Vacation to Michigan (Pic Heavy)

We traveled to Michigan for about 10 days for a family vacation and high school reunion for Kevin. We flew into the Detroit, Michigan airport on June 6th (our anniversary). The boys got special treatment on the plane from the flight attendants since they had to wait for the airport to bring the special wheelchair. They got to go into the cockpit and sit in the pilot's chair! Unheard of in these days of increased security. They also got a couple pairs of wings and the one flight attendant gave them a free bag of Twizzlers.





Then we traveled via rental car to Ohio to go to Cedar Point. It's an amusement park that Kevin used to go to when he was a kid and thought it'd be nice to take the boys there. Brandon was just a little bit too short to go on the roller coasters (by two inches), but he had fun on other rides that he could ride with me that weren't the kiddie rides. I only got to go on a couple of the roller coasters, but it was fun all the same. They boys had a blast, especially driving the mini bumper cars.






Snoopy was wandering our hotel and Ed nearly knocked him over when he went to give him a hug. He wouldn't smile for a pic, though, so this is the best ya get:


The next day we played mini golf there and then traveled to Cleveland, OH to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. This was pretty much just for Kevin as I had no interest what so ever in going there. The boys are still a little young to be interested in it, although they did like the cars that were there. No pictures here as we weren't allowed to take cameras into the museum.

We then traveled back to Michigan and across the state to Muskegon which is right by Lake Michigan. It was awfully foggy and so it was a "no swim" day. We could barely see the water from the parking area there was so much fog. There was a playground right there on the beach, though, so the boys got to play there for a bit. I built a sandcastle with just my hands:


Then I buried Ed in the sand:


And some of them just playing:



The next day we headed to Grand Rapids and met up with an online friend of mine, Lindsy and her three boys. On the way there in the car, Ed decided to decorate himself with stickers:


Here's Lindsy and I with her baby MacAllister (Mac for short):


We had fun chatting and the boys had fun playing. Ed was on a mean streak, though, and was pushing and biting kids (including his brother, but not Lindsy's kids). Because of this a lot of the parents cleared out of the play area. I really have no idea what got into Ed other than not getting enough sleep. Brandon had a lot of meltdowns that day after Lindsy left and we were just browsing the stores at the mall. I had to hold him outside of stores while Kevin looked at things because he just was not listening and would have ended up breaking stuff had we let him be in the store. He really had a major screaming fit. It was not good. We ended up rewarding Edward for listening at that point. He just sat by me while I was fighting to keep Brandon by me.

After that we headed up to Midland, Michigan which is where Kevin is from. We stayed at the H hotel (formerly known as the Ashman Court Hotel). While we where staying there we were rudely awaken at 5:30 am by the fire alarm. We told the boys to get out of bed and wait by the door for us since I had to help Kevin get up. Ed just lied there in bed with his hands over his ears telling us it was too noisy. We finally got him up and then got all of us out the door. We went to the stairs and some men from the floor we were on volunteered to help Kevin down. The boys and I went down and out and waited. It was raining and cold. We waited under the awning over the driveway in front of the front doors with the rest of the people staying or working at the hotel. The alarm was set off in the kitchen yet there was nothing wrong there. They assume that lightning struck the building and set the alarm off as there were no other reasons for it to have gone off. Kevin only made it down to the fourth floor before we were given the all clear to go back inside.

The first full day we were in Midland, we met with an old friend of Kevin's that owns horses and the boys got to ride with Katie leading them and then I got to ride by myself. The last time I rode, it was western style for the reigns and that's what I'm used to. This horse knew English style and so that was weird to get used to, but I adjusted. I was actually able to remember to not sit but to use my leg muscles so that I was going up and down with the horse. Because of this, I didn't hurt the next day like most would have. Katie also told us that owning a horse doesn't have to be expensive and it may be possible for me to get one. There's one for sale not too far from here. The she told us that leasing a horse is also an option for getting into horses and she said I was a natural at riding. Kevin has pics of this on his camera, but I don't have the software for it on the laptop, so I'll have to wait until he gets the pics uploaded.

There was a free splash park near the hotel that the boys had lots of fun at. It was on the chilly side the first time we went (we went three times) and that's the day I took pics:




The actual reunion was ok. I didn't know anyone there besides Kevin and there was a lot of drinking going on. The first part was a informal get together at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar. Well, we didn't know it, but they were meeting in the bar, so that was interesting. I'm so used to the Utah Clean Air Act that it was strange to be indoors with smoking going on. After about 1.5 hrs, my lungs had it with the smoke. I have mild asthma that has only ever really reacted to exercise, but I now know that it's also smoke induced. My chest was so tight and I started coughing. We left and I had a hard time sleeping because of it. Thankfully, the next part, the family picnic, was outside and the formal dinner was indoors at a place that did not allow smoking.

On the last Sunday we were there, we went to church in Kevin's old ward. It was nice for him to visit with his old ward members. One of them invited us over for dinner and the boys enjoyed playing with their toys. I got to hold a three month old! He was fussy and the dad of the baby (the younger brother of who was Kevin's age growing up) was having a hard time calming him. I asked if I could hold him and got him calmed down pretty quick. Michael (the dad of the baby) asked me how I did it. I told him, "I don't know, I guess it's just because I'm a mom." Then the sweet little thing went to sleep in my arms. I so hope I'll be able to have another little baby of my own to hold in my arms again.

The flight home seemed so long. I'm assuming because I wanted to get home that it felt like it was much longer when it was really only about 30 minutes longer. We went and got our kitty, Oscar, from Kevin's brother's house and then came home. It's so nice to be home once again.