Wednesday morning we were up bright and early packing the trailer and cleaning the rental house. As soon as we were finished we headed over to my Mom’s to pick up Stefani and say good-bye to everyone else.

My Mom and I

My Mom and Stefani

Saying good-bye to Grandma was hard!

Corey and his family with my Mom.

While we were trying to say good-bye, Steve gathered up plants and trees to take home.

After all the good-byes, we drove away. Stefani and I were crying our eye-balls out over leaving and cried almost all the way to Holland! It was SO hard leaving my Mom. I wished we lived closer, but with the economy the way it is, it just isn’t possible right now.

We drove all night in order to get Stefani back in time to catch her ride and get home before her new job started. Driving in a 15 passenger van with 15 people doesn’t exactly afford anyone the comfort of laying down to sleep. I think I got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep that night.

We got to Rapid City, South Dakota with two hours to spare, so we thought we might go in to Wall Drug, but we were even too early for that. We walked around Wal-Mart and picked up a few things that we needed while we waited for Stef’s ride to show up.

Saying good-bye

After we dropped Stefani off, we headed out for some fun at Mt. Rushmore and our hotel where we were looking forward to a great night’s sleep!

Tuesday morning, we began to organize and pack up. Then we went to our friend’s house for a quick lunch and then off to another friend’s house to play! We had a blast getting reacquainted from our last visit three years ago.

Holly and David

Becca having a blast on the swings.

Steve and David...

After an anniversary gift of chocolates and freezies…we headed home to make pork chops on the grill. Later on, Stefani went down to the lake to take sunset pictures and I went with her.

Over Spring Lake

Some glad morning, I'll fly away!!

Stefani

Then it was time for our last “sleep” in Michigan….

Since we decided not to go to the zoo on Monday, we had time to help my Mom clean out her garage. Something she has wanted done for a while, but never had anyone who could help her. Besides, a lot of the stuff in there was my stuff from when I lived at home.

We had a blast going through my old stuff. I even found my old Barbie and Midge dolls that I played with as a girl. There were boxes of my college books and a huge painted picture of me when I was about 10. We didn’t get to go through everything because we ran out of time, but we were able to help get rid of some of the stuff in there.

After that, we decided to go to the waterfront and walk to the pier. However, it was so cold and windy and we didn’t think to bring sweatshirts, so all we got was this one picture on Five Mile Hill.

We decided that we would leave as scheduled even though it would mean driving all night on Wednesday in order to get Stefani back in time to start her new job. We also wanted one last swim at the lake. It was kind of cold, so we didn’t stay long.

Becca

Nic and John...I have no idea what they are doing...maybe waiting for the tide to come in?

Marie

Matthew

Rachel

Playing with the raft that came with the rental house.

We invited some of the older kids to come down for a spaghetti supper that Steve made. It was SO good. Then, the kids started to watch T.V. and just moments before some other friends came by to visit, there was a physical disagreement over the remote between the same two children who had the knock down drag out bloody nose fight the day before. Literally moments before our friends walked in the door!! We managed to have a nice visit with them anyway and we were so glad to see their daughter and her husband who are expecting twin girls any time now.

Before they left, they invited us for lunch the following day, which would be our last day in Michigan. Time seemed to be going by at break neck speed and I didn’t want to think about leaving so soon.