A Little Bit Backward

Since I haven't gotten all of the pictures up on Flickr from our trip yet, I am going to start with the end of the trip first. Then I will eventually get to the others -- as far back as the first day of nursery school!

The trip was really fantastic though. We traveled countless miles, visited 6 different cities, visited with family and friends, and slept very little. Well worth it.

In East Lansing, at the end of the trip, I didn't have the camera because we ran out of space on our memory card. So, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the first couple of days that we spent with Nana and the lunch we had with Aunt Glee. But the memories are in our minds and it was wonderful to share some time with them.

Mu and Tada had a wonderful list of activities for us and the weather could not have been more perfect so we enjoyed lots of outdoor time.

We took a trip to the farm and planted a couple of small white pines (state tree of Michigan!) that we picked up at Tollhouse Farm in Novi a couple of days before.





It was a beautiful and foggy morning as we walked around what Tada was calling the 50 acre wood.



Eleanor and Henry really enjoyed playing the piano at Mu and Tada's house.



Another day, we visited the MSU dairy farm. To my surprise, Eleanor loved the cows and Henry seemed a bit intimidated by them. There was one huge, but friendly, bull that Eleanor especially liked.



We also saw a small calf that had been born only about 15 minutes earlier. No picture of that either, but the nice gentleman who took us to see the baby said that if there was no other Eleanor in the herd they would name that calf after her. And, of course, the tractors were a huge hit.



At the end of the week, Aunt Lynda and Uncle Mike came in to town and we had a couple of nice days with them.



We went to the apple orchard and had a nice time picking apples and eating apple turnovers ala mode.



I also attended my Albion College reunion, which was really fun. I'll have to see if I can get a few of the pictures from the trip, I know Jen had her camera!

There were lots of other fun moments, sweeping honey locust leaves off the driveway, going down to the playground at Glencairn, a visit with Linda (who had the coolest airplane), eating ice cream at the MSU dairy, listening to the MSU marching band practice, watching slides of when we were young, and many other small but precious moments.

The Big Trip

We leave on our big trip tomorrow. I would really like to do a big post on Eleanor's first day of school (yesterday) but I think it is going to have to wait until we get back because I am exhausted. The exhaustion is due to my inability to sleep when I am excited or nervous about something (first day of school, big trip). I swear, I am still like a kid at Christmas and now I am getting butterflies on behalf of my dear kids.

Quote of the Day

Last week...
Me: Eleanor, what do you want to be for Halloween this year?
Eleanor: A DINOSAUR!

Just now...
Me: What do you think you might want to be for Halloween this year?
Eleanor: A DONKEY!

Always with enthusiasm.

What do you do with a drunken sailor?

As September begins, our family is gearing up for the big trip to Michigan for Aunt Jess and Uncle Ryan's wedding. Plus, Eleanor will be starting school next week just before we leave for our trip. Lots of big excitement coming up. I think the kids can feel my excitement -- I have always been a bit high strung when something noteworthy is about to happen -- and it has made them bit testy the past few days.

For the wedding, Eleanor will be the flower girl and Henry will be the ring "bear" (as Eleanor calls it). I'm so glad Henry is walking, though I fear he may look like a drunken sailor striking the Heisman pose going down the aisle. In Eleanor's case, I hope we are able to get her into a dress instead of the Thomas shirt that was intended for Henry and is therefore about four sizes to small. Whatever happens, we look forward to celebrating with Jess, Ryan and the rest of the family.