Trip to Michigan

The Morehouse's came to visit just before Julie was in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy with super-surprise #4.  Her pregnancy was very similar to mine with Colin, except her baby came out with a planned C-section and didn't fall out in the ER.  They decided on the name 'Emma' while sitting in our living room, a name Julie and I both said we loved since the time we were both pregnant with #1's.  The day before Emma was born, Julie was texting me, asking for prayers over the delivery and Ben said, "How would you like to go meet baby Emma?".  Um, YES please!  And just like that, Ben took a week off work and booked me a ticket to Michigan (okay, it was a little more planned than it sounds; we had just enough airline points for 1 ticket and he also wanted to take a vacation before deployment...and I just realized I haven't mentioned deployment on this blog yet, so I guess that's another post to come).  So I took my first ever trip all by myself and it was awesome.

She is the sweetest, one of the most beautiful babies I've ever met.  I realize more and more how alien looking our babies looked.

I got in Friday night and Saturday morning I went with Julie to Cross Country practice.  She coaches the Grosse Pointe high school girls team and I got a little taste of coaching life.  I can see why she loves it; it was really fun hanging out with the girls...did you know that it's now the norm for all teenagers to have phones?  I got to run down Jefferson, the same road I took everyday to work when we lived there.  I felt like I was in a movie, with mansions on one side of the road and water on the other side.  It was SO refreshing to run outside and not feel like I was dying the entire time!

After practice, we met the Marlow's at Yate's Cider Mill.  I think these donuts are worth flying across the country for...I could have eaten a dozen all by myself.

We sat by the creek and I soaked up all the green.  This was definitely a time I missed my kids; I wish they could have been there to splash in the water and build bridges with me and the other kids.

 

Then we spent some time at Julie's house, catching up, snuggling the baby and Andrea did my hair (she has mad hair skills).

 It rained that afternoon and everyone thought I was crazy for how excited I was to touch it.

Then in the evening, we went out for a girls night at Partridge Creek.  We had dinner at California Pizza Company and did some shopping.  Andrea and Julie helped me pick some accessories at Charming Charlie's for the upcoming Marine Ball I have to attend.  We had just a little fun being silly in the store.

 

Sunday, we went to church at Knox and then helped Julie throw Kyle a birthday party.

All of Tim and Julie's family was over for the party, so I went with Andrea to Knox's picnic at Belle Isle.  We picked up Starbucks on the way down.  Back in the day, Andrea and I would get frappucinno's at the mall and talk while the kids played at the indoor play area.

I definitely do not miss all the driving you have to do in Michigan, but there are some things worth driving for.  I think I only went to Belle Isle once when we lived there, but I found it even more beautiful this time.

Not having my kids with me was odd at times, but then again it gave me a chance to really help out Julie and Andrea with their kids.  While Andrea ate dinner, Leia and I looked for fish.

P.S. You can see Canada in this picture!

Though we were only part of Knox for a few years, they are still so loving of our family.  Julie jokingly said one day, "Bet you never thought Michigan would be refreshing, huh?"...boy was she right.  Never did I think coming back would be a source of refreshment, but it has.  Seeing these friends and laughing with them and being able to love on their wonderful families and having some time to cool off (literally) and see green and water was SO completely refreshing.

Monday morning I went to Cross Country again with Julie.  She's had a complicated recovery post C-section and her riding a bike at practice was a BIG deal.  I ran along side her and then ran with the girls while she timed the mile splits. 

We had lunch with Nicole Crissman (failed to get a picture) and then it was time for me to make the long journey home.  I hope it was a little refreshing for Julie for me to be there, if nothing else, she had a good time laughing at me for being freezing all the time.  This makes 2 years in a row I've been in Michigan in August and I can definitely see the advantages of making trips like this a priority in the coming years.


P.S. I will fully own that I am consistently inconsistent, but I have been blogging more on http://simplymommashear.blogspot.com and plan on having more on these trips on that blog.  If it doesn't happen, just remember the first part of that sentence.