Michigan Round Two

On Saturday we headed to the Flint Farmer's Market (one of the top 13 farmer's markets in the U.S.) for a Halloween activity. A bunch of different vendors had "healthy snacks" (think fruit snacks instead of candy) or little toys that the kids could collect. There was a map and stations with stamps. Once you got all of the 12 stamps you could turn in your map for a healthy snack. There was information on childhood obesity and ways to get exercise and be healthy. It was actually pretty cool and Clarita had a lot of fun going to the different stations, coloring, and of course eating all of the fruit snacks! We got a lot of good food, including a million gourmet cinnamon rolls, and enjoyed out morning. Emmett slept through the entire event only waking up at the end to nurse. I made dinner for everyone that night and we enjoyed hanging out and stuffing ourselves! Clara performed her nightly ritual of leading singing and dancing. She cycles through songs she knows from the library, Gymboree, music class, as well as various other songs she has heard. She passes out pretend instruments and leads activities that she does at all of her classes. It's quite hilarious and she's actually pretty good at singing and getting the rhythm and motions of the various songs!

One of her super powers is getting Emmett
to take a bottle!

Sunday we headed to Crossroads Village for a haunted train ride and more trick-or-treating. It is an old village made up of buildings from throughout Michigan and it was decorated for Halloween with huge wooden cutouts, spiders, and a hay maze. There were 20 trick-or-treat stations in different buildings and each one was decorated in theme (Little Red Riding Hood, dinosaurs, etc). It was pretty awesome and although Clarita was one of the few kids without a costume, we had a ton of fun. The Little Guy spent most of the time sleeping, but he did wake up for a little of the train ride and a bit of trick-or-treating. The train was great, and we got to see some awesome scenery and lots of colorful leaves,Clara and Dada rode the super fast carousel and she liked it more than she did four months ago. We ended the trip with apple cider and donuts and headed back for a long overdue nap!

Monday was our last full day in Michigan and we headed to the Bavarian town of Frankenmuth where we began with Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, the world's largest Christmas store. It is one and a half football fields of Christmas related items (and a few Halloween and Easter as well); basically, amazing! I absolutely love Christmas and Clarita does as well. She was super excited about all of the decorations and especially loved the pickle ornaments. She also found some stuffed animals and they just happened to have giant Pinguinitas and Seegees (the cat we got to replace Pinguinita since she is lost). Clara was so excited to find Dada Pinguinita and Mama Seegee! We could have spent an entire day inside the store and still not have seen everything! Emmett slept the entire time in the store and woke up to nurse outside while Clara ran around looking at all of the giant decorations. After Bronner's we headed to Zehnder's for their famous chicken dinner. I didn't partake but Dada and Grandpa Bill gorged themselves and Clarita even ate some. It was all you can eat, and you actually got to take home any food left so they brought some home to everyone else! Emmett was awake for the entire lunch and was happy as can be. He sat on my lap and smiled away! We walked through the little shops afterward and Clarita insisted on taking pictures with all of the cutouts, pumpkins, and gourds. It was well after naptime when we left and Clara threw a tantrum because she wanted a cupcake and we told her she had to wait until after dinner. She fell asleep as soon as she got in the car and stayed asleep when we took her inside.

Cereal with Dada

She's obsessed with knives...

The cupcake bakery that won cupcake wars

Throwing pennies and making wishes 

Tuesday morning I looked at photo albums with Great Grandpa Bill and even got to see pictures of him as a baby way back in 1918! Then we headed to Kelly Lake, right down the street from Grandpa Bill's house. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed the cool weather and the beautiful scenery. There were a ton of geese and Clarita enjoyed chasing them. Emmett fell asleep on our walk and we enjoyed the remainder of our time with Grandpa Bill. Clara did not love the wind and insisted that we hold her and cover her with our jackets. We ate lunch and then packed up the mini van to head to the airport. Our trip back was perfect! We took the mini van back and they ended up driving us to the airport so we wouldn't have to load everything into a shuttle. Our planes were on time and Emmett slept almost the entire trip waking up to nurse and look around in the phoenix airport. We had time to eat and both kids were angels on the flights. Both of them slept the entire trip from Phoenix to Fresno and our trip couldn't have gone better if we planned it ourselves!

We had a fabulous time in Michigan and were sad to say goodbye. It's really a shame that Grandpa Bill lives so far away. I had so much fun with him when I was little and it makes me sad to know that my kids will only see him a couple of times per year and miss out on so much fun. That being said, we are glad for the time we get to spend with him and look forward to our next trip!