Vacation to the U.P.

We took a trip to the Upper Peninsula to visit my step-Mom Nancy. Dan has been working in Cadillac, so we picked him up from there to start our trip. The first night we drove over the Mackinac Bridge and camped at a campground right on Lake Michigan. We actually all slept in our van!!! It is possible but that was also the last night we did that! We had to take out all of the car seats as well as the entire seat that Maggie's car seat was on. We filled one small tent completely with all of our "stuff" from the car. It's funny now but it was just silly to not sleep in the tent. I thought it might be too cold for Maggie. Instead, I was so hot and claustrophobic!

The second day, we headed toward Powers. On the way, we stopped at Kitchi-iti-kippee (I'm sure that is spelled wrong) to see a really neat natural spring. We floated over the spring on a raft to see it. The water was 40 feet deep and completely clear! You could even see the sand moving as the water was coming up. It was very cool! After that, we finished the drive to Powers, about 30 minutes west of Escanaba. Of course we had to stop and feed Maggie every 3 hours or so. We visited with Nancy for a few hours and then headed to J.W. Wells State Park to set up our camp. Micah and Maelea had their own little tent and Dan, Maggie, and I had our own little tent.

The third day, we took Nancy to Pizza Hut in Escanaba and then to the harbor to see the boats and the water. She had a really good time. All of this sounds so simple but it was almost a circus at times. Imagine between the stroller, wheelchair, two in diapers, one nursing infant, and an adult who is completely dependent on somebody else... it took us a LONG time to do all of this. I am really glad we did get to take her out though.

The fourth day, we went back to see Nancy and say good-bye. She wasn't feeling very well at all, so unfortunately, I did not get any pictures. I should have taken the camera with us the day before, but like I said, it was a little crazy. We headed back toward Escanaba and then realized that we forgot Maggie's diaper bag with ALL of her clothes in it back at Nancy's. Good thing for Wal-Mart! Then we headed for Fayette. This is an old historic town. We ended up camping there after seeing some of the historic buildings.





























The next day, we packed up our camp, and finished seeing the sights in Fayette.






























We headed back toward Cadillac that afternoon and camped at Mitchell State Park. Dan went back to work the next morning and we drove home! Whew!!! Now I am finishing up laundry and typing this very long entry.

Micah has his next MRI scheduled for September 10th. We are anxious to find out what everything looks like. He has been struggling with some things lately like screaming when he wakes up, falling down a lot, and he even said on the trip that he had a "Dr. Ham headache." Kind of funny, but maybe not at all. Micah is riding a big two-wheel bike (plus training wheels) and is doing a great job. There are definitely positives going on but I just wanted to let you know that we do have some concerns and will be glad to have the MRI results.

Thank you for reading all of this information and I will keep you updated!