Staycation

We had family in town last week from North Carolina so we made a staycation out of it!  Uncle Brian, Aunt Rachel, Anna, and Abbie visited us for the first time since we've lived in Michigan.  There were a lot of things we were saving up to do when we had guests, so we managed to stay very busy the entire time they were here (also it was planned on purpose so that we didn't hear "I'm bored" from the girls!).

We had dinner at the Union Woodshop - a fabulous BBQ restaurant that has been featured on the Food Network.

We spent the day at the zoo.  It was our first time going to the Detroit Zoo and while we got rained on a little bit, we had a great time.  You felt like such a big girl riding the train in your own seat with Abbie and of course we had to ride the carousel.

Family "selfie" on the train

We went to a summer festival in the town next to us.  They had lots of inflatable things - bounce house, obstacles courses, games.  You did awesome on the obstacle courses and it was so cute to see you crawling up ladders and flipping over walls - you did better than some of the bigger kids going through!  Anna and Abbie climbed the rock wall and did great - both making it all the way to the top.  I'm sure if you could have, you would have tried to climb the wall too.

All girls got flower balloons before we left and you would not let yours out of your sight for the rest of the day.  The picture on the right is what you looked like when I opened the car door when we got home; you had that balloon, your sippie cup and the 2 prizes you won clenched tightly in your little fists - keeping them safe.

We had planned to go to our favorite park one day, but it unexpectadely decided to rain, so we quickly tried to find something else to do outside of the house (you and Abbie were starting to fight like sisters over toys so we needed to find a distraction - the fighting was kind of cute to watch...for a few minutes).  We ended up going to Jeepers, an indoor arcade/amusement park nearby (I use the term amusement park loosely - it had 4 rides).  We got there soon after they opened and there really was not anyone else there, which was great because you had a chance to take everything in and get comfortable with it at your own pace (this was especially nice for the play structure since Daddy and I were not allowed to navigate through it with you).   You rode all the rides (except the bumper cars, but only because you were too little).  You LOVED the roller coaster, which completely surprised me.  I was worried it was going to be too loud and jerky for you and there were a few seconds where it went through a tunnel, so I thought the dark might scare you too.  But at the end of the ride, the ride attendant said "raise your hand if you want to ride again" and I kid you not, you had that little hand of yours in the air as fast as you could.  So, we rode it again - and then you rode it at least 2 more times with Daddy.  Daddy said the last time you and he rode it, you wanted to keep your hands in the air the whole time - I have a feeling you're going to be a dare devil/adrenaline junkie like your daddy!

Anna and Abbie were playing a lot of the arcade games and winning tickets, so Daddy and I figured we'd better earn some tickets so that you could go home with a little prize too.  Daddy wasn't doing too well - winning only 2 or 3 tickets at a time, so I took 8 tokens and headed to the "Wheel of Fortune" game to try my luck.  I guess it was my lucky day, because I won 1,242 tickets (yes, that's one thousand, two hundred, forty-two tickets)!  I think I sat there for at least 15 minutes waiting for all of the tickets to come out.  It was ridiculous!  You can see Daddy's tickets compared to Mama's tickets in the bottom left picture below (no, I'm not competitive or anything).  So, I've learned that whether you have 50 tickets or 1,370 tickets (the final count), it is still hard to decide what to "buy" with your tickets.  There was a pillow pet that Daddy really wanted to get for you, but it required 2,000 tickets (you never have enough tickets for what you really want).  Daddy wanted to try to win the rest of the tickets, but I talked him down and we settled on a Tinkerbell doodle desk, bracelet, slinky, pinwheel, tootsie roll, and 3 tattoos.

The girls were eager to do a sewing project while they were here and I told them they couldn't do it while you were awake (I knew keeping you away from needles and sharp scissors would be difficult), so the second you went down for nap, they got started.  Both girls sat there for 2 hours hand sewing their projects with some guidance from me and they did a great job!  Abbie made hers to give to you to store your crayons in and Anna decided to take her project home to store her things in.

You had so much fun with your cousins and I know they so enjoyed spending time with you.  The day they left, both girls wanted to wear their hair in pigtails to be just like you.  We can't wait until they come back again for another visit!