Monday, June 27, 2016

Vacation, Day 5 Michigan, On Our Way Home

Friday was our Last Day.  :( 
I got up and started loading the car, packing to come home was easier than unpacking.  
I had Lisa help manage all the kitchen stuff, and that was a big burden lifted.  


Meanwhile, all the kids played together outside, there was chalk and bubbles, and moving targets.  
And fun had by all. 
At least they got to play with their cousins a bit before we headed out.  
I wanted to get on the road by 9, it was closer to 9:30.  


I wish Objects in the Mirror were closer than they appear.  
That was my Mom and Seestor as they headed back indoors after waving us off. 
Sigh. 


As we pulled out, I noticed there were no cars at the beach, so I pulled in for one last photo.  
The water was still, and the beach was quiet.  


The only noise came from us.  
But I got one last kind of decent picture of the boys before we headed out. 
And, most importantly, no one got sandy.  


I experimented with my phone.  This was my first phone panoramic shot. 
It didn't turn out too bad, there's a skip in the middle that I'd like to fix, I just have no idea how. 
I'd fix it on my own computer, but as that died too during the Great Power Surge of 2016,  but I can't.  So I'll just suffer through an iffy shot.  
Even an iffy shot of a beautiful day at the beach is still kind of pretty. 


Dwarf lilacs at the entrance to the beach were still blooming.  



And they smelled so good. 

I love the smell of fresh lilacs.  I'm gonna miss it.  

And off we went, about a half hour later than I wanted.  Once we got south of Petoskey, Christopher realized he left his Nintendo DS on the charger in the living room in the corner on a charger.  Doh!  I wasn't going to turn around to get it.  I told the story of me losing my blanket that I'd had since birth while on Vacation with my parents, and not realizing until we were half a state away.  This was back before hotels were nice and sometimes would mail stuff like that.   Well, I called Lisa, she found the DS, and a couple other things, like our beach towels that hadn't dried overnight so I'd thrown them in the dryer.  Double Doh.  We'd see her next week.  He melted down.  He melted the hell down!  Not going back meant we had 1 DS (Sam's) and the DVD player, which Chris killed his screen on the way up.  Good Lord, what did we do before traveling with screens?!  Oh yeah, that's right, we unbuckled, laid down on the seat, played cards and games, and tickled each other until we passed out from the inability to breathe.  In exchange for keeping them alive in a seat belt and carseat, they can't Do Anything.  So I pulled over, put Sam in the way back with his DS, and Chris by Jacob to be distributor, and watch movies.  That made for a MUCH easier ride home, and I still didn't turn around.  




I tell you what I did do, I plotted a visit with a friend who lives about halfway between Grand Rapids and Lansing.  She staked out a McD's with a Playplace, and we met for lunch. We've known our friends Dawn and Tim since 1994 when they were just two young whippersnappers in the Marching Band at Butler.  And I'm ashamed to say we hadn't seen them since about 2004 when they moved north.  I hadn't met 2 of their 4 kids, and they hadn't met any of mine.  Still, through the Blessings of the internet, and facebook, I feel like I know them, and know what's going on in their lives.   I got to meet their 3rd sweetgirl, who is 11 and petitely built just like our boys, and she kept a great eye on all my yahoos in the Playplace, so that I got to catch up with Dawn for like an hour and a half.  Tim works at a school nearby, and it has his last day (teacher day) of school, so he snuck away for lunch with us!   Can you imagine, still being in school?!  We've done like half our summer fun.  So Michigan is strange, but they aren't going back in July either, ugh.  Still, it was Awesome to see them.  It's funny how you can go years without seeing someone, and all the old reasons that you were friends were there.   I wish I'd gotten to see them more often.  I'm so glad I buzzed to see if we could swing something.  These drive by huggings really fill me up!  It makes a long road trip not so boring. 

We made it home safe and sound about 7 pm, a 9ish hour drive, but with our long lunch, that was good timing.  Daddy even had a dinner all made for us when we pulled up, he had grilled up some fish.  I think he missed us.  We had missed him too.   Even though we brought him some Father's Day Fudge.  He decided Next Time he's coming with us.   


This is Jacob's shitty kitty face.  He did not appreciate something.  It was either a. that we were home, or b. that vacation was over, or c. he couldn't have all the fudge he wanted in the world.  


Meanwhile, while we were gone, Daddy did Productive Things. 
He finally got the shower door up in the downstairs bathroom.  Technically, the water works, but the door needs to be caulked into place, which is another project.  Almost there.  


We got shelves!  
Eric put shelving up in the Linen Closet upstairs.  I didn't know we had so many sheet sets, because they've been living in a huge pile in the bottom of that closet for so long.  


My favorite:  The IKEA canvas wave.  
Eric hung this picture up.  It never occurred to us that it would be too big for the space above my bed.   But it still looks really good there.   

I fell asleep that night just staring at it, laying upside down in my bed.  
It's good to be home. 


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