On the drive up, it took us 13 hrs 15 min, that is really good considering we stopped twice for food and once for gas. Our trip up was uneventful until Bekah upchucked her breakfast all over her and her seat. Bill and I tag teamed the clean up efforts and we were on our way fairly quick. We had a good little laugh about our adventure and continued on. The kids started getting fussy and I gave them their new toy to play with. They call it an "i color" not to be confused with an ipod, imac, or ipad. lol It is basically a cheap ($2.50) magnent drawing board. They played with it for an hour an a half straight, at lunch and then played with it another hour and a half. Best purchase I've made in quite a while.
Our first destination was to PaPa's (my dads) house. We arrived at 5:45pm (left NC at 4:30am). After we got unpacked we headed over to Deb's work to see grandma (Bill's mom) she was so excited and got to show off the grandkids. They colored with pencil, even on her desk (oops) and had a blast saying Hi to everyone. It was a quick dinner and then to bed for the kids after a long day.
Friday we did some errands around Kalamazoo and playing in the yard. We met up with my mom at the mall and she got to see the kids for the first time.
Fazolis was a great lunch!!! We went back to Dads and enjoyed his yard and throwing and kicking a ball around. When Am ma (grandma, Bill's mom) arrived the kids dove into the kiddie pool. It was all we could do to get their clothes off of them before they climbed in. I won't post pics from that night because as Bekah would say they were "necked" (naked). All of us adults had a blast watching the kids splash away. My dad and I had a good laugh when Bill decided his mom needed to get into the pool (picked her up and put her in, clothes and all). The kids didn't know what to thing with Am ma in there with them.
Saturday we enjoyed some more time around the house and some more running around. They really enjoyed playing ball in the yard, flying a kite, using sidewalk chalk and best of all pool time (this time with bathing suits on). Grandma decided to join the kids in the pool on her own this time and they all had a blast.
Sunday was Fathers day. We celebrated with my dad and Bill's dad both. Everyone went to church together, enjoyed some time at the mall in GR and then ended up at BC Pizza. We were so thankful to be able to spend this holiday with our fathers. We couldn't be more blessed with the two wonderful children God has blessed us with.
Monday we went shopping for Western shirts for all four of us and found some really nice ones. Our time in Kalamazoo ended quickly. :(
Tuesday we drove to Sturgis, ate lunch with Jackie at work and headed back to Dottie's house. We were surprised with friends that visited for dinner and then some other family members that arrived. Each day in Sturgis we saw even more friends and family. We wished we would have had more time with everyone, but did our best.
Saturday we headed home to NC. This time we left at 4:45 and didn't make it home until 7pm (15hrs 15 min). We had to stop more because Bill and I were very tired and having a hard time staying awake. There were a lot of areas with construction zone speed limits that slowed us down. We also ran into a traffic jam, well... more like a parking lot. We came to a complete stop for 30 min, put the windows down and turned off the car. It was an even longer day but we made it home safely. We probably should have taken the same way back that we did going there, but you never know what is going to be faster.
Thanks to all of the family and friends that hosted us for the 8 days. So thankful that we were able to spend time with everyone that we did, and sorry that we missed some too.
