Welcome to Michigan

We made it!  

Paul trucked it through the night through rain across I-80 from Cheyenne to Iowa City where the rest of us woke up at 7:00 am in a Walmart parking lot.  After stretching our legs up and down the toy section we celebrated Clara's birthday back in the van where she opened her new strawberry shortcake doll and Dora coloring book then sang to her over bananas and individual wallaby yogurts.

I had a small crash onto my behind while trying to exit the van backwards with my arms full of sandwiches.  Lunch was saved but after 5 days I'm still suffering from a very sore tailbone - it made the remaining hours in the car almost unbearable.  My only relief was being propped up sideways on pillows. 

The only other notable episode from our journey was the CD player once again jamming just miles into our trip. This was especially disappointing because we just purchased the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Cd's to help pass the miles.  The sharp knife I had along for slicing cheese became the rescuing tool and after several stabs into the malfunctioning unit the Cd's eventually ejected.  I even mastered this move while driving and it never failed to get a chuckle out of Paul.

Now we are comfortably staying with Paul's parents while we wait for the arrival of all our stuff. The above photo was taken at Cranbrook gardens not too far from their home. We arrived just in time for all the beautiful fall colors. As we explored the gardens one of the children asked "is this a hike"? where's the trail?" they were answered with "there aren't many hikes in Michigan, here you just wander".

It is also colder than I ever remember. 45 degrees and raining here feels colder than it ever did in Salt Lake City, even in in the winter. But still it feels like home and we have already drank through gallons of apple cider. We are excited to get settled but not so excited about facing and dealing with a truck load of stuff. William graciously pleaded in his prayer last night "please bless that we can have an easy time getting back to normal".  My feelings exactly.