Our First Stop!

This past weekend Katie and I spent our first days apart in about a month and our last days apart for about 5! She went to Adrian MI to spend time with Kayla while I went out with my friends around Livonia. On Sunday the 25th we had a lot of people who stopped by to wish us "farewell" on our trip. PS ~ A special shout out and thank you to all of the family and friends who have donated money in an effort to make our trip just a little more special! It was such an unexpected gesture and I am truly blessed to know you all :) On Monday morning we got everything ready to go for our trip and packed it in the family room so that we could easily pick everything up on Wednesday when we came back from our first stop on our road trip. We officially started our trip on Monday July 26th at approximately 1pm. The van kicked off at 124704 miles and is running

strong after its recent makeover. Our first stop on our road trip was a familiar one. We hopped, not across the pond, but across the river to Amherstburg, Ontario to visit the cottage and hang out with everyone before we left. As soon as we arrived at the cottage we headed out to the lake and walked out on the sand bar where we set up camp for a couple hours. Carol brought out some beer in the cooler and we played games in the water with the kids until we were tired and ready to come in. That night we played a lot of Mario Party 8. This is one of my old WII games that I brought home for Buddy to use now that I will be gone. At dusk, Carol led us all outside to show us her new favorite plant: moon flowers. This plant only blooms at night. The flowers emerge at

dusk and bloom quickly - it was fun to see them go from buds to blooming in less than a minute! They bloom all night and wither in the morning when the sun hits them. Tuesday morning we woke up and started playing some more party. We ended up not being able to finish the game because we had to head out to the water park. Katie and I scooted out early and went to the library to use the internet. Once we got back to the cottage, we jumped on the trampoline, then swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline again, then swam in the pool again... by the end of the day we were more than a little tired. We woke up this morning and went to the park and threw some boomerangs around with the kids. We all ended up throwing them into the woods behind us and had to go on an adventure to find them. After we cleaned off all the cobwebs, we said goodbye and headed back to the states. We finished packing up the van here and now were ready to hit the road, heading north to Alaska!