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Family Road Trip {Lake Michigan}

Going to catch up on documenting some of our recent fun! A few weeks ago Rich had a business trip scheduled for Traverse City, Michigan. He has several clients there so he goes every few months. After visiting Traverse City with him for the first time 5 years ago–we haven’t missed a summer taking the crew since! It is by far one of the most beautiful places to vacation in the country! I loooove Hilton Head–but I’m afraid not much can hold a candle to Lake Michigan. We are totally smitten with the mitten state:)

And yes–I often dress them the same when we travel, so I can easily spot them and I know exactly what they are wearing should one walk off. Oh these are so LoVeD!

My Loves

So instead of flying SEVEN to Michigan–we decided we would pack up the van…and DRIVE!

I was certain it would be something we would later regret. BUT Y’ALL! It was so FUN! We started off on the wrong foot with a broken DVD player and realized our 16 hour car ride to Traverse City would be filled with road games. After a few rounds of Eye Spy…the car tag game and the ABC sign game…I realized we had been in the car for 30 minutes;) (insert emoticon with BIG eyes!)

We pulled over at BestBuys where we bought a NEW DVD player and hopped on the road! Yay! We can do this!!! As soon as I got all the straps and wires set up (insert lots of “Rich–PLEASE drive careful while I do this so I don’t go flying out the window!)…we discovered it did NoT work. We laughed and decided to just be old school for this leg of the trip (7 hours)! Our plan was to stay in Cincinatti for the night which was near the Creation Museum as our first attraction to see.

 

Oh my. An attraction it was! There were even scenes in there that the wax figures made me uncomfortable;) Adam’s awkward arch here…um–keep walking kids.

Children. The Creation Museum. It’s how you were created. Moving on…
The grounds there were lovely! Full on par with ATL Botanical Gardens!

After the museum–we scooted to the heart of WKRP…Cincinatti! We followed our sweet local friends recommendations for pizza and ice cream. Oh my. Amazing. Oh my word the local recs are the way to go! Aflame sis Brothers for ice cream was the best I have EVER had! http://www.aglamesis.com

Cutest place ever. And the server with the pink bow tie…perfection!

My sweet friend Maria Davis opened her home for our family for the night. Oh MY. The adoption momma community is a tight, sweet one! We stayed there and got right back on the road when the sun came up heading for Traverse!

We drove a solid 8 hours with the intention to stop at Best Buys and exchange the DVD that didn’t work for a new one…but that NEVER happened. Crazy right?! We embraced all things old school and it was actually fun!!

I use the UrbanSppon app for insight where to eat and half way there led us to a hole in the wall burger joint…that was really good…and cheap!

A few more hours…and we arrived at one of the most beautiful places on Earth…Lake Michigan! Oh the fun to be had here! Film Festival week and clear blue water without the salt or sharks!

The next days were spent playing on the water, in the Traverse Resort hotel pool, picking cherries and visiting with Richard’s client’s families!

Um. A few too many maybe on at once?!

Then…after a fun week we started our journey home but first stopped for a couple in another city to get in time with one of my dearest friends Carissa Woodwyk. She is AMAZING and has come alongside our Created for Care team for years now being the most beautiful voice for adoptees. She’s become one of my best friends in the world…and I’m so thankful for how she shines Jesus in my life and heart.

She is also braver than me…I’m terribly scared of heights and other things she’s not…so I take the pictures some time of those experiences instead of greeting too close:) It felt high…I promise;)

Lake Michigan is sooooo pretty! And the beaches!

After a super fun time with C…we headed to see my friend Lovelyn and have lunch and ice cream with her fun crew…

Yes! A lot of kids between just 2 moms!!!! But they are almost twice our size! And she mothers soooo gracefully and her children are all so sweet and loving to one another.

The next. Hold your breath…

The DeLorean.

If you do not know what this is…it’s a time machine. And you need to watch the movie. It’s important. And my homeopathic doc reminds me of Doc. 🙂
And then…these on the ride home.

We stopped in Louisville for dinner…(Zeke is happy here…his “cheese” face is just intense!)

Then we made it to Nashville after midnight and crashed! We were thankful for the big breakfast before our last leg home!

And…we finally made it to a Best Buy and RETuRnED the DVD player! Instead we got a single player to play my IEW Intensive Writing Skills DVD classes on for homeschool:)

We are already talking about our next ROAD trip next year but I think we want to just stay longer next time! We are so thankful for the friends we got to see and spend time with! And we are super thankful for my house sitter Tami who stayed here to feed the chickens and Oreo while we were gone!

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

 

Xoxo!

 

Andrea

 

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