Michigan was amazing…every little part, every person we spent time with, every smile I saw from Virginia as she loved on her great granddaughters & every moment that Rob & I glanced at each other with a look that meant we needed to put this trip on our calendar more often.
This post includes all the relaxing we did & time spent with family & neighbors. Virginia has lived in the same house for somewhere around 60 years. She is close friends with many of her neighbors whether they rival her for the first to move in or came along later & merged their lives together.
She is just a short walk away from a great shady park so we went there nearly everyday at some point. Char perfected her moves on the scooter & Aunt Edna worked with Elo on walking upright : ) It worked, she was walking like a pro when Edna was done with her! Charlotte helped her Gigi water the yard. There is no better way to complete outdoor home care than in your undies right?
Anne is one of Virginia’s close friends that lived behind her for many years but moved into an assisted living facility a couple years ago. Virginia has taken a role of helping Anne sell her home, paying her bills & maintaining a sweet friendship. We got to go visit her one morning & meet a few of her friends there before we kidnapped her & took her to Brady’s Irish Pub, her favorite place to go for lunch. It was fun to visit with her & even Charlotte decided she would pose for a picture!
Jeannine’s cousin Ted & his family live about 30 minutes away & invited us over for dinner one night. I had heard so much about their family & was excited to finally meet them. They were quite the host/hostess & served us an incredible meal out on the patio. We finished the evening off with some jumping on the trampoline. If ziplining in Tennessee had not split the egg all the way to begin the life of the twins, I am sure my multiple flips finished off the job ; )
Robby yelled up to me that the net was working well & I thought he meant that someone was falling off & had been caught by the net but when I walked down I figured out what he meant. Oh my goodness, we could not stop laughing
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| Paige, Edna, Ted, La & us |
We took one morning to enjoy the Detroit Zoo which was not a far drive from home. We took Grace & Emma who live next door to Virginia. They were SO fun to have along with us for multiple reasons. One, Char & Elo love them. Two, it was a little taste of what’s to come when Char & Elo are 9 & 10. And three, they are just delightful young ladies that we could have spent every day with & not tired of them!
I know it is weird but I love the reptile house & this visit, Charlotte got hooked on it too! Yipee! She was more interested in this pig nosed turtle she is staring down in the picture below than any other animal at the zoo. We kept turning around thinking she was behind us & she would be standing back at the turtle.
The gorilla habitat was neat & we saw this big guy walking all over the place. Elo put her shades on when it got sunny & posed with Emma & Grace. We call her “Elo-John” when she wears them ; )
When we sat down to eat our lunch we saw a Mommy peacock & her babies. We got into this hilarious discussion about what to call them. It started with Rob saying, “I don’t think a female is called a peacock".” I thought he was crazy but thanks to Google on our iPhones, we could settle the disagreement rather quickly. We found out that as a whole, they are called “Peafowl” while a male is called a “Peacock” & a female is a “Peahen.” What the heck?? It was pretty funny. Since Michigan is chilly for much of the year, they have an amazing Arctic Circle exhibit where we got to see lots of Polar Bears sunning themselves.
We were not planning to ride the carousel but sweet sweet Eloise almost had a tantrum as we walked passed it & Gigi said we should ride : ) So we did & it was of course, worth it!
Grace was not too excited to be riding a grasshopper ; ) Charlotte rode a bat which made me laugh because for the longest time you would say “Charlotte, say “bat”” & she would think for a minute & shout “MAT!” She can say it correctly now. Elo rode on Nemo which was so appropriate since they had just watched it while driving state to state. Again, I love watching my girls enjoy a carousel ride!
That evening, Meryl, Grace & Emma along with Dorothy & Jack from across the street joined us for dinner on the patio. Rob is one happy man with a grill, some good music & a beer. He cooked up some Polish hotdogs & burgers for us plus some super yummy mushrooms & onions on the side. We had a WONDERFUL time getting to visit with Dorothy & Jack who purchased their home around the same time Virginia & Gene did. They had many stories from over the years. One being that Dorothy remembers watching Bob, Jeannine & Robby drive away when they moved to Texas shortly following Gene’s death & prior to Robby’s first birthday. Another neighbor talked about how she remembered Evelyn Valentine (Rob’s other Grandmother) walking down the street with Bob in a wagon. How neat to be in a place for long enough to see a couple generations grow up & then meet the grandkids of the kid in the wagon!
Charlotte really liked Dorothy & Jack as they were just wonderful paying attention to her. They let us borrow some toys that their grandchildren & great grandchildren have played with. In the mix was this itty bitty baby that Elo carried around with her everywhere. I will blame Jack for getting Charlotte hooked on coins ; ) He gave her a dollar coin that she thought was just amazing & from then on has been begging for coins. It is pretty funny. Long story short, she got a piggy bank (pink of course) & now earns coins each day for feeding the dogs. Someday she will be rich….maybe not, she really wants to spend it all on candy. I am not ashamed to admit that I relinquished much of my parenting responsibility to a 9 & 10 year old for a good portion of the week. We were always nearby if they needed help & they rarely did! Charlotte & Eloise enjoyed their dinner out on a quilt with the big girls.
We enjoyed looking at the post in the basement where Virginia recorded how much everyone was growing. Robby looked pretty close & noticed that between 1988 & 1989 he shrunk a good 6 inches ; ) Oops!
Virginia added Robby’s current height to the post & then Charlotte decided she wanted in on the memory making…..
The second to last day we were there, we took over to the cemetery where Rob & Evelyn Valentine are buried. They both died before Robby & I were dating so I never got to meet them. One thing I love about spending time with Virginia is hearing all the stories about the Valentines since she maintained a close friendship with them through the later years of their life. I enjoy walking around cemeteries & reading the headstones. It is a place that makes me think of those in my life who have died. I remember very clearly the funerals of grandparents, one at a very young age. I think back to singing at a funeral of a friend who died early in college & how that was one of the contributors to God really pursuing my heart in a painful time. It was within months of that funeral that I truly recognized my need for a Savior & prayed that He would forgive me for my sin. I committed to trust Him above all else & walk through the rest of of my life with His leading. To read the years of the start & finish of someone’s life on earth really puts things into perspective. Even if it is 100 years, that is just a speck in all of eternity. Cemeteries make me think about my own life & feelings about death. Death brings so much pain & sadness that seems to linger for years as people grow through their grief. I would be lying if I said that death has never scared me but as I consider the whole picture, I am reminded of the passage in 1 Corinthians 15 that says “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Christ, we have nothing to fear in death. It is just the passing from life on earth into the presence of the Lord for all of ALL ETERNITY! We cannot even fathom how incredible that will be & should earnestly desire for that day to come. All that to say, I was glad to go to the place where Charlotte & Eloise’s great grandparents are buried.
One other stop that morning or rather a drive by…..Wesson street in Downtown Detroit to see one of the homes that Virginia lived in with her family as a young girl. It was a really nice part of town in the 1930s & 40s when they lived there but is quite run down now. I was so thankful to just see a little piece of Virginia’s past on our drive that day.
Well, that is the second to last of the Road Trip 2012 pictures…..still to come, Dearborn Homecoming.....my favorite part!
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