Ahhh!!!

Vacation!!! I LOVE vacation! We just returned from a busy, too fast, but very fun 10 day trip to Michigan and Ohio. We enjoyed every minute, including all the travelling. It was a 15-16 hour trip to Michigan, another 8 hours to Ohio, and then another 18 hours from Ohio to Oklahoma. This doesn't include all the driving back and forth while there. Jason was such a good traveller again, he only cried the last half hour of our trek home.

While in Michigan we stayed at our camper on Fremont Lake. We enjoyed walks, ice cream dates, a swim in the lake, some movies, and a couple games of Mexican Train.

Some of the highlights of our trip:

Getting to spend time with my two favorite guys! I love road trips with Aaron because we have so much time to just talk.




Getting to meet our two new nieces, Meredith & Naomi. They were so sweet! Jason got to see all his cousins from my side of the family minus Noah.

Another highlight was spending time with my best friend, Andrea!

Some might tell you that eating these scrumptious bread sticks was the best part of my trip...the truth of the matter is, they ranked right up there. Of course seeing my family and friends was the BEST part!!! Back to the bread sticks...we had them twice while in MI., and they were everything I remembered them to be and more. :)

MOVING ON...




We went to Lake Michigan one day with family. It turned out to be a red flag day (the undertow was bad) due to the high winds and waves. We were all covered in sand in a matter of minutes, and we were there only two hours before we called it quits. It was miserable (especially for the moms and babies), and we brought home enough sand to make a beach in the bathroom. Aaron did get to play with the kids in the water for a bit, so it wasn't a total bust. Jason loved the sand. He was crawling (army style) all over the place. Speaking of beaches, he probably created one in his tummy with all the sand he ate.

My friend Laura and her family were in MI while we were there and they came up one afternoon to the camper for a visit. It was fun to see her again and to meet her daughter Hailey who is 4 days younger than Jason. They were cute to watch together.

We were able to visit with longtime family friends, the Johnson's minus Micheal (who didn't feel we were important enough to grace with his presence. ; )) We had dinner with them and my siblings and their families one evening.




Jason and I had breakfast with Stephanie and Nadia one morning. I hadn't seen Stephanie since our wedding. It was fun to catch up and to meet her daughter Nadia.

What is round on both ends and says HI in the middle?

OHIO!!

Sadly, this riddle played in my mind often while we were away.

We decided around the time that Jason was born that we were going to try to get to Ohio this summer for the Palmer family annual pig roast. We have wanted to get up there since we were married, but for one reason or another it hadn't worked out. We didn't tell anyone about our plan to avoid disappointment if it didn't work out. We were for sure going to MI to meet our new nieces, and since it was only an 8 hour drive from MI-OH we decided to plan the trips together. So, we surprised the entire Palmer clan, including all our immediate family. It was great to finally meet Aaron's extended family.

We stayed in a hotel while in Ohio and made the drive (it was a curvy, hilly, beautiful LONG drive) back and forth to where the family was. The pig roast was fun. There are no pictures on my camera of the pig, but I did get to see the dead pig in all of its nasty deadness before it was roasted. Before the trip I had seen on FB a friends picture of a pig being roasted. The head was still attached with apples stuck on for eyes, nose etc...and the pig was on a spit being roasted. So I had this lovely picture in my head upon arrival in Ohio. Well, it turns out the Palmer's have a more dignified (in my opinion) way of roasting the pig, and it didn't include the head or a spit. Don't get me wrong, it was still quite nasty, but it sure did smell good and taste great in the end

Here is one of my favorite pictures taken in the two days we were in Ohio. This is Aaron's Grandpa Palmer (Pap), Aaron's dad (Papa/Grandpap), Aaron (Papa to Jason) and of course the cute little man, Jason (we just call him all kinds of things, Jace, J-Ry, Jason Ryan, J-Dizzle, sweet boy, big boy, handsome, precious...he answers to all...:))