Vacation, all I ever dreamed of

Oh there is so darn much to get caught up on. We just got back from a 10 day vacation in Michigan, and before we even left I was behind on the blog!

I think one reason I've been having a hard time keeping up with the blog lately (besides exhaustion, lack of time and lack of sleep) is that sometimes it feels like my blog is a big fat sunshiney happy lie. Not to say that things aren't happy and sunshiney around here. But they aren't that way all the time. And this just does not seem like the forum in which to air those things. I like to keep things positive around here because I don't think it's fair to you, Dear Reader, to turn this into a big negativity black hole. Lately reading some other blogs (mostly knitting blogs with pictures of perfect happy babies and expertly executed knitting projects) I realized I was developing an inferiority complex. Hey why doesn't my life look that fantastic? Doesn't anything ever go wrong for her? Anyway, I wanted to take a pause and assure you (not that you would be developing the same quirky neuroses as me) that life really isn't as great as it appears in my blog. I'm just skipping over the crappy parts.

Whew, now that that's off my chest... onto the fun stuff!

We had a great time on our trip to Michigan. We took the whole family including Sasha and towed our Little Guy 1300 miles each way. It was a loooong drive. Luckily the CRV managed to get pretty decent gas milage (20-22 mpg). We gave ourselves two nights and two days to get there, so that we could stop every few hours during the day and let Roan run around. We managed to stop off at Windmill State Park in Nebraska as well as Elk Horn, Iowa, where they have a working 100-year-old Danish windmill. We also made a few stops at playgrounds, a water park and at one point a big field in front of the 4H club where we almost crashed a wedding. We even stayed in Chicago one night with our friends Brea and Tim, who were kind enough to put us up at 1 in the morning and show us around their neighborhood the next day.

Roan did great in the car. We brought along lots of books and videos. She had almost zero interest in the videos, but that was ok. We sang songs, read books, worked on naming every object in sight (her favorite pastime recently), and stuffed her face full of all kinds of healthy munchies.

And eventually we got there. Hallelujah! We had heard that Traverse City was a nice place, but it far exceeded our expectations. And it was so great to get to spend some time with Jim and Beryl. They have a very comfortable home on an acre or two in a very serene neighborhood. They have a lot of green space and trails just feet from their house, so it feels somewhat remote and yet they are only 4 or 5 miles from The Lake! We couldn't believe it but the shores of Lake Michigan resemble some of the nicest beaches we've been to with clear blue water and sandy beaches. It was gorgeous.

We had such a nice and relaxing time. We had a day hiking, a day at the beach, a day riding bikes around town, a day wine tasting (there are a boatload of vineyards up there), and plenty of time to just hang out and unwind. We played records with Papa and ate Poochie's famous blueberry pancakes. It was so nice to be able to spend a lot of quality time with Roan and without having so much of our time taken up with all the petty little things that get in the way - cooking, dishes, paying bills, oh yeah and work! She enjoyed not only having our undivided attention, but Papa and Poochie's as well. And she loved playing with their sweet doggies, Tess and Olive, or Tessie and Anya as she calls them. She is *still* talking about Papa, Poochie, Tessie and Anya all these days later.

While we were there Roan had her first sprawled on the floor full on screaming and yelling temper tantrum. It was so funny I had to get it on video.

So now we're back home in Denver, and summer is heating up. It was 99* today, and considering the fact that we don't have air conditioning you'd think it would be unbearable. But it's not really. Don't get me wrong, it's warm, especially during the day, but with the swamp coolers and fans we have going it's tolerable. Then at night it cools way down outside. Tonight it's going to get down to 50* and tomorrow the high will only be 80*. Great summer weather.

Tonight Jen and Micah invited us and a bunch of our friends over for a baby happy hour / backyard bbq at their house. It was such a beautiful night, no one wanted to leave. There were margaritas, burgers and dogs aplenty, and all the little gals were toddling around playing at the water table and in the kiddie pool. Great fun was had by all.

I'll leave you with a couple of fun videos from our trip last week. One is of Roan attempting to take Olive for a walk. You can see she's going to be stubborn like her daddy :). The other is from one afternoon in the kiddie pool.