The Trip! (Part One)

Here goes nothing....I'm going to try to recount my crazy insane trip to Michigan!

Last last fall my college roomie Lynnette called me up and told me to keep Spring Break open on my calendar. She said her and her boyfriend had been talking, and were talking about a nearing proposal, a whirlwind engagement and a March 29 wedding. I knew then that I was in for a wild ride!!

I haven't been back to MI since I was 7 1/2 months preggo w/ Jordan! I went back to help my mom clean out some of the stuff in the house when she was getting ready to put it on the market. Time and money issues have kept us from going back since.

June 2006

I knew if I went back for the wedding, I would have to allocate plenty of time for my parents and grandma and friends to visit with the kids and me. Jon doesn't have a whole ton of vacation, so that pretty much meant I would have to go up a bit before the wedding, and by myself!

So....the plan was for me to take off Wednesday morning headed for the Motor City. The days leading up to this were INSANE! I spent the weekend trying to get everything together and ready--there are so many things to take on a trip--especially in single parent mode!!! Monday and Tuesday I had (previously) agreed to sub my friend Lisa's paper routes. She has 3--I threw almost 900 papers both days! (She's a way better trooper than I am--she has subbed my route countless times! It just makes it hard for me to get through the day after 4-5 hours of work in the morning.

Well, Tuesday while I was throwing the route (3 down, 2 to go) my van broke down. It had been shifting hard for a couple of days, but it got to where it WOULD NOT ACCELERATE! If I came to a stop, I had to turn my van off, then restart it for it to go into gear! I tried to go home to get Jon's car to finish and BROKE COMPLETELY DOWN on Hughes road and had to call my manager to come help me finish the route! We had the van towed in, and found out the transmission was completely out. (The transmission was only 17 months old--just had this done 2 Octobers ago but unfortunately are out of miles on the warranty.) Huge blow to the wallet!

Well...I'm supposed to leave the next morning, right? So we try to decide what to do...I still have to get there before the wedding b/c my family will flip out if I come all the way up there and don't see them...so we decide to rent a car. Huge blow to the wallet, number 2!

So we find a company that has an available SUV--most places were out b/c it's Spring Break and apparently NO ONE drives their own car on vacation...and Wednedsay morning I get up and see the rain! So...I get to load up the car alone, in the rain!

After making a quick run to the shop to get a couple things out of the van, getting an early lunch w/Jon, and running to Walmart for some Dramamine b/c Lawson told me he had a very yucky tummy, we were on the road at 12:30.

The drive was pretty okay. Both kids had little spells where they were fussy, but overall the trip went smoothly. Lawson could watch movies forever and ever, and Jordan slept quite a lot. We stopped for dinner at a mall so we could spend some time walking around and not have to worry about being quiet in a restaurant. We arrived at our hotel around 11--later than I had planned. This is because we lost an hour going to EST, and we spent almost 2 hours at the mall and I missed the exit and had to go 25 min out of the way to get back!

A note about the hotel...we had looked online to find a hotel in the town I wanted at a reasonable price. I found a Comfort Inn for 52/night...and the room was nice. Just one word of advice if you're looking for a hotel and traveling alone w/2 kids...ask if the have an ELEVATOR!!! Holy cow...I had to get both kids, and our overnight bag, and the pack and play and the diaper bag out of the car and to the far end of the 2nd floor!!! Good thing the nice man at the desk saw me come into the lobby sweating and out of breath and offered to carry my bags!!

The kids were pretty wired b/c they had been sitting all day. I let them run around the room and play for a little while, then started putting them to sleep. Lawson fell right to sleep just listening to me singing to Jordan...Jordan, however, didn't go to sleep til after 2AM!! Whoo...a looooong day!

Well, we woke up Thursday morning, grabbed a quick lunch at Cracker Barrel next door to the hotel, and headed out for our last 3 1/2 hours of driving. I got to my grandma's about 2:45.

Sidenote...My sweet grandma offered to let us have her apartment to ourselves and she would stay with a friend. It was so nice to have a place of 'our own' and not have to be staying 'with' someone.

So...don't have any pics of the actual trip...maybe I was just a little too busy!! :)

Thursday when we got there, my mom came over and asked what I was going to do. I just said I wanted to do something to let the kids play and run b/c they had been so cooped up. She offered to take us to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was both of the kids' first times, and they loved it!! So...let me close out this post with some of the pics I took of the kids playing...

The kids on the carousel. They rode this about 20 times...and when there were other kids waiting and they had to get off Jordan threw a huge fit!

Lawson's favorite ride...the bike that went up and down when you pedaled.

Jordan in the Barney ride. She sat in here for a very long time!

My mom helped Jordan, I helped Lawson. Here's Jordan in the big rocking horse.

Here's Lawson catching a ride with Chuck!

The kids both loved going through this ladder, funhouse, slide combo. The next couple pics crack me up b/c they did the slide so many times that their hair went crazy with static!!! :)