The purpose of our trip to Michigan was to spend extra special time celebrating Vanessa and Evan's upcoming arrival of their little boy. My mom, aunt, sister, and sister-in-law had planned a shower for all the Michigan family and friends. LD could not come the entire week so my mom and Aunt Tina drove down, left their car and drove me and all the kiddos back. That, is some SERIOUSLY sweet family!!
The shower was a success, Baby Hartsell is already very loved and got lots of great loot!
And of course Vanessa is glowing and rocking her pregnancy! She looks awesome!
By Sunday night we were all exhausted from the weekend, and it was time for the vacation to begin! We had SO much fun hanging out at Grammie and Papas house.
This is how Elle spent the majority of her time. She never actually swam, but spent a lot of time in the water - usually with clothes on. And do you see she is wearing a SWEATSHIRT?!?! It was so chilly - crazy!
My niece Kristyl came over with my great nephew Tyce to play one day and they brought this fairy costume for the girls. Clare had it on the rest of the trip. She loved it.
Uncle Evan, daddy and papa all took the girls for boat rides (notice Clare still has on her fairy crown). Yes, it made mommy nervous a few times when they decided to stand up in the boat and it got to rocking, but it was sweet memories for sure.
They picked some cat tails on one of their boat rides and neither of them could ever remember what they were called - I think I heard dog ears, lion tails...and combination of an animal and body part did the trick.
And every summer vacation is only made complete with s'mores. YUM!!
I really enjoyed (LOVED) having lots of extra sets of hands. I feel like this ridiculously huge smile on my face is how I felt about this trip. I rarely got dressed in real clothes, rarely did my hair, but spent lots of extra time hanging out with my babies. (Sidenote- I think I can only call them babies for a little while longer since Clare is almost FIVE!!)
On the fourth my parents invited all of our family (see below!) over for a cook-out, lawn games, and just good hang out time!
We always get a picture with whoever is there and even this time we are missing my sister and her entire family!
Daddy set off fireworks and I still cannot believe I let the girls stay up to watch. I forget how late it gets dark in Michigan. Elle's face is priceless watching her very first firework show.
We had a few really big ones! Classic Clare, loving it but making sure her ears are plugged.
The last two days in Michigan we got to spend time with LD's family.
My kiddos are blessed with some pretty awesome cousins.
They had so much fun playing and being loved on - and trust me when we are in Michigan there is a lot of love to go around!!
The journey ended with a miserable 14 hr. drive home due to weather, traffic and a few extra stops (Cole decided to add some excitement with some ridiculous diapers). But, we made it and I'm sure we will be all ready to do it again in November...but we need a few months to recover!~
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