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Wedding in Michigan:
Two weekends ago we loaded up the car with our suitcases full of clothes, pack n' play, stroller, a tub full of snacks, and our newly purchased car DVD player, and made the 12 hour trek up to Battle Creek, MI. In all honesty, the drive up was basically cake. Considering I wasn't driving and was able to doze off whenever necessary. Todd probably has different views. (But let me just say, that DVD player is a God-send. I'll gladly listen to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora the Explorer on repeat over a cranky, screaming toddler.) We got up around 2:00am Friday morning and were on the road by 3:00am. We packed the car the night before but planned to put any last minute items in the car in the morning and then grab Nick from his state of slumber right as we were headed out the door, plopping him in the car seat in his jammies and hoping he would pass right back out - or not even wake at all. Fat chance. He stayed awake for over an hour after departing our neighborhood. But luckily for us, he didn't make a peep. Mostly I think he thought it was all a dream.
We pulled into Battle Creek around 3:00pm in the afternoon on Friday, checked into our hotel, and from there it was a whirlwind of catching up with long lost Kalinosky family members. We saw so many of Todd's aunts, uncles, and cousins - and most importantly got to spend time with his Dad and Step mom, who hadn't seen Nick since he was just 3 weeks old! We grabbed pizza and chatted and then all went to our respective lodging locations and crashed for the night. On Saturday we spent the day over at Todd's Uncle Mark's house, where a large chunk of his family were staying, and just laughed and talked and laughed some more. That evening we went to Todd's cousins wedding (the main reason we went to MI in the first place), and let me just say -- if you thought there were a lot of Kalinosky's at our wedding...you have no idea. Approximately two-thirds of the 200 guests at this wedding were Kalinosky's. And I loved every single one of them, and every single second we all spent together. It made me so appreciative to have married into such a loud, exciting, crazy, loving, understanding, and welcoming family. Every single person hugged me like they had known me all their lives and hadn't seen me in years...when in reality, I was just meeting about 85% of them for the first time. And boy did they love Nick! Nick particularly took to Todd's female cousins - which we couldn't blame him for, because they were all gorgeous. We stayed at the wedding dancing and having a blast until nearly 11pm...which is late for us old folk, and WAY late for our wee one. But Nick was a champ, and spent the majority of the evening running around in his pj's, handing out kisses, and only getting slightly cranky.
Sunday morning we said our goodbyes -- we were all super sad to have to say good-bye to the Kalinosky clan and hit the road back to VA, but we've made plenty of plans to see everybody soon and hopefully get some of them to come stay with us! In case there was any doubt before, I absolutely LOVE being a Kalinosky :)
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The Storm of the Year - Also Known As: Mom & Dad Bought a Lake House!:
This past Friday night, after gorging ourselves on Domino's pizza as a reward for the dieting and exercising we've been keeping up with, Todd and I settled into the couch to watch a movie. True to form, I started to fall asleep mid-movie (in my defense, I'd already seen this one), so I started to play around on my phone to try and stay awake. As I was scrolling through facebook, I noticed that more than half of my friends were posting about the "big storm rolling in" with "potential for quarter sized hail" and "80+ mph winds". All was still quiet in our area - no rain, no wind, nada. But being the worry-wart that I am, I told Todd we needed to take down the deck umbrella just to be safe. No sooner had we gotten the umbrella inside and the plants all pushed up by the house, than the winds picked up. And storm, it did. Holy hell. And then, as predicted, the power went out. Of course instead of retreating to the basement like normal folks, we sat in the office upstairs watching the tree in our front yard, praying it wouldn't fall over - either into the house, or on top of the cars. We didn't want to wake up Nick since he was sleeping so peacefully through it all. Finally around 11:30pm the storm calmed down. Rain continued to trickle and the thunder and lightening continued to crash, but the winds died down enough that I figured we could retreat to our bedroom. I was certain the power would come on in the middle of the night while we slept. But alas, no dice.
Around 1:30am, Nick woke up crying. Obviously he was hot as hell -- we all were. So instead of stripping him down to his diaper, we pulled him into bed with us. Three hot, sweaty, cranky, miserable people in one queen bed. Awesome. By 3:30am, after Nick had successfully kicked me in the head, arm, ribs, and mouth, I scooped him up and said "you're going back to your bed". Which actually pleased him. We all slept until about 7:30am, got up, quickly pulled together our bathing suits and towels, and escaped to my new favorite place on earth...
My parent's lake house!!!
That's right. We are now lake house people!!! My parents have been thinking about purchasing a lake house for a while now. This year they got serious about it, started researching places, found a location they absolutely loved (a gated community with 5 beaches, a huge swimming pool, clubhouse & golf course, on-site restaurant, boating and fishing lake, tennis courts, huge playground, etc. etc.), found a realtor, and started researching properties. And when they came upon this one, they fell in love. It was beautiful, beach-y, vacation-y, and just perfect. And even better, it's only about a 2 hour drive from home. Amazing!
My parents were already down at the lake house because they just closed this past week (lucky them - they missed the storm altogether) so my brother and his girlfriend (can I just tell you how much I love her? Seriously, she is hilarious AND adorable), Todd, Nick and I all joined them to spend the day hanging out in the lake, getting some sun, and just relaxing. I got a call on my cell phone around 3:30pm that our power had been restored at home, but at that point we were having such a great time that we had all decided we would just spend the night at the lake.
So that evening we had a big lasagna dinner, quite a few bud lights, a rousing game of Scattergories, and a million and one laughs before we all passed out for the evening. It was such a relaxed, easy, comfortable, and all around awesome time. All of us talked about how we couldn't wait to come back and how lucky we are to have this place not just for the rest of the summer, but for all the summers to come! On Sunday before we packed up and headed home, the 7 of us just sat on the front porch, drinking coffee, talking, laughing more (we laugh a LOT), and enjoying the last bit of our mini weekend vacation. How fortunate we all are that we can make any weekend a vacation now! I'm so grateful to my parents for opening up their second home to us all and allowing us to be just as much a part of this exciting new development.
We were all a bit sad to leave each other on Sunday morning...but no worries because soon we'll all be reunited in Myrtle beach! More fun, sun, pool, beach, beers, laughs, and relaxation! And even better, Todd's Dad and Step mom are going to be joining us for the first night of vacation! If there's one thing I like more than a Henson get-together, or more than a Kalinosky reunion, it's having the two families in the same place!
So much to look forward to and to be thankful for - particularly all the wonderful people in our lives. We're so blessed to come from such loving, wonderful families, and I can't wait to spend extra time with some of my absolute favorite people on earth.
Ahhh, sweet, sweet summer time.
1 comment:
Sounds like you've been having fun :) Where is your parent's lakehouse? Tyler and I have been lightly researching, haven't seen something that neat w/in 2 hours though?
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