Our November trip

Since we weren't planning a trip to Michigan during the Holidays, we decided to surprise my family in November. Long story short, I ended up telling my mom and sister that we were coming but we completely surprised my dad, brother, Skyler and Gracie, my grandmas, and everyone else!

Home sweet home

We knocked on my parent's door at 6:45 pm right as they were about to sit down for dinner. My dad was caught so off guard that he wouldn't even open the door until he knew who we were. The look on his face was priceless when he realized who it was.

It took 2.5 days to get there, but not because of the baby in tow. She was perfect. Snowy/icy roads held us up the first night, and the second night we decided to spend with Kyle's Aunt Chris and Uncle Scott in Iowa.

We got there just in time to Brad and Cami's families for Sunday dinner. It was my first time meeting them so I'm really glad it worked out. They provided great hospitality and after a good night's sleep the next 8 hours of our trip was a breeze!


A few of my favorite Michigan moments:

We play-doughed with Grandma V....

And papa, who made us all laugh with his ridiculous sculptures

We introduced Kyle to ear candling

Gracie and I went to lunch with Nana. Can you tell someone adores her?

Gracie and Skyler dressed up like their cool Aunt Kiki

Bentlee played with toys at Grandma V's for the first time

And she got some snuggling in with Grandma H

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The drive to Michigan was so nice that we decided to take our time going back as well. We stopped in Kansas City where Kyle served his mission. It was fun to go to a place where Kyle spent so much of his time and has great memories of. He took me to Liberty Jail which was really neat. It is located in the same place that it once stood, but they built a replica of the jail. A sister missionary gave us a tour and bore her testimony of what happened here. It was just us 4 in the room, but the spirit was so powerful.  Joseph Smith was imprisoned and treated terribly there because his beliefs, and although it was extremely hard to be away from his family, he didn't give up hope. Instead, he grew closer to the Lord and received more revelation. He was an amazing man, and the reason our church was restored. He and his family went through so much persecution but never gave up because what they believed was real. I'm so grateful for his faith and great example. 

There's more information about it here: http://josephsmith.net/josephsmith/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=b2d3da73c0b52010VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD

I'm not sure why I look like a freaky ghost in this picture. Scary.

The Kansas City temple which was dedicated last year

After that we went to a BBQ restaurant for the famous food that he's been promising me for years and that night we stayed with friends of Kyle's, the Smiths. They took good care of him when he lived there. Daryl was working but we chatted with Diana for a while. They are such a nice family. The next day we drove to Denver and stayed with Tom and Paula. Kari, Mark and Shannon, and Jamie and Emma all came over so it was a lot of fun. (Hailey was sick with Strep so Sarah stayed home with her) Emma is the cutest little thing and as always, had us all cracking up. Jamie sent me some cute pictures of her with Bentlee but for some reason I can't get them to load, and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures myself that night. I always enjoy being with my dad's family. If we weren't so tired from our trip and didn't have another 8 hours to drive the next day, I could have stayed up all night talking to Tom and Paula.

Somewhere in Kansas or Missouri

Our first cross-country road trip was so successful that I'm ready to plan our next one. Think she'll be as good next year when she's 18 months? Yeah probably not...