such a fun time in Michigan and are hoping to make it back there the weekend before Christmas. And we really hope to see the Shaffers in Florida this winter!