Pure Michigan

Last weekend we made our first trip back to Michigan since Jonah was born - first time back to Morrice since Christmas, in fact!  I'm pretty sure that's the longest we've gone between trips home since we've been married, not counting our year in Hungary.  Uncle Caleb was along for the ride because the reason for our trip home was to see Brandon and Caleb's cousin get married.  Three grown adults, plus a car seat, in a Civic is tight fit.  Caleb's knees were right up to the dash for the 8+ hour drive - sorry Caleb!

Brandon was a trooper and drove almost the whole way.  He made Caleb drive one stretch so he could get in a nap (it had been an early morning).  That lasted until Brandon woke up and decided Caleb's driving was wasting gas and made us stop for gas.  (Here is where I point out that we totally could make it to Brandon's parents' house on one tank of gas...we just never have made it without stopping - because Brandon has an irrational fear of driving with the "low fuel" light on).  How did Jonah do in the car this time?

Awesome!

...although Mom still makes him wear the ridiculous bib

First up on our agenda was dinner at Grandma Kathy's house.  This alone is probably worth the eight hour drive.  Always good food in plentiful supply, and her cooking always draws a crowd.  She has even started making sure to have Paleo-friendly options on board for the non-grain/dairy/legume-eating contingent.  After dinner we discovered that Brandon's cousin Brieann has the touch, and she had Jonah in stitches for nearly 20 minutes.

Since the last time we were in Michigan, Brandon's sister and her husband purchased a house in Morrice.  We made the short walk down the street (Morrice is a really small town), and made sure to get the full tour.  It was also the first time Jonah met Uncle Aaron!  That just leaves the other Uncle Aaron, who we'll hopefully see in July, and Jonah will have finally made the rounds of all the aunts and uncles.  Whew.

Uncle Aaron showed us their sweet wallpaper border depicting scenes of hay-baling on the prairie

Can you believe this came included with the price of the house??  :)

Congratulations on the house, Aaron and Erin - it looks great!!

This  is not Aaron and Erin...Erin was away doing bridal-party things
all day, so Brandon and Jonah stood in for her

Saturday night was the main event: Hillary and Alex's wedding.  It was a beautiful, short ceremony - then we partied the night away in an old opera house.  They were a bit delayed getting the ceremony going due to some  traffic back-ups holding up some family members (there was a big festival going on that weekend).  But we played pass the baby, so everyone was more than okay with waiting.  Well, Brandon's many aunts and female cousins were content, at least.  After the wedding, we took advantage of the fact that we had the whole fam in one place (and we all looked nice, too!) to snap a family photo:

What a good looking crew!

On Sunday morning, we packed up the car and headed back out on the road.  It was a quick trip, but so good to see everyone!  Thanks for hosting us, Grandma and Grandpa!

It was a fun weekend, but our trip home ended on kind of a sour note.  We had stopped at a rest area just before leaving Michigan.  And when we all piled back in the car, the A/C no longer worked.  Bummer.  As the temps soared into the 80's, we rolled down the interstate with the windows open.  This made it a little more difficult for Jonah to nap restfully (although I think the wind noise actually helped a little).  By the time we got home, we had one sweaty, cranky boy.

And Jonah was pretty worn out, too.