Family Trip to Sault Ste. Marie and Celebrating Easter

Samantha: 58 Months, Week 2

Aedan: 22 Months, Week 4 (Week 100)

This past week was spring break for Ben and no preschool on Friday due to the Easter holiday weekend, so we made plans to take a family trip to Sault Ste. Marie. We had an inspection scheduled for our house on Thursday, and we wanted the kids to see the town and the house so they knew what we were talking about when we said we were moving to Michigan.

However, before we left on our trip, we decided to take a family trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center on Tuesday. Ben decided he could take the day off and join us. We got a new membership so that we can have the benefits of getting into other museums around the country with our membership over the next year. Instead of going to the ball area first, we let Samantha pick the first area, and she, of course, picked the woods because she loves climbing around the play structure. Aedan actually was brave enough to join her in the top by climbing up the ladder or the steps and even went down the slide a couple times, once with Sissy and once by himself. He also really enjoyed watching the fish and turtle in the tank. Every time the turtle swam by he would say "tuh-tl," although sometimes it got too close to the glass and scared him. They are probably one of his favorite animals.

We did a lot of our typical areas like the ball area, the water area, and the pretend play area with the grocery store, vet clinic, play house, building area, and construction site. We spent the whole morning in the children's museum area before stopping to eat lunch upstairs. From there we decided to check out the trolley car as well as go on a scavenger hunt for super heroes in the model train displays. We even went further down the tunnels to where the steam boat is. Samantha likes to pretend to be the captain of the ship, pretending the boat is on fire and she needs to keep us all safe, or pretending that we are in a storm at sea. After that we noticed there was an area in the old town that had dress up clothes. Samantha definitely wanted to get in on that. Aedan didn't care much about the clothes; he just wanted to hold an umbrella. He has a slight obsession with umbrellas, being drawn to them anywhere he sees them. They were getting a bit tired at this point, so their expressions are pretty spacey in the pictures we took.

Samantha loves to walk through the cave and ice age area so we decided that would be her last choice of activity for the day. Then, we ended with the sand pit because it's a nice calming mid-afternoon activity for the kids. They both really enjoy playing in the sand. I can't wait to see them playing in the sand by the ocean on vacation this summer.

On Tuesday night we got all packed up for our trip to Sault Ste. Marie. Samantha's preschool class was going on a field trip to Goggin for a tour and some ice skating, and we didn't want her to miss out on skating with her friends, so we decided we would head out of town after preschool. Daddy took Samantha on her field trip that morning since he didn't have class as it was Miami's spring break. She was really excited to have Daddy be her chaperone. The kids got a tour of the ice rink, and they even got to sit on the Zamboni.

Then, it was time for all the kids to get their ice skates on and get ready for ice skating.

There were many kids that had never been ice skating before or didn't know how to walk in ice skates, so here is Samantha helping her friend, Shay, walk down the hallway.

They ran this as a normal ice skating lesson, except they actually got to skate on the ice hockey rink, which Samantha thought was really exciting. Many of the kids needed the buckets to help them out on the ice, but Samantha went right on with not much trouble. I think it gave her a boost of confidence on the ice because she could see how much she had learned in just a few weeks of ice skating lessons. Now she can walk across the ice on her own and can even fall the right way when she senses that she is losing her balance. Ben said that she was pretty helpful with other kids when they would fall down and was a good listener. She enjoyed holding Ben's hand sometimes, but going off on her own quite a bit as well. It's great to see her confidence and ability grow more and more with each time she's on the ice.

While Daddy was with Samantha on her field trip, I hung out with Aedan. We got some things done around the house, doing some basic tidying up and cleaning since our apartment was going to be shown while we were out of town. I wanted it to be in good condition and look attractive to the people looking for a new place to live. We also dropped Roscoe off at the kennel, which Aedan really enjoyed. It was a different kennel than we usually use because our usual one was full by the time I called to make a reservation. Before they took Roscoe back, there was a cat wandering around the hallways, it stood right next to Roscoe, and he acted like he didn't even notice it. Roscoe didn't look at it or even seem to smell it. It's so funny to see this change in his temperament because five years ago or so he would growling and barking at any cat that he could see or hear.

After dropping off Roscoe, I took Aedan to the park by the TRI since I knew the preschoolers would be gone and I thought it would be good for him to burn off some energy before our long car trip that day. He had a fun time climbing and going down the slide. I love how he has his little tongue sticking out in the picture below. He really enjoys slides and will just continuously climb up and slide down. We had fun playing together for awhile until some landscapers starting making noise off in the distance. Aedan got focused on the "noise" and wouldn't keep playing. Loud or unexpected noises seem to scare him some. After realizing that he wasn't going to keep playing because of the noise, we decided to head to the grocery store to pick up a few things before our trip.

Samantha actually got done with her field trip early that morning, so we were able to leave for Sault Ste. Marie earlier than we had originally planned. We had the car loaded up and had plenty of toys and things to entertain the kids in the car. We drove to Eaton where we went through a Wendy's drive thru for food lunch. We figured that eating in the car would help kill some time, and we could make some progress towards our destination rather than stopping to eat which always takes longer with kids. Samantha was able to eat her food on her own, Ben passed bites back to Aedan to prevent any spills while also eating his own food when he had the chance, and I ate while I drove. The roads to get to Sault Ste. Marie are pretty straightforward highways, so even though it's a long drive, it is an easy drive. We drove for about two and a half hours before we stopped to fill up on gas and take a bathroom break before having the kids take naps. Ben and I switched places so that he could take a turn driving, with the plan being to switch again at dinnertime. Aedan was pretty tired and fell asleep pretty easily in the car. Really, as soon as you give him his pacifier, he is all set for sleep. He ended up sleeping for a good, solid two and half hours, and boy was he cute when he was sleeping. Isn't it just adorable how he had his arm propped up to support his head?

Now Samantha has always had a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep in the car, even as a little baby. We did eventually convince her to close her eyes and go to sleep; however, she only slept for about twenty minutes before waking back up again. Even though she was awake, she did a really good job staying quiet to let Aedan sleep. I got some books on CD copied onto an iPod for her to listen to as well as Playaways that I checked out from the library. It was a pretty peaceful afternoon in the car. However, as we drove on further into Michigan, it began to snow. We stopped at a Subway for dinner and there was quite a bit of snow already on the ground. It had already slowed us down some, and Ben and I spent some time looking at the forecast for the rest of our journey. Our plan was to drive the whole 8 hours and 20 minutes up to Sault Ste. Marie and have the kids sleep in the car for the last part of the trip. However, the snow was making it so that we would get there much later than planned. I was going to take over driving after dinner, but Ben is better at driving in the snow, so he decided to continue driving.

As we kept driving, the weather just got worse and worse, along with the roads. Ben couldn't go faster than maybe 40-45 miles per hour, sometimes even slower than that. We hoped that we could get past it and then be in the clear, as northern Michigan did not get as much snow. However, as we drove the snowstorm kept moving east and north, making it that we could never get past it but continued to drive into it. We planned to stop right around 8:00 for a last potty break and hope the kids would sleep the rest of the way to the hotel. However, since it was getting darker and it was snowing harder, Ben and I decided it was just too dangerous to keep travelling. It was like we were driving in a snow tunnel, the roads were slick and we didn't feel comfortable going more than 30 miles per hour, and we still had a couple hours to drive in good weather. We tried driving a little farther before we decided to call it quits for the night. I called the hotel in Sault Ste. Marie to cancel our reservation for the night, and then I booked another hotel room in Gaylord, Michigan for the night. Ben had been tensely driving the car for most of the day, allowing us to get as far as we had safely, and we didn't want to push our luck and end up getting in an accident or sliding off the side of the road.

We arrived at the hotel in Gaylord a little before 10:00 and neither kid had been asleep in the car yet. We were ready to get out of the car for the day and get some sleep. The hotel actually upgraded us to a pretty fancy suite with two separate rooms, which was nice. We got our things set up and got the kids to bed, but even though it was very late, being in a new place and arriving past their bedtime got them riled up and made it more difficult for them to fall asleep. We sent a couple emails before we went to bed since our inspection was scheduled for 10 a.m., and we also had plans for Samantha to meet kindergarten teachers and see the elementary school, and since we had to stop we weren't going to be able to make either of those things. Ben and I were both pretty tired and slept well except for when Ben woke up with his arms straight up in the air, as if he were gripping the steering wheel. It was a long, stressful, and frustrating day for we should have already made it to Sault Ste. Marie. Luckily, the kids did a great job in the car all day, much better than we anticipated. I think they somehow instinctively knew that we were under stress in driving and were pretty content hanging out in the backseat, reading, playing, and watching shows.

Thursday morning we woke up, got ready, and went down to breakfast, trying to figure out what the plan would be for our inspection and hoping it could be rescheduled since that was the main reason we were coming all this way in the first place. It continued to snow most of the night and the roads weren't too great, so we were glad we stopped for the night but also wondered how the roads would be on the rest of our drive. In good weather, the drive from Gaylord to Sault Ste. Marie would only take an hour and a half, but due to the conditions of the road, it took us four hours to make that trip. We were going anywhere from 30 to 45 miles per hour, and there weren't too many other cars on the road. In fact, once we stopped in the middle of the road on I-75 to clear off ice from our windshield. Once again, the kids did a great job in the car that morning, even though we should have already arrived at our destination. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge was a very interesting experience in the snowy weather. The wind was blowing strong, snow was flying all around, and the water underneath the bridge was churning. Once we arrived on the other side of the bridge, we stopped at rest area for a break from the car and for the bathroom. We were all definitely ready to arrive in Sault Ste. Marie.

We finally arrived in our future city around lunchtime. We drove around a little bit and pointed things out to Samantha on our way to McDonald's to pick up some food for lunch (by Samantha's request). Everyone was just ready to get to the hotel, so we went back there to eat our lunch. It was so nice to finally have arrived, and to have arrived safely. We knew there would be some snow on our drive, but no one expected it to turn into a winter weather advisory situation. I was able to contact our realtor, Steve, that morning about our inspection, and we were able to reschedule it for 3:00 p.m. The schools actually had a snow day that day, so Samantha was unable to visit after all. So, we got all our stuff up to the hotel room, let the kids run around and play for awhile, and then we put them down for their naps. After a late night the night before and Samantha still recovering from a cold/cough, we decided to make her nap as well, which she wasn't too happy about. However, Daddy laid down with her as he needed a nap as well, and she fell asleep quickly, touching him with either her hand or foot the entire time they were in bed together.

Since our inspection was at 3:00 and at that point everyone was still napping, I went off to the inspection on my own with a plan to come back and pick them all up at 4:15 so that the kids could still see the house. Here are some additional pictures I took of the house from different angles.

Front Door

Hallway to the back of the house with the mud room off the garage

Living Room

Upstairs Bathroom

Tan Bedroom

Closet space in tan room, plus desk they are leaving for us

Blue Room, with the mattress set they are leaving behind for us 

Closet in Blue Room

Red Room

Closets in Red Room (Isn't it amazing how much closet space this house has?)

Kitchen

Kitchen

The view out the kitchen window into the snowy backyard

View from the kitchen into the Dining Room. There is an area for bar stools at the counter where you see the two lights hanging down from the ceiling.

A built-in display shelf

View from the Dining Room into the Living Room

Mud Room

Mud Room, looking toward the front door on the right and the door to the basement

Basement Stairs

Utility/Laundry Room

Utility/Laundry Room

Family Room/Play Room

Basement Stairs

Bar Area with Pellet Stove

Downstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bedroom

Downstairs Bedroom

Downstairs Bedroom

Downstairs Office/Guest Room

Downstairs Office/Guest Room

It was really fun to see the kids running around the house, making it really feel real that this house will be our family's first home. It was great to see them talking about their rooms, going up and down the basement stairs, sitting in front of the pellet stove, and filling the house with sounds of laughter. Seeing the kids there definitely made me sure that we made the right choice in putting an offer on this house. The inspector said that there were no red flags in the house, that everything checked out well, and that we really found a great house with much more space than what you can see from the outside. Plus, there were many nice updates and the owners had done a good job maintaining the home. Before we left for the afternoon, we stopped to take a family picture outside. The next time we walk into this house we will own it and we will be moving all our belongings inside.

We were so glad that we made it for the inspection, but we had a long day, so we decided to go back to the hotel to relax for the evening. We ordered pizza to be delivered to the hotel and then we went swimming in the hotel pool. Aedan enjoyed the water a little more than usual. We had a floatie raft for him to sit in so that he didn't have to be carried the whole time, but he really just wanted to walk around and swim like Sissy, so that was frustrating to him. Hopefully we can get him a Puddle Jumper as well for swimming so that way he can move around in the water on his own. He actually was doing a pretty good job kicking his feet even while in the raft. Samantha has always loved water, and she could have played in the pool for a lot longer than what interested Aedan. She is very active in the pool and loves to jump in off the sides and swim with her head under the water. We will definitely have to buy this girl some goggles this summer so that way she is protecting her eyes and can still see under water. It was a fun night together as a family. :)

On Friday morning after getting ready and eating breakfast, we decided to go to a place called Jump U.P. which has toddler time in the morning from 10-12. We arrived right at 10, and the kids were so excited to go in and play. They had several large inflatable bounce houses as well as an obstacle course with a slide. Then, they had more of a toddler area with a play house, play kitchen, mini-roller coaster, and see saw. They also had story time that morning with a special Easter craft for the kids to make. Aedan did pretty well listening to the stories and even wanted to do the craft with Sissy. It was a fun way to spend the morning, and this will definitely be a good place to come play when it's super cold in the winter.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant before returning to the hotel for nap time. Aedan went right to sleep, and we tried to get Sissy to nap as well, but she just laid in the bed without falling asleep. Once Aedan woke up, we took a trip over to campus to walk around, play in the snow, and see some of the buildings, including where Ben's office might be. Knowing that there might be snow, we came prepared with the kids' snowsuits, hats, and gloves. I know this wasn't much snow compared to what Sault Ste. Marie is used to getting over the winter, but it was a lot to our kids, especially since our winter in Oxford was so mild. They had a great time playing in the snow and throwing snowballs at each other. It was fun to see Aedan really enjoying exploring the snow as well, and even though the winters will be longer in the UP, I have a feeling we will really enjoy playing in the snow and other winter sports.

After walking around campus, we decided to go out to eat at Applebee's, where we saw Ken, the husband of Melissa who will be a fellow professor of Ben's at Lake State. The kids did pretty well, but they were starting to lose it by the end of our time there. (Now we know why we don't take the kids to very many sit-down restaurants.) Then, we went back to the hotel for bath time and a more normal bed time. Samantha was tired from not napping at all that day, and we knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us, although this time we wouldn't have to worry about any sudden snow storms.

Samantha and Aedan sleep in the same room at hotels, and it works out pretty well, but they tend to wake up earlier than usual in the morning. These days in Sault Ste. Marie, it was more Aedan waking up Samantha because he would wake up talking and singing. A lot of times he wakes up early at home, but we are able to just ignore him and sometimes he even goes back to sleep. However, in the hotel when he woke up, he knew that Sissy was in the room with him, and it was so cute to hear them talking to each other over the monitor. On Saturday morning, Aedan would request a song, and then Samantha would sing it for him. They went back and forth like this for quite awhile before Samantha said, "Aedan, I'm tired of singing songs for you."  Here we are on the way out of our hotel on Saturday morning. The kids love to ride on the luggage carts.

And here is our view of the Mackinac Bridge when there isn't a snow storm. It was a bright, clear day, and the roads were just fine to drive on, for which we were extremely grateful.

Samantha can amuse herself pretty well in the car, especially considering how long a car trip to Upland sometimes feels. However, when she knows we are going to be in the car for awhile, she does a good job of not complaining and finding ways to pass the time. She loves to color in her Color Wonder books, and she loves to look at books. Aedan, on the other hand, was pretty fussy during our drive that morning. Ben drove that morning so that I could take the afternoon shift of driving while the kids were napping so that he could have a break to relax and read a book. Eventually I had to actually climb in the back of the car with Aedan because nothing was making him happy. He didn't want to play or look at books, he just wanted to hold my hand and caress his face with my hand. After we stopped for lunch, everybody seemed to be in a better mood, so maybe the kids were just hungry. I took over the driving, and the kids were having fun playing and hanging out in the back seat. Ben took these great, silly pictures. I particularly like the one with Aedan in sunglasses, or "eyes" as he calls them, and his pacifier. He looks like a pretty cool dude.

Samantha had to get in on the silly face action as well, and she's pretty good at the goofy faces!

Our trip home on Saturday was so much more peaceful than our trip up. We arrived home around 7:00 p.m., giving us time to get things unpacked and situated before getting the kids to bed. I then had the job of getting their Easter baskets ready and getting eggs filled with candy for the next day.

Here are the kids looking at their Easter baskets before breakfast in the morning. They didn't get anything too crazy, just a chocolate bunny, a coloring book and crayons for Aedan, a Color Wonder book and new markers for Samantha, bubbles, a little Barbie for Samantha, and Cookie Monster and Elmo stuffed animals for Aedan.

It was a gorgeous day outside for Easter. The sun was shining, and it was warm enough for Samantha to wear her long dress without tights. I was glad that we decided to drive the whole way back on Saturday so that we could experience Easter at OBF. They met in the Armstrong Center on Miami's campus, and they had no childcare, so we figured Aedan wouldn't last too long in the service. He really enjoyed listening to the music and watching the guitar. Samantha was even able to sing along to the first song which was "Amazing Grace," the same song they sang in front of the church on Palm Sunday. Once the pastor got up to speak, Aedan started making noise, so Ben just took him out of the room. They had some toys set up outside the conference room, plus he could just walk around out there. Samantha is one of those interesting kids who is always listening even though it looks like she isn't. She was pretty fidgety in her seat during the sermon, but she was quiet so I didn't make a big deal out of it. However, I could tell she was listening because she made comments about what the pastor was saying, like in reference to talking about outer space at the beginning, or talking about Mary who visited the tomb and thinking Jesus' body was stolen even though it wasn't. She remembered quite a lot about the sermon, probably more than even some adults could remember. I think she is a lot like Ben in that way because she seems to be an auditory learning, being able to hear something and remember it. It was kind of fun having her sitting next to me during church. I thought it was a great service and the music really moved me at the end. I love to be a part of these celebrations at church. If only we could be this excited every day of the year and not just on Easter!

Once we got back home, the kids cooperated enough to let me take pictures of them all dressed up. Aedan loves to wear his suit and tie, and Samantha loves to wear this long dress. We have two pretty cute kids. :)

There was a chance of rain later in the day, so we decided to do our Easter egg hunt before lunch. While the kids were getting changed into play clothes, I went outside and hid the eggs in the grass around our house. Aedan had no idea what he was supposed to do at first because he was barely walking at Easter last year, but Samantha knew what an egg hunt was all about. They both had a lot of fun finding the eggs, and even though Samantha got more than Aedan, she did a pretty good job of letting him find some on his own as well. It's so fun to live vicariously through your kids in traditions like these. Here are some videos of the Easter egg hunt. Did I mention how nice of a day it was outside? It was warm enough that we had most of our windows open, letting in a nice breeze and allowing us to hear the birds chirping outside our windows. I love spring.

After nap time (at which Samantha didn't nap), we decided to dye Easter eggs while we waited for our Easter dinner to be ready. The ham was taking a little longer than we expected to cook. Samantha was very interested in dying the eggs and was very careful when putting the eggs in and taking them out. Aedan wanted to help but of course did not really know how to do it, so he got to watch Daddy as he did it. 

After awhile Aedan was getting frustrated at not being able to do it on his own, hence the crying in this video. This is what it's like trying to do activities with an older kid when you have a younger kid who wants to copy everything the older kid does. Plus, it was almost dinnertime which is always a whiny time of day for Aedan.

Since it was Easter, we decided to have a nicer meal of ham, au gratin potatoes, cooked asparagus, and homemade bread. Samantha liked everything but the potatoes, Aedan liked everything but the asparagus, Ben and I enjoyed everything, so it all worked out. In fact, when we put an asparagus on Aedan's plate, he called it "nah-nah" after the Junior Asparagus toy in Upland that sings "nah-nah" to the tune of "God is Bigger than the Boogeyman." Ben and I just died laughing when we heard him make that connection. He is a pretty funny, smart little boy.

Then, that night after dinner we got our house prepared for our guests who would arrive late on Sunday night. We got the air mattress set up in Aedan's room and put Aedan to sleep in the play room for the night. I cleaned the house because it needed to be done, and I figured if I was going to stay up late I might as well get work done around the house. Our friends, Brad and Melissa, along with their 15 month old, Madeline, arrived just before midnight. Madeline had fallen asleep in the car but woke up when she was brought into the house. We hugged our friends and talked for a few minutes, but then we all went to bed since it was so late and it had been a long day for our friends. However, Madeline was having a lot of trouble falling asleep in a new place and was crying pretty hard every time they tried to lay her down. I didn't know this until the next morning, but apparently Melissa had to drive her around Oxford in the car until she fell asleep, and then Brad went outside and slept in the car all night because they didn't want to risk taking her out and waking her up again. I felt bad that they had a rough night and didn't get much sleep.

It was so fun to have Brad, Melissa, and Madeline at our house. We had pancakes for breakfast, had lots of time for the kids to play, and had lots of time for the parents to talk and catch up with each other. They are the friends that we feel the strongest connection with over all this time since our years together in college. No matter how much time has passed, we can always pick up right where we left off. Very few people know me as well as Melissa, and even though our time together was busier than usual with following our kids around, we had some wonderful conversations. She is so encouraging to me, and I am excited to possibly see more of them in the future by meeting halfway between our homes in the western UP. After a good afternoon of napping for all kids, (Yes, I made Samantha nap because she was too tired and needed to rest. Plus, she was pretty willing to fall asleep since she actually fell asleep with me in the room.) we actually all went out to eat at Fiesta Charra in Uptown Oxford. All kids ate well, and it was good to have one final meal together before they had to head back to Madison. It was a quick but wonderful visit with some very dear friends whom we love. Here is a picture of the three kids after dinner that night before we all said good-bye.

(Blog about March 22-28, 2016)