Day 1--Easy Casual

Since I'm feeling the void of having no vacation plans this summer, and because I never blogged about last summer's trip to Michigan, I have decided to blog about it now...exactly one year later in an effort to document it here and relive it so as to comfort my staycationed self.

To refresh your memory--We had left the last day of school and flown to Randy's brother's house in Illinois to stay with them for 12 days! After spending time with them, they left for Italy (Daniela's family lives there) then we spent one more night there before getting a rental car and driving the 3 hours (4 with the time change) to Michigan. (Randy had flown home after being in Illinois for a week...he works hard for the money, so hard for it honey.)


The kids were rather excited about our bright red, HHR rental car. I was just glad it wasn't a hot pink Festiva.

Our pre-road trip self-portrait.

The kids were excited about the bag of snacks Daniela had packed for them.

I blew their minds when we stopped for road-trip treats.

It was rather crazy to be able to drive to Michigan in just a few hours' time when you consider that most the year we're 1,597 miles apart! It was exciting!


We finally arrived (the anticipation had been building for quite some time) around 7:15pm. I was so happy to see their lovely house again.


Betsy's brother Tim was there to greet us (along with her husband Greg and mother Faye), and Betsy's almost 4-year old son Owen hung back a bit in a state of excited shyness. Betsy wasn't actually home when we arrived because she'd taken her 1-year old son to the emergency room with an unexplained rash and fever (this wasn't stressful for her at all--ha).


It took 0.00 seconds for Owen to invite Landon downstairs to play basketball. The entire basement area is a fun zone for the kids, so there was plenty of room to run around and play ball.


Whitney made herself at home in their playroom right away, and hung out with Betsy's mom answering her questions in a sometimes vague or sometimes overly detailed way.


We had some Freschetta pizza for dinner, which Tim hilariously described as "a dense slice of enjoyment." I can't properly convey the hilarity of Betsy's family, but their sense of humor and delivery are such that I'm often reduced to fits of laughter and tears in a way that no one else stirs in me.


Meanwhile, Owen was tireless in his basketball playing, Landon was perfecting his dunk, and Greg and Tim had joined in the fun.


Faye showed me to the guest room complete with framed photos of Betsy and I and daisies from their yard.


Betsy had this gift waiting for me, which was a much-anticipated video of our high school's junior variety show from 21 years earlier. She had had to go to great lengths to borrow a copy of it from an old classmate and then get a copy made, so this was quite a gift!


The kids got to sleep in the room next door to mine, which is actually Betsy's craft room. She outfitted it with air mattresses, toys, and framed photos of them.


Seriously, how cute is it that she framed these pictures of her with them?!


Whitney and Owen collaborated on a mural in the toy room, but they experienced some artistic differences ( in a calm way). Whitney was beyond thrilled to have such a huge canvas to work with and took this opportunity quite seriously.


Betsy and Emmit finally returned from a long, stressful visit to the emergency room with an inconclusive diagnosis of a noncontagious rash.


Emmit immediately got busy playing and proved to be fine except for being spot covered. What the?! Tim said, "He's the only one not concerned about his rash."


Betsy rocked the kids' world by showing them her pantry stocked with all their favorite things. Owen had gone shopping with Faye to buy these things and was disturbed by all the nonhealthy choices. He said, "They like sugary snacks. We got root beer, grape and orange soda, m&ms, Bit o' Honey, Reese's and gummies." It was hilarious.


We dove into the "sugary snacks" and enjoyed the first of many glasses of crushed ice (oh to have my own dispenser) with Fanta, or as Tim said, "I think they call this Fanta because it's Fantastic!"


Betsy sought Tim (and Faye's) translation skills to interpret the handwriting from one of my recent photo cards. You see, she had been getting the mail when Emmit (newly walking) had started to toddle down the driveway, and in her motherly wisdom ran after him before he could "take a digger" so she dropped the mail and forgot about it. Of course it rained, so she found my card smeared and soaked a day or so later. (She is probably the only person who could do this without offending me.) To her credit, she dried it out and taped it back together, which caused Tim to ask, "Why'd you laminate it?" Thus causing me to laugh to the brink of bladder busting (you had to be there).


Betsy swears this says, "we're on easy casual" but what it actually says is "we're an easy crowd". Granted, my handwriting has become more slurred looking and messy over the years despite the frequency of my writing. I do so much note taking and card writing that my penmanship should be beautiful, but alas, it is NOT. This incident has been the source of much amusement for us and is now something we say.


We were up late that first night, way past Owen's usual bedtime, so Tim was explaining to him that it was almost midnight which meant it was going to be tomorrow. This is not something a small child can easily comprehend, even one as astute and intelligent as Owen. When the clock struck 12:00 he immediately turned to look outside because he expected it to be daytime. It was adorable.

By the time we all retired (not Betsy of course, she stayed up cleaning, organizing and taking care of house stuff for the next day because she still had to go into work), we were wasted. I hunkered down in my very clean and comfortable guest room and said a long prayer of thanks for the opportunity to be there and to have such wonderful friends, then I got into bed smiling and replayed it all in my head. I wrote down the few quotes I used in the post so I wouldn't forget them (if only I had done this the rest of the trip) then eventually fell asleep.

**Have you ever blogged a trip one year later?
Are you ever on easy casual?
Do you like Fanta?
Do you have a crushed ice dispenser?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I had a good time reliving this first day of our trip, so I think doing this may actually help me feel better about not going anywhere this summer. Good times.