Our trip to Michigan

Last weekend we traveled to Michigan to see John's mom, dad, brother, and our sister-in-law. We were planning on going over to see them for Thanksgiving but because of my promotion to manager at the Sprint store, I had to stick around for black Friday.... So Friday, I got up at 3:30am to go shopping with my friend Joyce. I got a lot of great deals for the kids' Christmas presents. After shopping I had to be at work at 8am to get ready for the shoppers at sprint. We did not have very many, but that's OK. At 5pm I got done with work and we began our 7 hour trip to Belleville, MI. It was actually a pretty good drive. We flew through Chicago with no delays. Avalon loved seeing the skyscrapers at night time all lit up. We got to Matt and Jaime's house at about 2:30am. The next day, without delay, I woke up at the normal time of 7am. Its like clock work. I don't even need an alarm clock anymore! We then went out to breakfast with mom and dad, the kids, Jaime, and Zander (my nephew). Matt had to unfortunately work....he did mention if I hadn't taken so long getting ready he might have been able to go. :) For the rest of the morning and early afternoon we chilled in the basement at their house letting the kids nap (grownups too) and play together. That night we went to see "Planet 51" but it was sold out. But we were excited to see "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" in 3d instead. It was an awesome movie! After the movie we came home and had pizza for dinner and played the Wii before bed. Matt and I had a little competition going with the obstacle course....He has about 6 months to beat my score....and then its on again!! :) Sunday we went to church, a little trip to IKEA with Jaime, and a huge ham dinner made by Jaime! Her heart attack potatoes are to DIE for!! Thus the title of them! Monday morning we packed out and headed out. On the way home we stopped to see my grandpa in Wyoming, MI. He had just had five bypasses done the week before! It was the first time I had seen him in almost three years! It was also the first time Caillean had met her Great Grandpa...and she'll be three in April. It was so nice to see him wheeling himself around there in the rehab facility he is in. I couldn't believe how strong he was already!! After visiting with grandpa, we headed for home. On the way though we stopped in my old hometown of Grand Haven! We stopped at the beach for like two minutes. Just enough time to snap a couple pics and for Avalon to find two shells. It was so cold and windy there we couldn't bare to stay any longer. We also made a quick stop at the cemetery to visit Grandma's grave. Other than that we stopped to eat and pick up snacks, dropped something off in Waukesha to Chris and Megan and got home around 11:00pm that night. It was a long weekend, but we all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to our next family road trip!

They had to have their pictures taken at the movie theater with Alvin and the Chipmunks.

John and his dad with Caillean on the way in to see the movie.

Oh how I miss the beach in Grand Haven!! It doesn't look too beautiful right now, but you should see it in the summer time on a sunny day! And the boardwalk is so fun to walk on!
And Grandma Linda's grave! How I miss her! She loved us grandkids so much! Avalon was 2 when she passed away, but she still remembers her a little. That's why we call her grandma Linda, avalon was having a hard time remembering the difference between all her grandmas. :)