A Minnesota Road Trip

To fly or drive? That's often the question for us when it comes to making trips with long drives. The trip to Pennsylvani (6.5 hours driving time) is about the girl's limit, so when it came to making a trip to Minnesota this summer, we didn't know what to do. Now that Lauren is two, we would have to buy her a ticket and even with spending a night in a hotel and the ever-increasing gas prices, it's still cheaper to drive, so we loaded up the Traverse and headed out early on a Sunday morning.

We decided to break the trip up on the way to Minnesota. Our first stop was downtown Chicago where we enjoyed breakfast at Grand Lux Cafe and then spent some time at Navy Pier. While we were there, we saw lots of boats and the girls got to crawl on some play coral and dance outside the Children's Museum (we didn't actually got to the museum). One of the highlights was going up in the Ferris Wheel and seeing all the skyscrapers (we even got Lauren to say skycraper!).

 

 From there we headed up to just north of Madison for the night. After dinner, we headed to the pool where the girls loved swimming and splashing around. The next morning we got on the road and our first stop was in Wisconsin Dells for a duck tour. The girls were very excited to get on a boat and we saw lots of trees, some cool rock formations, and even got a little bit of a splash as we headed into Lake Delton.

From there our next stop was Minnesota (after a lunch break at McDonalds which Alyssa calls "Old MacDonalds" and Lauren calls "Donals, french fries".) It was great to finally be at Grammy and Papa's house and run through the sprinkler and swing on the swings.

We stayed at Auntie Stacy's house this time. Alyssa loved sleeping in the BIG bed with Stacy, and both of them loved all the toys Stacy had borrowed and/or bought. They were spoiled so much while they were there - lots of yummy food and all sorts of fun activities. We all went to Edinborough Park and played in Adventure Peak. It took the girls a while to get brave enough to climb up high but once they got going it was hard to keep track of them. I don't have any pictures of them playing, but in my defense I was busy crawling around with them in the jungle gym! I'm sure Auntie Stacy and Grammy have some though :) They also got to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America and ride some rides and meet Dora and Boots. This was a dream come true for Alyssa...Lauren wasn't quite as sure. They ate at the Rainforest Cafe where Alyssa talked about it thundering and lightening but it not raining on her food.

We spent an afternoon at Como Park with a friend, an evening playing with friends at their house, swimming with family and friends, and a night with friends at Canterbury. The girls loved seeing the horses, Lauren clapped her hands and would cheer "Go horse". Alyssa picked #3 to win every race (because you know, she's three years old) and even won a couple of those bets with Stacy. But what they (and we) enjoyed most was being with our friends and family.

The road trip home was much less eventful, aside from pit stops we just spent the night at a hotel in Beloit with a swimming pool. The girls enjoyed watching a few movies and trying to get the truckers to honk their horn. We all do the motion and yell "toot toot" together - Alyssa was pretty excited when three trucks in a row honked at us one day. Aaron and I often laugh as we do this because we know the truck drivers can only see me, so we wonder what they must be thinking.

We enjoyed every minute of our trip and are so thankful that the girls get to know our Minnesota friends and family. Alyssa is starting to understand that this is where they were both born and that no matter where we are Minnesota will always have a special place in our hearts.

S'more of this weather please!

Today was the first day in about a week that it hasn't been stifling hot here in Michigan. The 85 degrees and lower humidity felt pretty refreshing and comfortable after several days of 100+ temperatures. We enjoyed being outside this afternoon. The girls enjoyed some watermelon on the deck and we all enjoyed eating dinner on the deck.

We also thought we'd take advantage of the pleasant weather and roast some marshmallows after dinner. We've had the fire pit for nearly two months now and have only used it once! We bought the ingredients for s'mores a while back, so I took the chocolate bars out of the refrigerator and we headed outside. The marshamllows were sugary and sticky.

The s'mores were deliciously messy. The chocolate was already melting by the time we went to put it on the graham crackers (less than 15 minutes) and we all had it all over our faces. But it's hard not to smile when you've got that gooey goodness between the crackers.

 We'll take s'more gorgeous summer weather like this anytime :)

A "reunication"

We just got home from our first family vacation. Yes, we've done plenty of trips to visit friends and family, but this was the first time the trip felt like a vacation. Maybe it was because it was to the beach or maybe because we stayed in an unfamiliar place, but whatever the reason we really enjoyed our week in Seabrook Island, South Carolina for the DePalma-Fleming-Menke-Sanderson (aka Mogab) reunion.

We met up with the Sandersons in the Baltimore airport, but we didn't get much of a chance to catch up as we immediately had to board the next plane. Upon arrival in Charleston, Alyssa an Audrey quickly bonded over silly faces. On the drive from the airport to the island, Alyssa repeated over and over "I feel like I'm ready to get out now. I want to go swimming." But it wasn't meant to be that day as that night found us enjoying fresh shrimp and a gorgeous sunset after unpacking.

 

The next morning, we put on our bathing suits and lathered on the sunscreen and headed to the beach. Both girls absolutely loved the water. Alyssa splashed around in her tube and Lauren sat in her ladybug floatie, kicking and splashing. Both girls were intrigued by the clumps of seaweed and crabs in the sand (although Lauren didn't particularly like it when the little crabs crawled over her feet).

After naps, we hit the pool and there was more swimming and splashing. Alyssa got braver with each passing minute, putting her face in the water (thanks to some swimming goggles), jumping off the side and swimming in the deep end.

This is how we spent the week, between the beach and the pool. We enjoyed breakfast and lunch on the porch of the condo, in the shade with a nice breeze and dinner was usually at Aunt Jacquie & Uncle Paul's house. It took until the very last day in the afternoon for Alyssa to finally say "I'm tired of swimming." She absolutely loved it, and she referred to herself (and Audrey) as "fishies". Lauren too loved the water but not nearly as much. She hasn't yet developed any fear of the water really, and Nana was convinced that she would just walk off the edge of the pool into the water if you weren't watching her. Even in the ocean, she'd walk around you and bounce up and down with no real fear of falling in the water.

The girls enjoyed playing in the sand too. They were able to build some sand castles, bury their feet, and even pose with their names.

It only rained one day, but even that day were able to keep ourselves entertained with dance parties, exploring the garage, hide-and-seek, and fingernail painting. While we were there we were able to celebrate Drew's first birthday (and Lauren's and Todd's too!) and visit for an afternoon with Fife.

But really the best part of the week was spending time together. Audrey and Alyssa were pretty much inseparable, and Lauren was very attentive to Drew. As adults, we enjoyed watching them begin to establish bonds and we also loved laughing and talking together too.

On our way back to the airport, we stopped to check out the Angel Oak. This impressive tree is thought to be 300-400 years old. We can't even begin to describe to you the span of its branches and the girth of its trunk. The website says that it's 65 feet high, with a circumference of 25.5 feet. The circumference of the largest branch is 11.5 feet and is 89 feet long! The girls (and us too!) really wanted to climb on it, but that isn't allowed.

The girls did great with the air travel. They sat very nicely in their car seats on the plane and were good listeners when  walking through the airports. Thankfully, neither of them had any troubles with motion sickness or ears popping.

Lauren did have some pretty ugly diapers early in the trip which brought on lots of screaming when it came time to change diapers, but she has since recovered. She also caught a touch of a cold and was struggling with a molar that wanted to poke through, so she totally showed everyone her true colors during the last few days of the trip. The saying of the week was "When she's happy, she's really happy. And when she's not, she's really not." I'm just hoping that everyone remembers more of the happy moments than the meltdowns (and yes, she's going through a phase when she doesn't want to wear pants).

 We look forward to another Mogab "reunication" again in the future! Thanks Aunt Jacquie and Uncle Paul for hosting, and thanks Nana and PapPap and Uncle Wally & Aunt Dena for weathering the tantrums with us and keeping the girls for our day out in Charleston!