Back Home

The drive back home was long and tiresome but I survived. We listened to the first book in the Land of Stories series and it was a good distraction. I wish the boys would have listened but they were busy playing with the new felt books and their tablets. For the way home they had to be good for a half an hour in order to earn the tablets for an hour. We did this rotation of a half an hour break and hour screen time for the whole journey home. It seemed to work perfectly.

After another successful crossing of the Mackinac bridge we stopped in St. Ignace to get some Mackinac fudge for Grams. Of course the kids had to go to the bathroom and all the shops in this cute town were anti the public using their restrooms. I thought this one shop's bathrooms were ok to use and I just needed to change Penny's shorts because they had gotten wet, but I got in trouble because I was NOT supposed to be using their bathroom. Of course Penny was screaming at the top of her lungs so they heard me and came to yell at me. It was so embarrassing. 

After the restroom fiasco we stopped at a DQ for some food. They had the History Channel on showing some program about the Civil War and there was this bit about amputees. It was totally unappetizing. 

When we finished eating we got our fudge, some salt water taffy (which turned out to be not so yummy, boo) and my dad bought this really cool Michigan puzzle that me and my mom will have to do when I come to AZ for Thanksgiving.

We did make one more stop at Drost Chocolate in Indian River. Tyler always gets me chocolate from there when he goes up North so I had to check it out.It was fun to go there and pick out my own chocolates for once. 

When we made it home at last I was pooped (seems to be a theme throughout this trip ;)) and I was not up to taking the kids out for any Fourth of July Festivities. Thankfully I have great neighbors that let my kids share their sparklers. For my kids, that was enough fun, lighting sparklers and playing with the neighbors. I enjoyed chatting with my neighbors and to me, it was the perfect way to end the fourth of July!

The next day was Poppy's birthday. that afternoon I took him to see the movie "Everything, everything." It was a good chick flick (which my dad likes) with a twist that I had totally forgotten about (I had read the book it was based on but obviously had suffered some book amnesia). 

After dinner that night we celebrated with some carrot cake that I had bought at Kroger's. It was a Sanders Bumpy Cake which is world famous ;)Penny was not happy that she had to wait to eat it and couldn't dive right in- hence the grumpy face.

On Friday my boys flew back to AZ with my parents. They will be there for almost 2.5 weeks. They have been waiting for this day FOREVER! They are so excited to see all their cousins so I know they are going to have a blast. They were also being stinkers and fighting in the car on the way there so that helped make it a little easier to say goodbye. Before they left though, I snapped these fun pics. I will miss them- especially their sweet goodnight hugs and kisses.

Since they have left it has been nice and quiet with just me and the girls. Tyler is supposed to be home from his week long Scout High Adventure today. It'll be nice to see him- it's been a week!- and we can also finally celebrate his birthday. I made a cake from scratch for him so I am eager to see how it tastes! You shall find out...in my next post!