trip to MI, G's perspective...

We haven't written in a while because it feels like life has just straightened out after the accident. Thanks to Aahma B for all she did right after the accident, and also Aahma R for coming and helping us out for a few days after we got back from MI. Thanks also to dear friends that have helped with the kids and also helped me regain some sense of emotional sanity in the weeks afterwards.

We had a good trip to MI a few weeks ago. Maybe not as relaxing as we hoped due to the circumstances, but good to travel with family and visit family while we were there. After we got home, G was upset because we didn't send her cousins a postcard while we were there. I told her that she could draw a postcard about what we did on the trip and she thought that was a good idea. She modeled it after a postcard we had received from K and was very deliberate about what and how she drew it. She also dictated exactly what I was to write on the back about each picture. She did such a good job, I thought I would share it and let her tell you about our trip instead of me rambling on...

(I will throw in a few comments in (), but otherwise, take it away G!)

1. (talking about circle in the middle) This is the van we drove to Michigan. Because our van got an accident. It is a red van now. It was a long trip. (the kids did really well though!)

2. This is Great-Grandma B's apartment. We went inside it. There was A LOT of windows and a lot of people lived there. It was fun to visit her and she gave us ice cream!

(supper with Grandma, Uncle S and Aunt B in the community room)

(G remembered Grandma's apartment, or should I say the ceramic dog and kitty in her apartment. Her and W had so much fun with these!)

(4 generations)

(Grandma and our family)

3. This is Great-Grandpa A's house. We went inside it. He had some fun old toys. We liked playing outside in all the purple leaves. (purple leaves??? hey, she's 4! =)

(C laughing at Grandpa tickling him)

(hanging out on Grandpa's lawn on a beautiful Sunday afternoon)

(group shot! Uncle D, Aunt S and Aunt J came by Sunday afternoon)

(4 generations)

(Grandpa with our family)

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(a quick aside for 2 extra photos - we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express 4 minutes away from Grandpa's house while we were in MI. The kids did really well and LOVED the pool there! They also had a good hot breakfast so we would definitely stay there again!)

(we brought an air mattress for G & W to sleep on)

(pool! G asked Grandpa to come and watch us swim Saturday morning so that was fun too.)

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4. This is J and L's house. They had scooters and bikes and an electric 4-wheeler. I had fun riding on all of them. They had a big sandbox and a fast slide and we had pizza with them.

(Saturday night we took pizza over to S's cousin B's house. We had a great time visiting with her and her husband T and their 5 yr old J and 3 yr old L. Oh yeah, and the kids had SO MUCH fun playing with J&L and all their kid stuff!!! The big sandbox with soft MI sand was a hit.)

(they had a nice big flat driveway to ride bikes, etc. on)

(oh C, you will be running and riding around with them all too soon!!!)

(the electric 4-wheeler was a lot of fun for G to ride)

(what scared me was that she could drive it so well too! at least everyone wore helmets...)

5. This is the zoo. We went inside it on our way home. We saw penguins, polar bears, giraffes, birds, fish, gorillas, tigers, lions and bears. Then we had to drive a long way home. It was a long ways, but Aahma B played with me (thank you Aahma for being so patient with G and playing with her a lot in the van).

(family photo at the zoo! at least S and I are looking at the camera...)

(this is such a great little zoo in Chicago!)

(W could have watched the fish all day)

(Dad B, had to include this pic just to rub my camera zoom in again a little bit! =)

(kids get "rides" back to the car)

G, I couldn't have described the trip any better! We have had so much fun traveling with our kids in the past couple of months, but we are also looking forward to being home with them for a while now...