Michigan Mishegas

Oliver playing thumb wars with his great uncle

Tessa and great aunt

Steve's brother bundled up for the frigid Michigan weather. This road runs behind our house but once the new developments are finished, it will be chock full of traffic racing to the expressway. By the time that happens, we will be long gone.

Allie with her cousin once removed, our nephew. She warmed up to him right away. She is more suspicious of women.

Great uncle. From the sides and back, one can see Allie's blonde hair coming in

Maya wasn't around much for the visit because she was with her father. She was at Shanna's house Thursday and our house on Sunday.

The tickle machine

Naomi and Steve walking the streets of Ann Arbor. Note that Naomi is now a blonde. I wish she'd go back to her natural red hair. At least one of Steve's big puffy coats (he had 4 or 5) was repurposed as a coat for Naomi

We are back to quiet now from at one point, 17 people filling our house. Yep, everyone will fit in much easier in our new house especially as we will have 4 bathrooms, 3 being full baths instead of our lone full bath and 2 half baths, one being out of commission for the past 2 years due to a leak.. The sellers were gracious enough to let us visit Saturday. I said that my in-laws were visiting. They probably were imagining elderly parents, not the crowd we brought but they entertained us with their gramophone collection and music boxes. And the seller is a car guy as are my son and my brother in-law so they had plenty to talk about. People seemed impressed with the house. It would be hard to find a house like that in either NYC or Seattle that was 'affordable'. And they would really have to go far away from the cities to find as much land.

Shanna and Josh took turns entertaining the crowds when they weren't at our house. It was hard to go to restaurants with so many people though some of us went to breakfast on Friday morning and then a different group went out Saturday. We would make pot and pots of coffee. I made waffles for us all yesterday forgetting that I forgot to wash the waffle iron after my mistake last year of trying to make waffles from cinnabons. Don't do that...sugar all over the place.It took several cars to ferry people from location to location. The youngest grandbabies initially had stranger anxiety but soon were thrilled to have so much love and entertainment. Allie would cry when she was separated from us all.

We were supposed to have relatively nice weather for the visit but freezing rain Thursday night left sidewalks and some of the streets dangerously slippery. A good time for me to take a break. I was able to run Saturday while they were gone and then bike yesterday after they went to the airport.

So a very nice visit over all.

The solstice is over. Longer, lighter days are ahead. Yay!