Michigan Trip

So a lot of Sean's family lives in Michigan (his mom, dad, and sister). His other sister, Bridget, lives in New York. None of them except his mom (who came out for Rowan's birth, and during June) had met him before last week. It was quite the adventure. We took the train from Eugene, up to Seattle. Then from Seattle to Chicago. That was a 2 day ride right there. I have never been east of Oregon except the one time I went to visit Renee in Boston, and that was by plane, so it was a great way to see the country! I had never seen country so flat, and so much corn in my whole life! We got to ride along side the Mississippi River for a while, and all in all it was great. Rowan loved all of the people on the train, and going to meals in the dining car was always a hit with him.
We arrived in Michigan on the 3rd day of traveling. We took a train from Chicago to Battle Creek Michigan, and were supposed to take a bus from Battle Creek to Lansing, but due to Rowans amazing skills at making new friends, we got a ride from a wonderful woman and her daughter. Her daughter was getting ready to head off to college and they spend the weekend in Chicago together. It was really rather wonderful, instead of waiting for an hour at the bus station (at 11 pm no less) and then an hour bus ride, we got a ride right away! It was great. Sean's cousin Jess came and picked us up at the train station where we were dropped off, and took us to his aunts house. She is a wonderful lady, and I was very glad to meet her! We got up the next day and headed up north to his moms house.
We rented a car and were off! It was pretty exciting to finally be arriving, and was great to see everyone. The week went by too fast, filled with lots of Rowans cousins (7 kids ranging from 3 to 13), lots of swimming (Rowan loves to swim!) and great times with Sean's family. His sister Rory takes amazing pictures, and took some great family photos for us. All in all it was a wonderful time, and so much to tell but I'm still rather tired, and over all just glad to be home. That is one thing about traveling - it is lots of fun, but always great to get home!

 

Arizona

So we made our first road trip with Rowan, and it was a complete success. On the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend, Sean was talking about how much he wanted to go visit his grandpa. He is 90 years old, and had some stuff going on, and no other time seemed better. So I said, do you want to go? After a frenzy of packing, and preparing our house and animals for us to be gone for a long weekend, I barely had the time to think, are we crazy? 20+ hours in the car with a 3 month old baby? But much to our happiness, he did wonderfully! We left very early in the morning, and drove straight through, arriving at Sean's grandpa's house in Sun Lakes, just south of Phoenix, at around 5 the next morning.

Rowan had quite the adventure - swimming several times, watching his great grandpa play tennis, going out to a restaurant for his first and second time, getting to meet his great grandpa, and many of his friends, getting to see his grandma a week early - she was planning to come visit in Oregon - all and all a wonderful weekend. and he did so good! I was such a proud mommy during those 5 days. Hours and hours in his car seat, new places, people, and things. And such a wonderful boy! It really makes me look forward to the next adventure, and wonder what that may be!

And here is a picture of the four generations together! I am so glad we made the trip!