Travelogue

Last week I took a trip with the kids, but without Jim...it was quite the adventure.

My dear friend, Ariana (who has been one of my best friends since age 10, college roommate, etc.), has been a three day drive from us for the last five years and we haven't seen each other in that time.  This year we both moved closer together, so we're only 7.5 hours apart now.  I jumped on the chance to go visit!  So the Saturday before last, I loaded the kids in the car and our trip began.  They were AMAZING during the drive out there...not a single argument! 

Our first morning there I woke up to discover that Annie had slept in Alex's playpen with him...no wonder he had trouble going to sleep!

We mostly visited and occupied ourselves with normal mommy-busyness, but one day we had an excursion to a very beautiful hiking spot.  We met up with another old friend, Maria, for our adventure. 

We had a picnic lunch before setting out.

These little girls couldn't wait to get started.

Group shot at the beginning of our hike.

This was an incredible bridge...and it scared me too.

These girls were two peas in a pod all week.  They had the time of their lives playing and making mischief together.  They even look like they could be sisters!

There were some VERY cool caves and tunnels on our hike.

Ariana is one tough momma...she lugged that baby in her arms the entire way!

We stopped in a gorgeous cove with a waterfall and pool that were surrounded by cliffs.  Alex sat at the top of the little hill spellbound for a while.

Then he started scooting down on his little bottom to get to the water.  Afterward, we could see a nice little trail where he'd been.

We let the kids wade in the water...fun!

Annie soon attempted to go for a swim...

While we were at the same spot, a group of Chinese ladies started taking pictures of our babies and Annie.  They were probably at it for 30 min. before Annie finally had enough and burst into tears.

Some of us were exhausted before we were back in the cars to leave.

I asked some of the kids what they thought of our hike.  Here are their responses:

I couldn't possibly forego a picture with my dear friend Maria...even if it was after the hike. 

Here's another shot of us eleven years ago!  It's too bad I don't have an older photo...we've known each other since we were babies!

Maria also took a lot of pictures of our day, and hers were much better than mine.  Here are just a few:

This is the part where that bridge scared me.  Alex was moving around a lot, trying to see all around, but he was throwing me off balance.  Annie wanted to look too, and I just knew one of them was going to make us all fall off.

Down into a tunnel...

At one point the little girls took off running ahead of us and we soon lost sight of them.  I then noticed that the trail ahead of us ended at a road!  We quickened our pace and soon noticed them scrambling through the trees to get to a trail below us.  They bolted down the trail until we caught up, and this was our view from the trail (after capturing our mischief makers).

We preferred letting them admire the pool from up close instead of high up.

Maria also captured some pictures of the photo shoot with the Chinese ladies.

They went so far as to pick up Annie (with my permission) to pose with her.  The end of it was when one of the ladies took off Annie's hat; that was too much for my confused little girl.

This was a very cool drop in the creek...it looked like a very fun (and dangerous) waterslide.

By the time we dropped off Maria, the kids were wiped out.

The next day, Ariana made cookies and the kids decorated some.

Some play time...there was LOTS of that.

The night before I left I realized I needed a picture with Ariana...once again my hair is in a ponytail.  Oh well...

Here we are again eleven years ago.  Not sure why it scanned crooked, but I don't have time to fix it now.

This one is fifteen years ago.  Also in the picture are Marissa, Liz, and Jaime.

After staying up late talking our last night there, I packed the kids into the car once more and headed to Detroit for a couple of days.  We had a wonderful visit with Danielle while we were there.

The first thing we did was load the kids up on sugar.

Then on to the beach!

It was a HOT day and the beach was the perfect thing.  Danielle's girls took my older two to play and I was able to relax, soak, visit, and enjoy Alex.

We did use sunscreen, but apparently not enough.  This kid was pooped.

Same day a few hours later...

On Sunday we went to church, visited, relaxed, and got a little silly.

The kids really enjoyed their Aunt Danielle.

They had fun playing with Juan, too.

On Monday, we headed home with one extra passenger.  My niece Mariah came with us for a little visit before the rest of our company comes and our adventures continue.  The drive was again uneventful, and the kids did great.  Phew!  Some of the places we drove through: Illinois, including part of Chicago; Indiana, including Indianapolis and Gary (aka scary); Ohio; Michigan; and of course Iowa.