It's been a big summer! (this is a looong post)

I have had a great summer so far. I've been trying to pack as much as I can in while I still have maternity leave, which ends on Wednesday. The biggest event of the summer was the trip down to the states to visit as much family as was possible in 2 weeks. My parents took Cruz and I in their car for the long, looong drive!

First off, Cruz was an amazing traveler considering he's just 10 months old. Did that make it easy to travel with him? No. That just meant I had to spent all my available energy in trying to keep him entertained in the car.


Our first stop for the night was in Wisconsin at my uncle Frank and aunt Karen's (my mom's brother and sister-in-law). This was after 23 hours of driving straight through the night. We were all ready to be out of the car! My dad did all but maybe 5 hours of driving. He is a road warrior! I don't know how he can drive for so long.

After our refreshing night of sleep (and I use that term very lightly as Cruz did all things well on the trip except sleep) we made our way to Sylvania, Ohio to my grandma's house. This was about 9 hours of driving? I didn't drive, but I was fairly entertained by my parents bickering between following the GPS or the map which apparently made more sense. I'm incredibly directionally declined, so I had no idea where we were. My mom hated the GPS by the end of the trip. I believe we added on a few extra hours due to navigation problems.
It was so great being at my grandma's house. Cruz adapted really great to being there. It was so fun to be able to introduce him to my grandma and aunt Carolyn there. I have so many memories of that house. I love it.

While at my grandma's house, my mom's baby sister, Betty and her boys Ron and Josh came to visit one day and then we went to the Toledo Zoo the next day. The zoo was a blast. It's a very well laid out place so it was easy to navigate around. The highlights there for me were watching the hippo's hang out under the water, the monkey's, the rhino's and the elephants. It was great. Cruz was content to hang out in the stroller the whole time.









After spending a few days at my grandma's, we drove all the way back to my uncle Frank and aunt Karen's in Wisconsin. This time the drive took around 6 hours. We also stopped in Elkhart, Indiana for lunch with my aunt Jan and uncle Rick. It was great to see them, but were sorry the visit had to be so short.

In Wisconsin it was the big family get together. There was about 21 people in the house, including babies, at one time. 13 adults were sleeping there and 6 children under the age of 3 as well. All that considered, the house was so big that it never really felt like we were stepping over each other. At least, I didn't feel that way. I had such a great time. The older I get the more I realize how much family means to me and that I need to treasure all the time I get to spend with them. Especially the American relatives who I see so little of. Once every few years is just not enough.









After a few days at the "zoo" as it was affectionally called, we made our way to Grand Rapids, Michigan to see the Rabbitt's (my dad's sister's family). It's a big family and it's always so nice to see them. Again there were a lot of babies there. With Cruz, there were 5 babies under 1 and a half. That was a lot of fun meeting all of those babies I haven't met yet and seeing my family there. My aunt Emily is always such a great host and makes such yummy food.
After 2 nights there we headed home. 29 hours later we made it! I do not miss the car. It's so great to be home! I missed Rick so much. Cruz did too, but it took him til the morning after we got home for him to realize that. Cruz was too emotional after such a long drive and being woken up and it being 10:30 at night when we got home.







If you've made it this far into the post, you must have been really bored! :-) I could write more but I'll stop. I just wanted to share a bit of each stop we made. It really was a great trip. I'm so thankful my parents were willing to take me and Cruz with them. I'm also so thankful that I have such a great family that I can visit. I miss you all.
I took hundreds of pictures on this trip. I'd love to put them all up, but ya know.. that's a lot of uploading!