With a full schedule of events rolling on a brief moment of quiet descended upon us so we got in the Pilot and drove to Michigan, well why not? Tammy, Tracy's sister's son Joey was making his first Communion so we decided to take the kids and go visit the cousins, G&G Hickey and Sue, sort of a mini family reunion.
The drive over was quiet uneventful and we were able too use our Nexus passes to sail right through customs and the boarder patrol, Nikki included. It is with a sort of sad induced glee that I must report the use of electronics has reached a level I never thought would have occurred. A mere 4 years ago we had our kids convinced that we would be an electronics free family, really, they had the mantra down. Packing for the trip entailed, 3 car chargers, check, 2 i-phones, check, 1 i-pod, check, 1 psp, check, back up electronic gear, small generator and 3 sets of head phones, check, who needs to have verbal communication skills anyway. we arrived late Friday night and of course the kids had to play which meant trade electronic gear with the cousins and ignore each other for an hour or so. The adults spent the time catching up and unwinding.
Saturday was full of regular family activities, baseball games, soccer and running around. The weather was great and the kids played outside as we were really killing time until the big event! Jimmy was on a roll and could not let go of the fact that Joey was turning Communist and have his first Communism, he's here all week! This is the first exposure for th Loudamericans in going to a Chatholic Ceremnony and if it were not for the cake and cookies after, they would have been bored.
One thing from my Catholic upbringing no rerason to getr tot he Church to early! Good thing we assigned pews and both Tracy and I were very proud of the kids,, they were quiet and well behaved, well except at the time of Communion. Jimmy got up and tried to get in line, Tracy asked him what he was doing, his respone " Wanted to see what Jesus tastes like", we need to spend a bit more time on religion with the kids. We had a nice dinner at the country club, the kids ate first and then someone came and took them away. It was really nice, we were able to have an great dinner and conversation.
Sunday was a nice Brunch affair and then taking the kids to the pool to wear them out for the ride home. A trip to Grand Haven is not complete without a trip to Butch's Beach Burritos, Butch does not dissapoint. The trip home was more of the same however we did stop for a moment of thanks to Target for the Nexxus passes. The line to cross the border started on the Michigan side and we were able to drive right through and saved easily 2 hours of waiting in line!
More to come.......