Trip Recap

A day by day account of our little escape to the North.

Sunday: A good trip with a rainy and exhausting beginning but a finish for the record books. We slept that night at Mark and Keri Kornelsen’s house and woke to fresh blueberry muffins and sunshine.

Monday: We allowed the kids to play for quite a while as I slowly packed and enjoyed conversation with Keri. It was such a nice visit and I am looking forward to all of us hanging out for a longer period of time in the future. Hopefully we can just make a trip to Indy and spend some time with them as well as Nate and Joi. We journeyed the rest of the way to Michigan and my boys were excellent travellers.

Each time I opened the back hatch I got this response from Ivan.

I tried to get several pictures Monday evening while it was still daylight. I was under the impression that we were expecting a rainy week but it turned out to be quite nice most of the time. It turned out well to have this opportunity to take pictures though.

This Red Bud tree is the largest I have ever seen of it’s kind. I rarely get to see it in bloom anymore because I don’t often make a trip home in the spring. I was glad to see it in all it’s splendor.

Owen enjoyed the old swing set. He bravely held on and by the time we left was able to fly pretty high in that thing.

Everything was blooming, or was about to. The apple tree had blossoms…

…as well as the pear tree.

I like to get a picture now and then of this White Pine Tree. I planted this after a 5th Grade field trip where each child was given a sapling of the Michigan State Tree.

Dad had some peas and radishes planted in the garden. He planted some tomatoes before we left as well.

Monday night we visited Reubmommy and made promises to return before the week was over.

Tuesday: I decided to make phone calls on Tuesday morning and let people know I was around. Because the trip was planned somewhat last minute I had not made plans or alerted anyone, except dad, that I was coming. My aunt Esther was the only person who was home and she promptly invited us to come up for a while. She made us lunch and Owen enjoyed playing with my cousin RoxAnne’s children (his second cousins) who were full of questions and absolutely loved holding the baby.

RoxAnne’s youngest child, Esther, was so cute and immediately climbed up on the table to get a good view of this baby cousin.

Wednesday: The next morning we got up and headed down to Indiana for a look at some front doors for dad’s house. The current door will open and close but other than that it is ready for retirement. Somehow it began rusting from the inside out and has been looking rather rough for a while. We found some good prospects at a place called Menard’s and then we got some lunch at Peddler’s Village in Goshen.

On the way to Goshen we stopped at a place that repairs refrigerators in RV’s. Dad purchased a used motor home recently and it needs a new fridge. On the same road was this fellow, plowing the hard way. Well, his horses were plowing the hard way.

Owen wanted to play outside after we arrived back at dad’s. I was trying to get a picture of how dirty he had gotten. You can’t see it too well in this picture but his face had a lot of dirt on it.

Kathy and her girls, Jessica and Kayla, Jessica’s friend Jenna and the neighbor boy Quinten as well as my cousins Tobey and Jesse and Tobey’s son Logan, joined us that night for a hot dog roast in the back yard. It was good to see the girls again and to meet little Logan for the first time. Owen was exhausted from his busy day in Indiana as well as playing hard in the sunshine and he slept through most of our visit. Uncle Joel helped him wake up a little and once he had eaten his peanut butter and jelly sandwich all was well.

Thursday: Thursday morning I headed back to Reubmommy’s house where she showered me with scraps and quilt blocks and even a finished top that she had pieced. She thought I would get it quilted before she would and wanted me to have it. Wow…I have a lot of work to do. We had a nice visit and I quilted a little bit on the one she had set up and then she quilted while I fed Ivan. She told me a few stories I hadn’t heard before about her family. Her mother passed away when she was 19 and later when she began quilting (after she was married) she had no one to help her get started. She wants me to have a better beginning than she did so she loaded me up with starters and information.

On the way to Reubmommy’s I decided to take the dirt road instead of the highway. I thought this was a nice view.

I also stopped in to visit my uncle Marvin before I headed home. I had a nice visit with him as well. The weather was so pleasant and with the windows open and a happy baby on the floor beside me I was able to chat and hear all the news about my cousins and all that they are into.

That night we had dinner at my Uncle Moe and Aunt Ruth’s house. My cousin Mia and her family joined us as well. Her girls Megan and Elizabeth played with Owen for a while but he’s a lot younger and a boy so there interests didn’t exactly mesh. He enjoyed being there very much and we had a very good dinner. Mia and Ruth and I talked in the kitchen while dad and Moe watched TV. I think the men were ready for us to leave a little before the women but that’s typical. I was having a very nice time catching up.

When we got home that night, Ivan needed a last bottle before going to bed, so dad took on that little chore. Ivan made it easy for him by taking charge of the bottle holding. He couldn’t do it the entire time but he did really well and has since decided he prefers to do it this way.

Friday: We got up and immediately started the process of packing and finishing up laundry so we could get back on the road. Dad and Owen took the opportunity to go swing one last time while I fed Ivan and loaded the last of the little things into the car. We got a pretty good start and headed to Nate and Joi’s house in Indiana. Nate is my cousin and the middle son of Moe and Ruth. He and Joi live on the West side of Indy and have made several comments (and rightly so) that we never stop on our way to or from Michigan. This time I not only wanted to visit, I needed the break.

Nate and Joi’s son Levi is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. He reminded me a lot of Kristy’s little boy, Clay. He doesn’t look exactly like him but his mannerisms are very similar. He is very attached to his pacifier and shouts out unintelligible commands with emphasis and authority. A lot like Clay used to do. His walk even reminded me of Clay. Very cute.

We had a nice dinner together that Joi had made and even Owen liked it. Then Joi and I took a little drive to a book store and to get diapers. I enjoyed talking with her and hopefully we can all get together again soon…we really do need to take a trip to Indy.

Saturday: We had to leave by 9:30. They just kicked us out. Actually, they are trying to sell their house and had a showing at 10:00 so all of us headed out about the same time. The boys and I made a stop at Dick’s sporting goods store on our way back to the interstate. Joi had mentioned that they had purchased a child size canvas lawn chair there for only $7.00 and it didn’t have Dora or Spider man or any other character on it. They must have gone even lower on the sale price because I got one for each of our boys and paid $12.00 for both. Whoo Hoo!

Our trip home was uneventful. We stopped for lunch and then later for ice cream which certainly slowed us down but we weren’t in a big hurry. I was very glad for the relaxed trip and Owen and Ivan did very well. When we got home, Kris stepped out of the door to the garage and Owen caught a glimpse of him. He started running and yelling “I’m Owen, I’m Owen!” I’m not sure why he said that except that he was so excited he just couldn’t express himself any other way. Later, Kris took him for a ride in the Miata which he loved and we all had a very quiet evening together.

All in all my trip was a success, I didn’t get to see even half of my relatives up there but I made a dent. Next time I’ll try to provide more notice and get a few of them together in one place so I’m not driving all over. The other side of the coin is that I was able to enjoy nice one on one conversation with those I did visit, and probably got a lot more “caught up” than I would have in a large group. It’s all good.

It is good to be home and I have a busy day as well as a busy week ahead of me. Can’t wait to dig into it all.