brrrr

Well we made it here on Saturday. We stopped in Ironwood at my cousin's house on the way up. My mom and a couple of my aunts were there as my cousin's daughter had a dance recital that evening so we visited with all of them for awhile. It was great to see them all, although I was really tired! I hadn't really slept well the night before, with being in a smaller bed with the baby AND having drank a Mocha from McD's late at night! The last two hours to Baraga seemed to drag by. It doesn't help that you're driving on a two lane highway and have to drive slow...no interstates up here! But I was also just exhausted! I think all of the kids slept pretty much most of those two hours. It was nice to arrive at our final destination- Zach's dad's house.

We've never stayed here overnight before. We normally stay with my mom. It's really weird for me not to stay at 'home'. I feel like I don't get to see my mom as often, which would really bother me if I wasn't staying here another 2 weeks after Zach leaves. It's not bad though, just different. It feels weird to go and visit my mom!

Yesterday morning the girls and I went with my parents to church. We weren't really sure what to do with our day so at the last minute I'd decided we'd just go. We went out to lunch afterward and came back here. Then in the evening Zach, the kids and I went to visit his friend from high school. They also have 4 kids and it was nice seeing them again. Zach usually sees them when he comes up but I haven't been over there in awhile.

It is so cold up here. I packed away all of our shorts and summer clothes into a bag in the back of the suburban. I figure we won't need them for awhile so why take up more space! Today was just rainy and yucky.

Today we just hung out here at Zach's dad's since he had the day off and the weather was awful. I did some laundry, we played some Sequence and just lounged around. Tonight I took the kids to my parents (my stepdad hadn't gotten to see the boys yet) and we had dinner and ice cream. My mom bought Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream! YUM! It has been a LONG time since I had that! Thanks, mom! We had a good visit there for a few hours and came back. The drive on the way back had the kids (mostly Chatterbox) asking all sorts of questions. I think it began with why my mom was married twice...questions about marriage, divorce, Jesus, heaven, hell. It's a half an hour drive and it was just so cool to try to answer the questions and have such great conversation with my kids! Oh we also saw two of Zach's uncles today who stopped by (the girls and I missed another uncle yesterday). Tomorrow's agenda is to meet with the pastor of my mom's church (we're having Sweet Pea dedicated in church on Sunday), to visit with my dad and possibly see my grandparents and some other family. I miss my dad so much and can't wait to see him (it's been since Christmas of 2007)!

I have to say though that the one thing I hate about coming 'home' for vacations is that we just don't have as much 'family' time as if we vacationed somewhere else. Sure we're visiting family and friends, but seriously I feel like I haven't had a conversation with Zach in forever (especially since we drove two vehicles up). And with him having been gone for 6 weeks and leaving again soon I just crave that right now (it also makes it hard to know what/how to plan for seeing people when he's here). I'm not at all complaining (or meaning to sound like I am), rather i am just stating how stinky that aspect of it is. Ok, I'm off for now. Who knows when I'll get around to blogging again!