What We've Been Up To: Up North

It's been quiet around the blog lately. We've had a pretty busy couple of months! I've done a lot of leg work to get myself out there as a Doula. I could make a whole post about it (well, come to think of it, I definitely will blog about it but in another post!). We just got back from a couple weeks of traveling. We went to visit my parents in Michigan and then went down to Indiana for a few days to visit Brad's family. Traveling went a lot more smoothly than I anticipated. It wasn't exactly always smooth sailing, but let's just say an iPad and The Wiggles made the trip more bearable for all of us.

Mackinac Bridge 

For the most part we just hung out with our families. The girls got to meet their great grand parents on both sides for the first time. We of course took a lot of generational pictures, but since this post is already picture heavy I decided to leave them out (sorry about that). I remember when I was younger thinking taking group photos of all the different generations was so boring and somewhat stupid. Now, I totally understand why. They are important treasures that document all of us together. Some day when our children's children are curious about the family tree they will have tangible photographs to look at. I think it's important to preserve family memories like that.

My grandpa and grandma came up for several days while we were there too, so I had my grandpa shoot a few family photos for us in the Community Garden. I had no idea it was back there, but it's very pretty. The girls were being toddlers and so we didn't get very many great shots of them because they don't sit still, haha. I still like all of these pictures. It was so hard to pick a few to share with you.

While in Gaylord, we took the opportunity to take a few short trips. We hit up Mackinaw City and took a little walk around the beach to get some pictures of the bridge. We were kind of sad that we weren't able to go to Mackinac Island as planned, but we still had a great time taking a stroll and getting some fudge. 

We also spent an afternoon at Hartwick Pines State Park. This was a short trip, but it was fun reliving some of our childhood memories there. Brad's family often stopped at the park on their way up to Mackinaw on family trips. This is one of those weird coincidences about our childhoods. We both have pictures of ourselves as kids sitting on these same big wheels. 

Amelia... well she kind of lost her mind right after these big wheels pictures were taken. She may have screamed and angrily stalked the trails after these pictures were taken.

The trip definitely made me a little homesick. Or rather... made me wish we lived closer to everyone. It's hard being out here in VA Beach without the support of family near by. We have great friends here for sure! But it's hard not being within a reasonable driving distance of our family. We know that right now we are supposed to be here in Virginia Beach. I have confidence that God will make it very clear to us when it's time to move-- just as He was clear about where we should be when we moved here.