To Michigan and back

Last week we piled in a rental car with John's parents and drove up to Michigan to visit Ken's mom and sister. We were a little apprehensive about how Anabelle would do in the car, it was a 5-hour drive each way. John and Ken sat in the front and Sue and I sat in the back with Anabelle in her carseat between us. Belle did ok, she took some little naps and the rest of the time Sue and I tried to entertain her. At first she seemed to think, "wow! there are people in the back seat with me, this is cool!" but it quickly turned into "I am the all powerful baby and you will do everything you can to entertain me, or else I will scream at you!" This lead to countless games of peek-a-boo, playing with every toy we brought, and cleaning out our purses in the pursuit of something fun and exciting for Anabelle to play with. Magazines were ripped, crackers were eaten, cell phones were chewed on, and many objects were thrown, but we survived the car ride. Visiting Grandma Jackson and Aunt Joanne was great, we spent some time chatting on their porch and also enjoyed a nice dinner out. Anabelle had her first overnight stay in a hotel. After the long car ride, she really enjoyed crawling all over the room, and especially liked playing in the curtains.

The next day we spent a little more time visiting and then in was back in the car to head home. Although it was short, it was a nice visit and we hope we can plan another trip soon.

After our trip to Michigan we spent the rest of the week playing, catching up on sleep, eating more yummy food and visiting with family. Anabelle really had a great time with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ken, and we were all sad to see them go.

This week things are quiet again with just Anabelle and I hanging out during the day. Sometimes she looks around like "Hey, where are all my people?"