Home is Where the Heart is

At the end of August, our entire family traveled to Iron Mountain, MI from our home in Texas. When I say entire family...I mean, Brandon, myself, Gavin and of course, Prints. I was very skeptical to bring the dog along for the ride- very skeptical. I figured bringing a two month old baby would be bad enough to drive the nearly 1,500 miles but to bring a dog that is just as whiny sometimes and who gets car sick was a whole new ballgame. We had Prints sit in the front seat for the car ride so that he could see out of the window of the truck and that I (or sometimes Brandon) could be back with the baby to keep him calm...as best we could. The trip up to Iron Mountain felt like it took days. Well, it did...two days. We traveled to Iron Mountain to attend a beautiful wedding of Brandon's best friend to his beautiful wife. It was an exceptionally perfect ceremony with a bible verse read and a song sung by one of the bride, Vanessa's, bridesmaids.  Vanessa even had enough courage to sing Jeff, the groom, their song which was just magical.

Vanessa and Jeff tying the knot!

We spent three whole days in Iron Mountain with Jeff and Vanessa and their families and then headed downstate to visit everyone else who had not yet met Gavin. First stop was in Barton City to visit my grandpa on my dad's side. We couldn't stay long but as a family tradition we had always went to his house for the 4th of July and for two years now we have not been able to go...so I wanted to stop in to say hello. My grandpa calls me once in a while to check up on me and find out how Texas is and I always tell him it's hot. Though, after visiting my grandpa at his house, I'm pretty sure he knows what I am talking about when I say Texas is hot. It was 90 degrees in that mans house! Gavin was literally sweating and we stayed only for about an hour before we were back on the road. It was a nice visit though, short and sweet. He got to meet his great-grandson and that was all that mattered to me.

Lake Michigan

Gavin on his way to Great Grandpa's

The trip to Perry seemed a lot shorter from my grandpa's house than ever before. This probably was due to the fact we were used to driving for 15 hours at a time by then so the 2.5 hour trip was like nothing! Once we got down to my dad's place, my sister was there ready to meet Gavin. It was already almost 9pm when we arrived so it was surprising to see someone so eager to see our baby but it was a very nice gesture ;) Everyone cooed over Gavin and we finally went to bed in the sauna called my dad's house. (Seriously someone get that man an air conditioner for his window!) We spent two days visiting family who wanted to come visit and friend's I wanted to see. All-in-all it was a great trip and I am glad that we got to spend time with family and friends who took time to come visit with us. It was hard for everyone to spend enough time because we were visiting on a weekday but we managed to see everyone that we could. We even got to meet my dad's new girlfriend Kris and my mom's new "friend" Darrell.

This is my dad holding Gavin our first night

This is me (on the left) and my friend Ashley. Trenton, her son, is 5 months old. Ashley and I have been friends since we were 5 years old.

My friend Jessica holding Gavin

Uncle Kevin holding Gavin until Gavin screamed and cried...because Kevin was pinching him ;) just kidding Kevin.

The back of Aunt Jamie's head

Cousin Logan practicing holding a baby... ;)

Thank you for watching Gavin when were in Iron Mountain Pam and Darrell. It was nice to have some time to just get ready on my own time for once or just sit there without having to entertain him. Thank you to Jeff and Vanessa for inviting us to your special day. Thanks to my dad who let us stay in his bedroom while he slept on the couch. And to Ashley who let us sleep in the air conditioning on our last night in Michigan and for traveling part of the way home either behind or in front of us (on her way to KY).

Grandma Kludt babysitting Gavin in Iron Mountain

Grandpa Kludt assisting Grandma in babysitting. ha ha.

But after all that traveling and visiting everyone...we couldn't wait to get home. 

There just really is no place like home. 

[I think many people who know me will read this and ask who is this writing this because I just don't say many of these things out-loud. I spend a lot of time not talking because I think about things to say and I just never end up saying them so if I can make up for lost time by writing it down here maybe...I won't be so socially awkward.]