Michigan (and more)

The only bad part of my Hawaii trip was learning the sad news that Ammi, Jason's grandmother, died while I was gone. Besides the sadness of the event, it also created some logistical issues as Grammy left early to fly to Michigan, and I got to start packing again almost as soon as I walked in the door. We left the house less than 24 hours after I had returned to drive up to Michigan. Everything about the trip went smoothly (thankfully) and we were very glad to be able to attend the final celebration of Ammi's life and see all kinds of DeRousie family. However, because of various hotel and state hopping, I calculated that I had ended up sleeping in 7 different beds (in 4 different states) over the course of 9 days! It was quite the traveling adventure.

After a quick reunion, the girls were quite amenable to a road trip. Their excitement at staying in a hotel was just hilarious. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express (which they pointed out EVERY one on the way there, and for the rest of the trip) after bedtime, they were bouncing off the walls with excitement!

can't you just feel the excitement!?! a hotel room?! WOW!

After West Virginia, we headed up to Michigan (ironically circling around Columbus!), and met up with the rest of the DeRousie family by late afternoon. The girls quickly reaquainted themselves with the extended DeRousie family and had a great time playing with cousins.  I even got to partner with Poppa for euchre, which I considered to be a great honor!

Molly's first legit lollipop - she was so happy after illegally tasting them previously

pile on Uncle Roy! (I think... it's hard to tell...)

The next day was the celebration of Ammi's life at the local firehall where Poppa had served as firechief for 17 years. There were lots of fun pictures to look at (I took some photos of the pictures so I could save/share them) and the girls had fun playing with their cousins and other relatives, while mooching as many cookies and lemonade sips they could manage.

the DeRousie clan. Only missing one cousin I think.

Posing with Poppa

Mooching off Grammy

Ammi. I think Eliza kind of looks like her.

Mooching off Granddad

Poppa and his firetruck (how cool is that!? He had a fire truck!)

Ammi and Jason, circa 1977. If you want to know where the girls get their cheeks from.... :)

cousin chaos

a couchful of cousins

enjoying Michigan corn, even with all the holes in her mouth. yum!

Molly does a little stretching

watching the dinner train (station was next door) head out

With no disrespect to family, I think the girls would have said that the best part of the trip was getting to go in the pool.  We went at least twice, including one right-before-bed trip that they just loved. They have made a lot of progress with their swimming this summer, so they love any opportunity to swim! We also learned that Molly can sing with pop songs  - do you recognize what she's singing?!(so the video is from the car, but she started singing it at the pool, just randomly!)

entering the pool

let's play toss the baby!

our orange-bug-eyed fish

a flying fish!

After another night in Michigan, and stopping by to see family again in the morning, we headed back to Columbus for the day. It was good to be out of a hotel room, and have some time to run around and visit Graeter's! The next morning we headed back to NC. I'd like to give a shoutout to the Wendy's employee, who when we stopped in Greensboro for frostys (only an hour from home mind you!), gave us free toys when E started crying (randomly, for something small I can't remember now) and those toys were complete entertainment for the rest of the drive! Life saver!

We made it home a little bit sad to have said goodbye, but safe and sound, happy to have seen so much loving family. We are so thankful to have spent time with Ammi (especially last summer in the UP) and that all three girls were able to meet her. We'll miss you Ammi!

Molly, Jason and Ammi last summer

Hawaii!!!

Okay, so I have some catch-up posts to do from the summer. (yes, technically it's still summer, but school has started so that means 'summer' is over, if you know what I mean.) This is the first of what will be a several posts (hopefully, if I get to them in a timely manner), that let you know what adventures we've been up to this summer.

Anyway, while this blog is mainly for the kiddos, I had such an AMAZING adventure this summer, that I have to share a few pictures from it. I got to go to HAWAII, by myself(!!!!) to meet up with 4 of my friends from college. A gigantic thank you to Jason, Grandma, Popop, and Grammy for helping out with the girls so I could go. It was wonderful. I won't bore you with too many details, just some photos, mainly of the lovely landscapes and places we played. And maybe, if I can convince Jason to share, I'll be able to share with you some of the blog he put together for me to keep informed about life at home while I was gone (entitled, while Mommy's away.)

Anyway, the pics:

I was 'lei'd' by my friends when I arrived after a 15 hour journey.

This is Haena beach, or Tunnels. we could walk to it. that mountain ridge was used as Bali Hai in South Pacific I think!

gorgeous valley view

sunset on our beach

group shot as we watched the sun set

view while hiking to Queen's Bath

turtle in the water near Queen's Bath

Queen's Bath, we had a blast swimming here!

 

giant mollusk on the path to the beach

river that we paddleboarded on (so fun!)

can you spot the waterfalls? this is up in the mountains near our beach

our linai, the best spot on the house. We ate here for every meal we were home.

shave ice! Yum! (tried it a different day with macadamia nut ice cream underneath. surprisingly delicious!)

the Napali coast - where we did an awesome hike

happy (hot) hikers

we hiked down to that beach

at the beach. there was a fresh water river (in front of the cairns), boulder hopping, and a lovely beach.

rainbow at Hanalee Bay. This is where we took a surf lesson (not in the harbor part).

I think this was Secret Beach - and there were more lava pools and a water fall nearby that we loved.

our beach as rains from Flossie roll in

We pretty much stayed on the North Shore and had a great time. But on our last day there, when Adie needed to catch a plane around lunchtime, we headed to the south side to hang out before the rest of left in the evening. We did our best to fit in as much sight seeing as possible - we even managed to shower! 

Lumahai Beach, where South Pacific was filmed (in much better weather!)

 

Opaekaa Falls (I think) - just drive up and look at it! no time for hiking near it

spouting horn on the south side. fun to watch.

view near where we showered at a public park shower before heading to the airport

 And that captures just a little bit of my wonderful trip to Hawaii. I had a blast and would love to go back again, though I doubt it will be any time soon. The girls like to ask it we might all go to Hawaii sometime. I know they would have fun, but it'd be a very different trip! Hopefully someday!

one final view of our beach; yes, yes I enjoyed my time here!

Two Big Moments for the Two Year Old

We did manage to celebrate Molly's birthday finally. We just had Grandma and Popop over - too much else going on to have a big party. We went with a pizza and fish theme - two of Molly's favorite things! The cake turned out really cute because of (or in spite of) my fabulous helpers!

my decorating crew

notice the hand sneaking in to catch a fish....

Molly had a great time opening presents. The older two had less of a great time. Apparently Molly got amazing presents, even for older kids, and they had a very hard time letting Molly do the opening and be the one to play with the presents. Luckily then the cake was shared with everyone.

Molly and her pile-o-presents

her new backpack!

the very popular new baby doll who drinks herself to sleep, complete with a burp

Molly did much better trying to blow the candles on the cake, as compared with her birthday sundae a couple days ago. She wasn't much more successful, but she did get the concept of puckering up and blowing! We'll work on the wish part next year! And then the eating of the cake was done with great gusto. No hesitation about cake and frosting like when she turned one! She has had a whole year of being introduced to sweets thanks to her baking momma and her two older sisters. If she sees them clamoring for something, no matter what it is, she wants some too!

trying to blow out the candles

more fish!

notice the wound above her right eye - hit the bed frame right before the party got started!

And then the second big moment was this past week when Molly got to go to school for the first time! She was very excited to carry her own school bag, and then dutifully took it into her classroom and stuck it in a cubby (even though she was supposed to hang it up on a hook in the hallway!) She did cry though when she realized I wasn't coming in with her! When I picked her up an hour later, she was a little red eyed, and had 'stolen' a baby doll (she was clutching it so tightly, they said we could bring it back next time!), she did say she had had fun. And she was okay about going on Thursday too. It might take a few more days, but I think she will learn to love school just like her sisters! (By the way, Eliza started too and loves her new class. No problem changing schools and meeting new friends. Yay!)

posing while waiting for H's ride to school

silly faces! (M has to check out what in the heck H and E are doing!)

sad faces (H isn't very convincing, but E's lip is impressive!)

my three amazing girls

busting a move

our preschool girls, ready to go!