Visiting Michigan

flying to Michigan!

I love Michigan. I always have! I think when I was younger, I rarely got to see my Michigan family so they seemed a bit exotic and Michigan felt like this really cool place where I got to fish and hang out on lakes and see this family that I never got to see.

Michigan still holds a dear place in my heart and I was so happy to visit over the weekend!

We flew into Detroit and visited the Motown Museum then drove straight to Pinckney to my mom's cousins Marybeth and Jeff's house for dinner with most of the family.

After dinner, the ladies and the kids went down to the neighborhood lake to wade and/or swim. It had rained in the afternoon, drastically dropping the temperate from 95 to low 70s and because it had rained, we had the pleasure of seeing a double rainbow!

After lake time, everyone gathered back together to talk and tell stories and catch up. It was so good to spend time with the kids - my first memories of their parents are from when I was their age! I want to know them and for them to know us! Happily, the older kids (2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders) remember us each time. (This is the last time we saw them, back in November.)

We talked way past the kids' bedtimes, so the families packed up and we settled in to sleep with the windows open since the weather was so nice!

Marybeth made us raspberry muffins for breakfast and we sat out on their screened-in porch and talked a bit in the morning. It was so peaceful. Andy remarked that it was similar to the peace and quiet we love about going to the mountains each year and I definitely agree!

We had to hit the road to meet Dayna and Christina for lunch but first we made a pit stop in Hell!

I remembered visiting Hell when I was in Michigan as a child and I thought it might be funny to go again and take Andy! He bought postcards and sent messages to a couple friends from the tiny post office inside the ice cream shop in Hell. They even burn the bottom of your postcard for authenticity! Now, hell is not something I would normally joke about, but this is so kitschy and such a tourist trap that it's pretty funny and harmless.

We then headed straight to Ann Arbor and had lunch at the Jolly Pumpkin, which was delicious and so nice to hang out with Christina and Dayna! After lunch, Andy & I walked around downtown just a bit. We checked into the hotel, took a little nap, then got ready for Dayna's big banquet!

Dayna was graduating from her residency program at St. Joseph's in Ann Arbor. She was chief resident, so it was really exciting to see her as pretty much the guest of honor throughout the night. We got her a silly little gift - the Toy Story version of Operation. We got a huge "Dayna laugh" out of her when she opened it. :)





The banquet was great and the next day, there was a BBQ to continue the celebration! Before the BBQ, however, we killed some time at some thrift stores of course! I will do a post about PTO, but it was the most amazing thrift store I've ever been to. If I lived in Ann Arbor, this place would be DANGEROUS.

We left from the BBQ to head back to the airport and come home. It was a short trip but really nice to see some of my favorite people all within a 30 mile radius! :)

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