Our 1st Family Vacation

It now being a day and a half since we made it back from our trip to Michigan I'm managing to find sometime to blog about it. Overall it was a wonderful trip. There were of course some bumps along the way, but all in all it was a really fun trip.

Evelyn and I left our house at 4pm on Thursday to meet Nick at my sister's house in Omaha where he works. We left Nick's car at their place to knock 2 hours off of Nick's in the car time. Which was a good idea, because we were in the car long enough as it was.

Driving through the night wasn't too bad. My only problem was I couldn't fall asleep. Nick drove the whole night, but I could never get comfortable enough to sleep. So that all made my motion sickness pretty bad. We only pulled over for about 2 hours at the rest area to get a little sleep. We would have gotten more sleep, but the pick-up next to us was pulling a trailer filled with chickens and apparently one rooster. Just as we were starting to fall asleep the rooster thought it was a good talk to cock-a-doodle-do. So we moved a car away from them and finally got about an hour of sleep.

The first day we were there was pretty quiet. The only thing on the agenda was my niece and nephew's graduation party at 3. So we checked into our hotel early and tried to get some rest while Evelyn napped. Nick fell asleep for awhile, but I can never seem to nap during the day so I never got any actual sleep.

Nick, Evelyn & I with the graduates; Sydney & Corbin.

After our nap we headed to the graduation party which was fun. We took pictures and just hung-out. It wasn't a huge party, mostly for all the family that came from out of town. It was nice to get to see all the pictures of when they were little. Also my niece Sydney is quite the artist and she had a lot of her art from high school on display.

Us with all of my Michigan nieces & nephews.

Sheridan, Jenn (My sister). Sydney, Corbin, Gabby and Caleb.

On Saturday we woke up grabbed some coffee then headed over to my sister's house. Once everyone was ready we went to a Farmer's Market in Grand Rapids. It was a cute little market, but very cramped. We did end up buying blueberry jam from two different booths and some raspberry salsa. I've had some of the jam on my toast two mornings in a row now. I love anything blueberry.

My parents with most their grandkids. My sister Tammy's kids stayed home,because they still had school.

After the Farmer's Market we went to lunch then my parents headed back home. The rest of us headed back to my sister's. Which on the way Nick and I got lost, even though we had the oldest 2 with us, but apparently they don't know how to get around! It's a good thing neither of them have cars yet!

Once we finally made it back to my sister's, (It was about an hour after everyone else.) a bunch of us went bowling. Evelyn stayed home with Aunt Jenn (my sister) while Tasha (my sister), Tammy (my sister), Nick, the 6 kids and I walked to the bowling alley down the street. There may have been a bet placed on Nick by my sister Tammy that he would beat Caleb during the second game. But Nick's second game is never very good and apparently Caleb just needed a little motivation to play better. That night we grilled and hung-out till it was time to head back to the hotel.

The next morning we let Jenn sleep in, because she had been having a stressful weekend. We went to the next town and got some breakfast then headed back to our hotel to swim. Evelyn had never been swimming and even though the water was freezing she loved it! After swimming for a bit we let Evelyn take a nap.

Around lunch time we headed to my sister's and we all went to lunch at a local italitan restaurant. The food was delicious! When the other kids came back from their dad's we all loaded up in the car and headed to Grand Haven which is right on Lake Michigan.

Nick & I by the docks in Grand Haven.

Grand Haven is such a cute little town. It was a very hot day, but we walked around and shopped for a few hours. Then on the way back we drove down the road that goes right by the beach. It was nice to at least see it even if we weren't going to stop.

The only picture I got with my sister. I wanted to get one with all my sisters, but it never happened.

We had a grill out in my sister's backyard for dinner that night. We didn't stay after eating though, because Evelyn was just done with all the commotion and attention.

It was sad saying goodbye. I really wish my sister and her kids lived closer. We thankfully get to see them again this year, because they are planning to come back for Christmas. Evelyn will be HUGE by then.

Saying "Goodbye" to the girls.

 The drive home was pretty uneventful. Besides getting stuck in traffic for about 40 minutes about 30 miles outside of Des Moines, because of an accident. The rest of the drive was smooth sailing. Evelyn got pretty grouchy towards the end, but that was expected.

Saying "Goodbye" to her cousin Caleb.

All in all I'd say our first family vacation was a huge success. Even if it didn't feel like much of a vacation for Nick and I.

How was your Memorial Day Weekend? Do anything fun?