Michigan Recap

As you may or may not know, last weekend Benjamin, Miles, and I ventured out to Michigan to enjoy the lovely spring weather there. Ok, that last part was obviously a lie, as no person in their right mind goes to Michigan in April for the weather, but we did just get back from a trip there. It was for Benjamin's brother Christopher's wedding to his high school sweetheart, Alison. Although we knew the weather would probably be nasty and it was a really hard time for Benjamin to get away due to school, we were really excited for the trip. We usually only make it to Michigan once a year during the holidays, so this was an extra treat, and to get to go for a wedding celebration made it even more exciting. Unfortunately, the day before we left Benjamin and I both woke up sick and managed to only get sicker throughout the weekend. However, we still had a good time overall thanks to Benjamin's understanding family (they kindly let us sneeze and cough all over, sleep excessively, arrive at events late and leave early, and didn't even complain about us using up all the kleenex in the house). My sister-in-law Anna is an extremely talented photographer and blogger, and has great pictures up from the weekend, so rather than post crappy versions of similar things I took myself, please go look at the photos on her blog here.

Although we flew to Michigan Friday, Benjamin had to hurry back to Utah on Sunday to prepare for finals (law school is really a fun killer), so Miles and I drove him to the Detroit airport Sunday and then headed over to Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Tom's house (Miles' Johnson great-grandparents). We had such a nice visit with them! On Monday Grandma took us shopping at Babies R Us and insisted on spoiling Miles as usual, and then took us to lunch at Panera (it was my first time and the food was AMAZING! Panera, when are you coming to Utah?!). Tuesday we mostly just lounged around the house except for driving to the airport to return the rental car early. The lounging around the house was actually my favorite part of the time we spent with Grandma and Grandpa. It allowed for some great conversation plus regular napping--it was actually interesting to see how the rhythm of the day for elderly people (no offense, Grandma) and small children coincides very nicely. I think it's rather sad that our society has gotten away from extended families living together--I think we all would benefit (even if we would drive each other a bit bonkers) from having multi-generational families under one roof. I feel strongly we all have something to give.

A story from the weekend that you might not care about but I really want to record:
Grandma and I were going to run a couple of errands that would have us home in less than half an hour, so Grandpa offered to watch Miles. He insisted they would be fine, and told me just to leave Miles playing on the floor. Grandma and I went and did our errands, and when we got home, I could hear Miles howling before I even got in the house. In the living room I found crying Miles sitting on the floor in front of the couch with Grandpa on the seat behind him bent down trying to console him. Grandpa said that while we were gone Miles (who is learning to crawl and still not extremely proficient) managed to scoot under the coffee table and get himself stuck and ticked off, unable to get himself out. Grandpa, who is in his 80s, had a pacemaker placed in his shoulder recently and has lost a lot of his strength, so he was unable to pick Miles up from his low position on the floor. So the best he could do was to drag Miles out from under the table by his feet, and then drag him over to the side of the couch and try to console him. You really have to know my Grandpa to fully appreciate the hilarity of this situation, but I will just say that I'm sure a number of choice words were used during the event. Grandpa had me laughing saying that Miles was crying so hard and getting so red in the face that he was starting to get worried. I told Grandpa the crying didn't hurt him, and Miles confirmed this by grinning at Grandpa constantly throughout the remainder of the day. Grandpa said he was smiling because he knew get got one up on Grandpa.

The sweet buddies

Lovely Grandma Elaine

Miss you guys.