Grandpa Oliver's 90th Birthday Trip

We returned home from our last road trip of the year (my last, at least).  Gabrielle went up to the UP for the second time in her life, though the first was when she was only four or five months old.  We left Monday after Nick got home from work and drove until a little ways after the bridge and got a hotel.  Then we went the rest of the way the next day.  It worked out really well.  We only stopped once the first day for potty/dinner and once the second day for potty/lunch so Gabs did great.  As soon as we got to our cabin in Crystal Gabi got out of the car, looked around, and said "I no bring my fishing pole!".  Haha. 

Our two little cabins.  Perfect!

We were right on a lake, though at our beach there was no good place to swim. That's ok though, Gabs gets to swim all the time so we took her the first day and didn't have chance to after that. My parents got there that night and we had a hot dog and brat cookout that night. Gabi managed to get a giant bruise on her head in the first 15 minutes there. There was an older swing set in our yard with wooden swings.....well some Gabi got off the swing and was on her hands and knees in front of it when the swing swung back and cracked her right in the forehead.....LOUD. Nick and I both heard the crack from where we were unloading the car. Then after she calmed down Gabs proceeded to swing on her stomach and fall over the front on the swing. She was done.

We had raspberry bushes in our back yard.  Gabi loved them!

We went to my Aunt Kathy's one afternoon and Gabs got to feed the horses and play in the gardens there. Aunt Kathy had her grandson Ian over for the week and Gabi thought he was pretty cool....though he has two sisters and wasn't thrilled about this little girl invading his time at Grandmas :)
Gabrielle eagerly asked Ian "Do you like Beauty and the Beast??"
Ian "No"
Gabi "Do you like castles??"
Ian "No"
At that point I rescued Ian and redirected Gabs haha


Feeding the horses hay and "cereal" as Gabs called it.

Enjoying the fruit from Aunt Kathy's garden too!

Grandpa Oliver!

Gabrielle loved Olivia who is one year older

At my Grandpa's birthday party there were a million people there, and Gabi took it upon herself to introduce Nick to my Aunt.  She said "Hi I Gabrielle.  This is Nick, but we call him Daddy".  Yeah, pretty much the funniest thing ever and I wasn't there...I heard this second hand.

Beth and Christina due the beginning of October and I'm due the beginning of November!

On the way home we made quite the day of it.  In the morning we packed the car and met everyone at breakfast.  We didn't leave town until about 12:30 EST, drove four hours to Mackinaw City and spent about 3-4 hours walking around there.  After dinner Nick decided he was good to just drive home that night instead of getting a hotel so that's what we did and made it home about 11:30.  It was a good trip.  Our cottage was very nice and perfect for what we needed.  Every single person in my family except one was there for my Grandpa's party and I think he had so much fun seeing everyone.

First Mackinaw Fudge :)  When she was asked what was her favorite part of Mack City she said playing in the ice cream truck.  The highlight for her was us letting her play in this stupid toy ice cream truck.  Haha.