Great Grandma, Grandpa, Papa, and Nanna All in ONE Week!

This last week has been a BLAST! We started our busy week with the Lambertsen Family Reunion. It was a ton of fun being with the family and enjoying each other's company. Maddie had a fun time with Bryson and a cousin of ours has a daughter Maddie's age too. Unfortunately, Max is extremely allergic to dogs and the two dogs there made for a miserable night of screaming. We left at 6am because I couldn't take anymore of his screaming... Oh well, it was fun while we were there!


We then spent the night at the Petersen's in Salt Lake and flew out the next morning to Michigan. My sweet uncle, David, picked us up, ate dinner with us and took us to Grandma's. We left about 11am and got to grandma's around 8pm. It was a long day of travel! To my surprise, my MOST AMAZING Daddy was sitting on the couch of Grandma's house when we arrived! It was a great surprise! I had no idea he was going to be there! Tuesday we went out to a few shops and Grandma bought Maddie a Tea Set to carry on her TEA TIME tradition. We had so much fun looking through the old shops and I had a heavy case of nostalgia; I hadn't been there in about 12 years, but remembered so much of Michigan! That night we went out to a nice Lakeside Restaurant (We could see Canada across the water) and walked the boardwalk together.
The next day we drove up to Lansing and met up with Lars' best buddy from High School, Justin. He is now in Med School. Him and his wife live in a gorgeous house they just bought and they have two kids Maddie and Max's age. We always joke that if Maddie and Michael don't work out, we'll have another chance with Max and Lea. We always get a picture of Maddie and Michael together for the wedding video, just in case.... Here's our latest: Hanging out with Justin and Kimberly was a blast, but made us really miss being with them. The whole ride home to Grandma's we contemplated moving to Michigan, but ultimately felt that the whole 15% unemployment thing was kind of a red flag for moving there..... Ho-Hum.

On Thursday we spent the day with Dad, mostly. It was a great time. We went to the park, walked the track, played on the toys, and Dad had some serious "Grandbaby Time" with the kids. Even though he just had surgery on his knee he could still keep up with the little ones! Way to go, Dad!

After the park we hit the old Mill. It was a ton of fun walking around and seeing such green foliage. Too bad we live in Utah where we are deprived of such beauty!

The boys were way into the History of the Mill.......... BORING. But at least Maddie got to play with some old mill machines. While they were reading about the origins of the place, I was desperately trying to untangle an impossible NAIL PUZZLE. When Lars came over, he got the stupid thing unlocked in record time. Thanks, Honey.... but I wanted to do that!

Our last stop with dad was a Teaching Farm. Maddie got to see a ton of animals just doing their thing. It was a lot of fun. This cow was only 3 days old. He liked Maddie.

That afternoon, after lunch, we went to the Verellen Orchards to swim with Grandma. The kids and Lars fell asleep on the ride over so just Grandma, Dad and I swam for an hour while they slept. Eventually they woke up and Maddie was able to swim for a bit before we left. This was her first time in a really deep pool and she had NO FEAR. She wanted to swim by herself (even though she doesn't know how)... I think next summer we will definatly do swim lessons!
We had a fantastic day and the next morning headed back home to Utah. It was a great trip, minus the 7 hour plane ride home!!!

Friday night we spent Jenny's birthday with her in Salt Lake and took her out to an amazing South Indian Restaurant, Ganesh. It was phenomenal! I was so impressed. Saturday we spent shopping at the Outlets in Park City, where I learned that their sales are nothing spectacular, and just as good as the regular stores....

We did, however, make it to the mall to do BUILD-A-BEAR with Maddie (I got her a gift certificate for her birthday) and we had a fun time doing that! She made a bunny and dressed it up like TinkerBell. She wasn't too sure about the crazy kids working there, but had a fun time once it was just US...Well, now Maddie is at Grandma and Grandpa Lambertsen's and tomorrow we are off to Girl's Camp. It should be another week of action-packed adventure and we'll update when we come home!