Vacation: Michigan Reunion!

We left the Beagley's on Friday morning and made it to Logan that night for a Greencrest/Michigan Reunion! It was so much fun to get together with our "Michigan family", the Seedall's were kind enough to host all of us and everyone was there, except for Tim Johnson, who we all missed.

Nora was SO excited to see Madelyn again. She had a present for her and we left it home on accident, which was traumatic for all of us.... these two had a great time together.

Ann and Marianne

Ainsley and Eleanor

Ruth and Maddie

The Seedall's had a great playground in the backyard the kids had fun on.

The kids watched a movie on the wall with a projector. We hoped some of them would fall asleep but I don't think that happened (shocking!)

Love, love, love these amazing ladies!

Clayton and Marianne can always be counted on to get the games going!

Ruth made some awesome cinnamon rolls for breakfast

It wouldn't have been complete without some Little Tikes basketball! Although it appears here they are using the real hoop.... ?

Hula-hoopers

It also wouldn't be complete without Marianne doing the girls' nails!

We had such a fun time with everyone, it is still hard to not live by all these great families! I miss them a lot and being able to have someone to chat with, craft with, babysit swap with, go thrift shopping with, eat dinner with, etc... It was a fabulous reunion!

Thanksgiving!

We went back to Michigan for Thanksgiving and had such a fun time with our friends there. The kids all played together just like old times and Miles even tried to go in our old house to get something! Nora was SO excited to see Maddie and they spent a lot of time crafting together, and even called themselves "the craft girls", which it says in the picture they are coloring.

Just hanging out...

We stayed with the Johnson's and these three boys were pretty darn excited to be having a sleepover. They were so cute together the whole time. Zach and Grant are so good at sharing their toys. Miles was in heaven and is still asking me when we are going back!

More hanging out...

These 3 played together a lot as well and all had fun being puppies and superhero's! Zach introduced Miles to the world of superheroes and today he asked me to be Wonderwoman. I asked what Superhero he was and he said, "Dinoco Lightning!"

There were kids all over the place...

Sophie also got to stay with her BFF from Michigan - Ellie! They had fun and Ellie was so cute and started crying when she saw Sophie.

Sophie and Timmy made a yummy apple pie together.

And the Johnson's cooked the turkey. On Thanksgiving Nora informed both Brian and I that she was not going to eat any turkey because turkey's are animals and part of nature. And she hasn't eaten meat since. She has never really liked it so it's not too surprising. I imagine she'll still eat it sometimes, but we'll see where that goes. :) Sophie loves taking care of the little kids. Especially if they let her carry them around. Here she is with cute Emmaline Jane. Who is adorable.

At Zach's house Miles fell in complete love with this Dinoco Lightning toy (that used to be Spencer's). He kept it with him constantly and before we left Zach gave it to Miles! And he is so thrilled. He has played with it every day and slept with it every night since he got it! Thanks Zach! I don't think Miles needs Christmas now.

The only downfall to our trip was that we had to say good-bye. Sad! We had such a great time and we miss them all over again!

Here we are on our way home! The kids were amazing both ways. We definitely have some good travelers! We only stopped once on the way to Michigan and once on the way home. Awesome. And they only watched one movie on the way there and one and a half on the way home. There's our plant, Rapunzel, in the back window that Ruth was saving for me! It's nice to have her back.

Saying Good-Bye.

How do you say good-bye to the best friends ever?? It sure isn't easy, but we did it. We left Michigan and traveled over 4,000 miles and are getting settled into our rental home in Wisconsin. We sure miss our friends! Sad. The only thing that makes it all okay is that they are all going to be moving sometime too! We just happened to be the 2nd ones to leave (now we know how you felt last year Overson family!) Here is "the neighborhood". The Stevens family doesn't technically live in one of the duplexes, but they've always wanted to so they come over often and we consider them one of the neighbors. Such a fun group! We are missing them all terribly.

This is in front of our duplex that we shared with the Seedall's. Our kitchen window is on the left and the Seedall's is on the right. We spent lots of time chatting out these windows either to neighbors on the lawn or the Seedall's leaning out their window as well.

Zach, Eliza & Miles

Nora and Maddie

Checking out bugs or grass or something....

Our last few minutes in Michigan! The neighbors were all hanging around outside, helping us clean and taking care of that pesky last minute junk that is no fun. We did not want to leave and my mom had to pull Wesley away from Angela. I thought maybe I'd make it to the van before I started crying but that didn't happen. I'm so grateful for such wonderful friends who made our time in Michigan so great. It definitely would not have been the same experience without all of them. Poor Sophie was sobbing her little heart out as we were driving away. We will always look back on our time in Michigan as some of the most wonderful years EVER.

I miss my friends!

Angela, Ashley, Me, Marianne, Ruth

I have a whole slew of posts waiting to be finished of our big move, crazy vacation, birthdays and getting settled. But first I have to say - I miss these girls! Michigan would not have been the same without them, in fact I think I could be happy living anywhere these ladies all lived! They are all amazing. Here is why:

Angela is one of the kindest people I know. If I ever felt bad about myself - talking to Angela always made me feel better. She always had something kind to say about me and all my children (and everyone!) She was always willing to watch the kids and would say they were wonderful the whole time ;) She is a great mom and is happy to just sit and play with her boys. We had many great afternoons sitting in the yard together watching the boys play together and eating otter pops. She has a beautiful voice and was giving Sophie voice lessons (which Sophie absolutely loved). Miles loved playing over there with all their great toys and bossing Zach and Grant around, and Wesley would want Angela over me a lot of the time! She is sweet and sincere.

Ashley was in Young Womens' with me for the whole time (3 years and 3 months). And I wouldn't have survived without her! She was always willing to help me with anything and do anything, even if it was something no one really wanted to do :) It was so fun to be with her on Sundays and Tuesdays, she has a quick wit that always kept me laughing. She has two sweet little girls that are adorable and she makes beautiful quilts (Wesley was the lucky recipient of one), and delicious food. And every gift she gives looks amazing with cute ribbons and paper. She is extremely thoughtful and would bring us over dinner and gifts and treats often.

Marianne livened up the neighborhood when she moved in! If Marianne is there you are guaranteed to have a great time because she is just hilarious. She also is (I mean was) my go-to person if I needed help with anything craft related. She always knows the latest projects/ideas that are on the internet and all the latest Hollywood gossip. And she makes super yummy cakes. (Oh, I must have that one from the 4th of July!) She is also a great writer. I read her blog and crack up laughing every time. She could always be counted on to have a treat or a Diet Coke when I needed one. My kids always wanted to be the ones to run over to Marianne's when I was borrowing something because they would inevitably come back with a treat in hand.

Ruth and her family moved in a few days before we did so we were there together almost 4 whole years. Pretty much everything I did was talked over with Ruth beforehand! Funny because her husband Ryan and Brian were the same. Whenever Brian told me something I would often ask him if Ryan knew before I did! Ruth was my fountain of knowledge on just about everything and I was always seeking her advice from parenting problems to sewing questions. She was/is always quietly doing service for so many people, including me. We celebrated almost every birthday and holiday with Ruth and her family and our children were all so close they all thought we had to do everything the other family was doing! We also got to walk to school to pick up the kids almost every day for 3 school years and send them with the dads in the morning. My goal in life is to become more like Ruth.

Can you see why I miss having these ladies nearby? What makes me feel better is the fact that they will all be moving eventually as well. I guess we all have to move on, don't we?