Michigan

At the end of May, Brandon's college roommates held their annual "Man Challenge" weekend in Michigan. Which meant we packed up the van and hit the road for our first (of SIX!) road trips this summer. The kids and I had not been back to Michigan in about a year. We broke up the trip a bit and made lots of stops along the way. Unfortunately, I took very few pictures, so you will just have to use your imagination for this one.

Let's jump right ahead to the end of our week. The kids and I did not go along for the actual "Man Challenge," (no girls allowed!) but we got word Saturday night that Brandon took home the title this year. We couldn't be more proud:

The Award Ceremony
Kyle, Cal, Neal, Mark, Matt, Brandon, Brian, and Steve

Okay, back to the beginning of our trip. We broke up the drive to Michigan into two days. We drove as far as Iowa City the first day, and stayed with some old friends, the Baumhovers. Dan and Bridget are probably some of the first friends we had in Iowa City, and we miss them dearly. We arrived in time for dinner, then the kids all ran off some energy before bed, and we spent some time catching up with our old friends. The timing of the trip worked out nicely, because the Baumhovers actually left about a week later to move to Madison. So, it was nice that we got a chance to see them while they were still in town!

Early the next morning, we met up with Brandon's PhD adviser for breakfast at an Iowa City favorite - the Blue Bird Diner.  It's always nice to see Dr. Murray and hear about the interesting things he is involved with. Dr. Murray was actually supposed to be Jonah's very first doctor. He works in the newborn nursery a few weeks a year at Iowa, and he was actually on call the week I was due with Jonah. But I ended up going past my due date, so Dr. Murray's week was over, and he was out of town the day Jonah was actually born. However, when he heard Jonah was here, he took an early flight home and came by during morning rounds to see us....only to discover we had checked ourselves out of the hospital a day early :/ Oops!

After a yummy breakfast, we were back on the road to our second pit-stop on the way to "Man Challenge" - Bibi and Babu's house! We were welcomed back to Morrice with a great big dinner at Grandma Kathy's house. Lots of family stopped by to say hello. It was a nice way to see lots of people, since we were only in town for a short time. We got to spend two days in Morrice, and we packed a lot into those two days. The kids got to visit Bibi's school and see all the toys in her classroom. We also got to visit Babu at school and Jonah got to play in the gym during lunchtime with some of the big kids. Of course, there was lots of book reading and rediscovering all the toys at Bibi and Babu's house and playing outside. We even got to see Uncle Aaron and Aunt Erin and Uncle Caleb and Aunt Kylie. Jonah helped Babu till up his garden to get it ready for planting. We also went up to the school to watch a softball game, but the kids were more interested in playing at the big kids' playground.

After a too-short visit (good thing we'll be back in August!), we loaded back into the van to head over to the west side of the state.  The kids and I stayed at my friend Laura's house, as her husband was also participating in the Challenge.  She has two kids about the same ages, so it worked out well! I was also able to see other college friends, Sarah, Tisa, Mandy and Erin, for a bit. It's so hard living so far away - but nice they they all live close to each other and I can see them all at once :)

Kate, Jonah, Mandy, Olivia, Tisa, Cora

Another timely visit - my friend Mandy was able to come up from Chicago for the weekend, but she's moving to Alaska this summer :(  Exciting adventure for her, but we probably won't be seeing her for quite a while. It was a fun and (mostly) relaxing weekend catching up with good friends and seeing how their kids have grown up in the past year. We decided next year, the "Man Challege" should be that the guys take all the kids for the weekend while the ladies get to hang out kid-free for a few days :)

The whole weekend ended too quickly, and Sunday morning we hit the road again....this time heading south and west towards Kansas. We went as far as Grandma and Grandpa's house for this second-to-last leg. The kids got in some playtime and did a little "swimming" in the hot tub before collapsing into their beds.  It was a long week for everyone!

Enjoying some popsicles on the porch

The final leg of the journey was comparatively short, and went pretty smoothly. Except for the fact that Cora slept the entire 2.5 hours before lunch, and then not a wink after....until we were exactly 4 minutes from home.

Whew, that was a lot packed into one week. But it was pretty successful for our first big road trip of the summer. We have a lot more traveling planned in the next few months. Hopefully the rest of it goes as smoothly.