Michigan trip

Tomorrow we will be forced back into our "normal" lives. It's been a nice two weeks to relax, see family, and stay up late and sleep in. I think we are all in for a rude awakening tomorrow. Most of the last two weeks was spent in Michigan. We drove along with my parents. They took one kid at a time so that helped stave off fights in our car. And really, the kids were pretty good throughout the trip. It's hard being away for so long, but they did great. They were rewarded with Chuck E Cheese on our last night in Grand Rapids. Chuck E Cheese was one of the first things Rion saw in Grand Rapids. Nobody else saw it as it's sort of tucked away from the road, but he saw it right away. Unfortunately, it was close to the hotel so he saw it a lot. The main reason for going to Grand Rapids was to attend the wedding of my youngest sister Laurie. The wedding was beautiful and Laurie was gorgeous. The reception and dance was at a park and we had a great time. Torii loved dancing and even Rion joined in later. While the week leading up to the wedding was filled with fun parties (bridal shower, bachelorette party, and rehearsal) we still found some time to explore the city.

Torii at the baseball game. Grand Rapids has an "A" minor league team for the Detroit Tigers called the Whitecaps. We got seats on the lawn and enjoyed an afternoon at the ballpark.
My beautiful kids at the wedding. I didn't even see them until after the ceremony and they left me speechless. They looked so good! What handsome young men and a little lady I have.

After the ballgame (and naps) we headed to Lake Michigan. The water was still quite cold, but that didn't stop the kids from getting into the water. The kids loved the lake and beach. They built sand castles, chased seagulls, and played in the water. Rion asked to go back to the lake almost every day for the rest of the trip.

This was taken after rehearsal dinner.

Rion and Cordelia at Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids. The festival is sort of like our street fair in the fall except there is a lot more art. And a lot of hands on art. There was also things for the kids to do. I wish we would have had more time to explore the festival because I didn't get to see it all and I wanted to eat some more too! There was a lot of food that you just don't see around here and I wanted to try so much of it. And the prices were so much cheaper than what the food vendors charge at our street fair.

We also got to visit the zoo which is really nice. Rion was in heaven because he got to see real life penguins. We had planned on going to Minot this summer to see the penguins at their zoo, but Rion got to see them in Grand Rapids. He is obsessed with them. I haven't seen him that excited about something in a long time. The kids also got as much swimming in as they could at the hotel. And on our way home we stopped at the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness for the second time. We had hoped that we could explore the outdoor water parks this time around, but the weather didn't cooperate. There was plenty to do inside anyway. The kids loved the wave pool. And this time the boys were tall enough to do some water slides. Rion is tall enough that he can do them on his own. And I got to go on the water slides this time too, because I was pregnant the last time. We had a great vacation and now we must get back to real life. I've gotten used to staying up late, but now I need to get to bed or it's going to be a long week for me.