Katie’s pretty well summed up what happened on our Michigan trip, but clearly something was missing from her post.  A certain je ne sais quoi, so to speak.  Well, actually, no – she just didn’t have the pictures.  I’ve finally finished sorting through them.  We had something like 936 when we got back.  For reference, on our month long trip to Europe, we came back with less than 2,000, so clearly we’ve gone insane.  I’ve whittled this down to merely 133 for your viewing pleasure.  There’re more than a few extra ones, especially when Dex went nuts with the mule, but the shots were just so illuminating as to his mood at the time that I felt compelled to keep them in.

I had been in a state of near-panic for months before this trip.  I figured it would go reasonably well when we were there, unless the boys went stir crazy, or Katie committed homicide after Loren took the boys on a reckless golf cart ride, or someone lost a hand in the shop, or Malin got deported.  None of that happened, thankfully.  Going through security the first time was hell.  Dexter lost it near the end, and ran back to Katie while she was getting patted down, and suddenly he was “contaminated” and had to be searched.  Katie thinks the screaming child in her arms sped up the search a little bit.  The slept through most of the flight out, and were very well behaved most of the time.  The had a lot of fun playing at both grandparents homes, and with their cousins.  Thanks again to everyone who helped with the equipment necessary to make the week work – it was perfect, and took so much of the stress out of the week.  Until Dex puked on landing on the way home, anyway.

It was awesome to see the boys exploring my “home”.  The Cider Mill, and the Gazebo, the Hands on Museum, Hudson Mills Park, Battle Creek Park, the Lighthouse Cafe, and of course their grandparents home.  It was great to introduce the boys to their Aunt and Uncles, their cousin and their adoptive-cousin, and some of the friends of my Dad who have been watching them for so long.  And my close friends, Alison (who flew up for the weekend), and Julie & Tony (who brought along their adorable niece, Gracie).

And I *suppose* I ought to mention how thankful we are that Malin was with us.  She went above and beyond, even before the puking.  She kept my dad entertained and gave him a chance to show off the sites of Michigan, hacked his wireless network, and then knocked on his window at 2am after locking herself out.  It was great to have an extra set of hands, because boy did we need them.  And I’m glad she got to see Michigan, too.

The trip was probably about the right length for this year – it was too short, in that there were other things we wanted to do, and people we wanted to see (I’m sorry, Kim!  I’ll try hard next time to make it work, but the distance was a little too great for such a short week), but we were running to near exhaustion trying to keep up there by the end.  And now, I’m actually looking forward to bringing them back again – though hopefully without the diapers or the high chairs.

Hope you like the pictures!

Michigan Trip 2010