Over the River Mountain and through theWoods Great Plains...

... to Grandmother's the families' house we go went.


Our first-ever road trip to Michigan as a family of three!  We left on Saturday night around O's bed time so he would sleep during the 13 hour drive, and it worked, for the most part.  Except the 13 hour drive turned into a 15 hour drive.  Because of a rockslide.  I'm not joking, there was one in Tennessee and the detour was on a hairpin-turns-through-the-back-country-woods-mountainous-skinny-two-lane-road AND there was dense fog.  Lovely.  We were literally going 20mph for a good two hours to get trough those mountains.  And we were literally turning a little green with all the switchbacks and swerves we were having to make.  But what's a road trip without a little adventure? :)  Owen did great through the whole ride, though he did wake up around 2am and was up for a couple hours.  I suspect it's because he wasn't comfortable, especially since he's normally a side sleeper.
He woke up for the day around 6:30 or 7:00am so we pulled into a rest area to take a potty break and change his diaper and let him get out of the car seat and stretch, and learn how to drive.

We also got to watch the sun come up over the frosty fields of Indiana.

 

It was downright freeeeezing.

 

A little farther into Indiana we saw the first snow we'd seen the whole trip!

 

And it was the last snow we saw all trip.  Yup.  The third time we've been to Michigan since moving to NC (second time during winter) and we've yet to see any 'real' snow!  

Around 10:00 we finally pulled into our destination!  We were staying with my cousin (well, she's actually my 2nd cousin, but we were really close growing up and I lived with her during college so it doesn't feel like she's my 2nd cousin.. anyway) and her kids (who were so little) last time I saw them!  Were SO excited to meet Owen!  She had just had a sleep-over the night before, so her friend was there too and they snagged him up right away!

He didn't mind :)

After some play time we got dressed and went to church!  We were just in time for the 11:00 service at our former church Res Life, which is now (and has been for a while) called Radiant.  It was neat to go back there again and it was great to hear Pastor Lee preach again.  Owen did great in kids church, despite having been on the road for 15 hours just moments before.  After church we laid low all day.  Bill & I didn't get much sleep at all and by that point taking a nap would have done more damage, so we just relaxed, unpacked and grabbed some groceries we'd need for the week.  We also enjoyed some amazing home cooking a'la my cousin and learned how to play Mexican Train Dominoes. 

We decided to try and keep our morning routine as close as we could to our home routine so Owen could adjust, so we made breakfast, lounged around and let him take his morning nap from 10-12 as usual.  He did great sleeping in his little Pea Pod for the first time.  I was very proud of him because we hadn't tried him sleeping in it before the trip, in fact, the Michigan trip was kind of a trial for our Africa trip, which is why we got it in the first place.  Anyway, after his nap we headed to the Bradford's (my side of the family)!

He was very excited to meet Buddy.

:)  And of course he was excited to meet his grandpa, and aunt Karisa and uncle Travis and grandma Laura too!

  

 

My little siblings (well, two of them, one of them didn't make it this day) Travis, 18, at least a head taller than me, and Karisa, 10, almost as tall as me. :)  Then David, 30(something, I think) with his 2nd little one, just a few months old.

 

He also got to meet his Great Grandma & Grandpa Ely, his Uncle Garry, Uncle Rick, Aunt Laurie.

After meeting all those people he was tired by the time we got back 'home'... but the kids had waited up (literally looking out the window) for him so we let them snuggle for a little while right before bed. :)

And that was day 1 and 2 of our Michigan trip!

Stay tuned for more... for now, little man is up from his nap and I must go kiss his cheeks!!