Our Vacation

On Wednesday we left for Arkansas. We stayed with some friends in Searcy. It was only a 6 hour drive, and that was nice because we are used to driving to New Mexico all in one day- that's 11 hours.

The next morning we left for Indianapolis. We saw a lot of rivers that were flooded, because of all the rain. We passed through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana that day.

The next morning we drove to Detroit, Michigan! Once we were in Grosse Pointe Park we went to Auntie Toni's house. We then stopped at the new Trader Joe's in the Village. We kind of got hooked on Trader Joe's when we went with Jared and Esther to the one in Albuquerque. We got our favorite dark chocolate covered pretzels, orange flavored cranberries, Comte cheese, and spinach fettuccine. We also tried out some new things like wisecrakers.

Soon after we went to Trader Joe's we went to the rehearsal of Mary and Matt's wedding. It was at the Iroquois Avenue Christ Lutheran Church, which is a beautiful church! We didn't stay for the whole time though. It had started snowing while we were inside! We hung out a little while at Auntie Toni's with Mema and Auntie Steph.

At 5:30 was the rehearsal dinner at a country club I in Grosse Pointe Farms. The food was really good. Dad and I went out on the docks by Lake St. Claire. The quiet and snow were really neat.

After the dinner we went to Harrison Township, which was about 20 miles away. We were staying in the house of some of Auntie Toni's friends. It would have taken us about 20 minutes without the snow, but it took around 40 minutes.

On Saturday we were able to sleep in, which was really nice. After the oatmeal for breakfast, we went out in the snow. Dad and Melissa shoveled the driveway. We had a fun snowball fight. Around 1:30 we started getting ready for the wedding. Melissa curled my hair with the curling iron, and Amy did her hair with hot curlers. Then we went to the house of Auntie Toni's next door neighbors. Auntie Charlotte, Jotham, Kara, Jared, and Esther were staying there. Clara got her hair curled there, and Melissa finished it in the car, using the curling iron plugged into the power inverter!

After we were all done getting ready, we went to the church for the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. It ended at 4:20, and we left at maybe 4:30 to go to where the reception was. It started at 6:00. And it was supposed to take a half hour to get there. We got pretty lost, taking a few wrong turns, and then being confused about where the parking was. We ended up taking the entire hour and a half to get to the library where the reception was. Oh well. It was fun. We were taking our cousin Jason with us, and we were playing the Alphabet Game, where we try to find all the letters of the alphabet, in the signs around us. At the reception my sisters and I were at a table with some of our cousins, Jared, Esther, Jason, and Sam. Mom and Dad were at the next table with the Hacklemans and some of the Hackleman's friends. We met the Hacklemans when we came to Ryan and Sarah's wedding in 2004 and we stayed with them. There was a delicious dinner, and music and dancing. I think we all, except for Mom and Dad, danced some.

On Sunday after packing up everything we went to Ryan and Sarah's house and met them and some of our relatives to go to church with them. We went to Hope Community Church. The pastor was the same man who performed the ceremony of Mary and Matt's wedding. He spoke a really neat message about how Jesus defeated Satan's ultimate weapon, death, when He rose from the dead, and since He defeated the ultimate, He can defeat anything else Satan could throw at us. And so we have hope through that.

After church we went to Auntie Toni's house for brunch. There were a bunch of people there. Relatives, friends, and people from the wedding party. It was fun visiting with friends, and eating the good food.

Dad, Melissa, Amy, Jason, Clara, and I went to the Village and got coffee at Starbucks. We also went to Trader Joe's again.

Soon after that we started driving down to Lima, Ohio,which was our next stop. Once we were a few blocks away from Auntie Toni's house, Mom realized she had something to give to Auntie Toni. So we went back. Then once we were a few blocks away again, Amy realized she had left her $40 dancing shoes there. So we went back again. Some of the people were laughing at us, when they saw us leave, and then come back twice. It was really funny.

We got to Lima around 5:30. We talked and visited, and I took a shower, and so did Clara, and we ate dinner. And we talked and visited some more. It was nice.

Around 7:30 on Monday we left for Arkansas. We drove through 5 states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. At 8:00 pm we got to Searcy. We ate dinner with the Donnell's, and a few people took showers. It was fun visiting with them. We had stayed with them before, on our drive up to Michigan.

Around 10:00 am Tues we left for home. It was nice to be able to sleep in. The only other day we had slept in was on Saturday. We stopped at Taco Bell in Texarkana for lunch. At 5:30 pm we got home!!

It was nice to be home. It was pretty amazing- the whole house was clean. I unpacked all the way, and I think everyone else did too. Once everyone put all their dirty clothes in the hamper, it was completely full, and there were clothes piled on the floor around it. So we have been doing a lot of laundry.

None of us were hungry after eating lots of snack food in the car, so we didn't really have a real dinner. I had an apple with peanut butter, and Amy and Clara had bacon and eggs.

Mom and I went to the Tuesday Night Prayer meeting at GFA. It was nice to see everyone, since we had been gone a week.

Today Dad is home, because first we thought we would get home on Wednesday, but then we decided to get home on Tuesday by leaving on Sunday instead of Monday. That's confusing. But I won't try to reword it. Anyway, Dad asked for Wednesday off, so he has it off. He said, though, that he might go in this afternoon.

We saw a lot of flooding along the highway.

We met with some friends in Effingham, Illinois, and ate a late
lunch. There was a big cross church had built.

Dad looks like he is touching the tip of the Cross.


Dad and I went out on the docks by the place
where we had the rehearsal dinner.

We got maybe 3 inches of snow, and Melissa and Dad shoveled the driveway.

We had a snowball fight, and Melissa hit Dad right between

his eyes as he turned around. He dried his glasses on her scarf.