The Next Step in Being a Great Gramma...

Well, we hit the road again. Thursday, October 15th, we pointed that red Buick north and headed to Michigan. As the movie says, "If you build it, they will come." Katelyn is growing our first great grandmonster and we are going to be a part of this experience as much as we can. She invited us to the baby shower and...well, we went!

After fighting and clawing our way through Ohio (this state will be the end of us), we enjoyed a wonderful evening with Jake. We met him at his office and went back to Ann Arbor for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Yummy! Then back to Chelsea to see Jake's new apartment. After stopping by CVS to get some more ice packs for Claude's feet, we checked into the Baymont Inn (formerly the Holiday Inn Express) and sat up and visited into the evening. We love visiting with Jake. 

Friday we meant to wake up earlier but we didn't. And that's okay. We checked out of our hotel and Claude drove toward Muskegon while I diligently crocheted the edges of burp pads. Then...this happened:

My text message to my children was something like:  "The car just kept turning and turning and we ended up here. Now we are trapped inside. Please DON"T help! Please DON'T help!!" We purchased two dozen donuts. Claude figured we needed one for Friday and another for the boys to enjoy during the big game on Saturday. You see, Michigan State and University of Michigan were playing Saturday. It is like the 'game of the year' and a very big deal in Michigan. Katelyn explains it as University of Kentucky versus University of Louisville. That kind of rivalry. Claude made sure the box of donuts for Saturday had football shaped and decorated donuts in it.

Claude and I made our way to Muskegon with some text messages from Katelyn. She was up and wanted to meet up with us. We told her we planned on lunch at The Pita Place when we got there and we would pick her up at the Tyler home. 

We went to Port City Automotive first to say hi to Todd and Nissa. We gave them their treats from Japan and got our hugs. 

After picking up Katelyn we enjoyed a great lunch at The Pita Place.  Now we just have to wait till January to eat there again. Katelyn looked great and ate well. Much better than our last trip to Michigan. We met Drew at the house and set out to get a few last minute tasks accomplished for the baby shower on Saturday. Water purchased, cups purchased, balloons ordered. Then back to the house to wait for Aubrey to get home from school.

After a brief visit with Aubrey we took her to work with the understanding that we would come and have dinner while she was working at her new job at Arby's. 

After Nissa and Todd got home, Drew and Katelyn left to visit his mom and then head home to Grand Haven. Nissa, Todd, Claude and I then stormed the Arby's to harass and tease Aubrey a bit...and enjoy a nice dinner. 

This is Claude placing his order and Aubrey Anne taking his order.  The next picture is the receipt she entered. The name she put on the receipt was 'Brilliant Pa'. During one Camp Christensen, Claude taught Aubrey and Paul that he was 'brilliant and gorgeous'. I believe it is a line from some movie. They took the bait and have called him that ever since. The man has super powers I tell you! So Aubrey typed in 'Brilliant Pa' and then added 'and gorgeous' in ink on the receipt. How cute is that. She loves her Grampa and he loves her.

We checked into the Comfort Inn for the evening with the agreement to be at Nissa's at 8:30 the next morning to complete the preparation for the baby shower. 

Saturday we were at Nissa's at 8:30am. We scooped up Aubrey for a quick run to Apple Bagels so we could have a bit more time with her. She got a text from a girl she works with asking her to cover her shift as she had an ear infection. I told Aubrey to call her mom. Nissa said fine. Aubrey called the manager and we were now in mode to get her home so she could get ready and we would take her back to work. Whew!

Nissa made some treats for the baby shower and I tried to help by not getting too much in the way. I did stir while she did other things. 

The quandary was the best way to get us back to Chelsea after the shower. Grand Haven is half an hour south of Muskegon. I checked a map and there was a straight road from Grand Haven almost to Grand Rapids which is also a half hour east of Muskegon. It just made better since for us to go to Grand Haven together and then leave from there to make the 3 hour drive to Chelsea right after the shower.  The boys wanted to watch their game which started at 3:30pm. The baby shower started at 2pm. Claude wanted to see a movie rather than watch the game. So, he drove me to the shower and Katelyn found a theater close by showing the movie he wanted to see. Nissa led the way and we followed her stopping to get the balloons along the way.  These events must be carefully orchestrated I tell you.

The shower was delightful. It was held in the club house of the apartment complex where Katelyn and Drew live. The theme was 'Dr. Seuss'. Katelyn was dressed in a t-shirt Nissa had made for her. She is sporting a nice baby bump.

It was well attended, even though several people she invited were called in to mandatory overtime at work. 

I purchased a gift for the baby from Papa when I bought his groceries. I also purchased a blank card and had Papa write her a note. He was so happy to do this and that he was giving a gift. When Katelyn looked in the bag and found the card, she opened it and, as soon as she saw it was from Papa, the tears started to flow. She could not read the card at all and handed it to Nissa to read for her. Nissa choked up a few times but made it through like a trooper. Papa and I had been talking about this little bundle coming to our family. He will be a great great grampa for the first time. We talked about how I was his first daughter and I was a girl (of course). Then I had his first grandchild and Nissa was a girl. Then Nissa had his first great grandchild, Katelyn, and she was a girl.  Now Katelyn will give him his first great great grandchild and she will be Raelyn Jay Roper, a little girl. Papa wrote in his card about this and how he knew how to take care of little girls but not so much little boys and how happy he was with this new baby. Happy tears all around. 

I wrapped up and gave this gorilla to Katelyn. Nissa divorced and moved home when Katelyn was 1 1/2 years old. Jacob loved this little niece and was often her baby sitter. He would load Katelyn and her diaper bag in our Dodge van and head to Gettysburg for the day. That always amazed and delighted me. When she was living with us, Jacob gave her this gorilla. It just seemed that Raelyn should now get the gorilla that gave her mother so much joy as a baby. I must find that picture of her wrestling with this gorilla. 

I have been crocheting since May to get this afghan complete for the baby shower. Katelyn picked the colors and I think she chose well. She was delighted it was ready for her baby. 

We also gave her a pink kimono from Japan for the baby. I got that on video and have not figured out how to extract a picture from the video yet. 

It was a great shower. We finished, cleaned up, got things to Katelyn and Drew's apartment. Claude still had about 45 minutes on his movie so I had Nissa and Katelyn drop me at the theater where I could sit in my car and read my novel until Claude was finished. This was a very hard thing for them to do but I kept assuring them I had my book, my crocheting and games on my Kindle. I would have no problem relaxing and filling the time. They needed to head back to Muskegon to enjoy the rest of the big game with their boys. It was a win, win for everyone.

Claude was pleasantly surprised to find me sitting in the car waiting for him when he finished. We tried this new road across part of Michigan to Grand Rapids and then on to Chelsea. It was beautiful. Jake met us at our hotel for another nice chat. 

Sunday morning Jake treated us to breakfast at McDonald's before hitting the road. My favorite breakfast when we travel is a plain biscuit and a soda at McDonald's.  I enjoyed this 'Bacon Makes Everything Better' sign. It is a true statement, you know.

We made it home is good time. Ohio roads were a little better on us this time. However, we were about 100 miles from the border between Ohio and Kentucky when we started hearing a funny noise. Claude and I thought it was the truck next to us. Not so. It was us. We had determined we would stop at a Chipotle's for lunch after crossing into Kentucky.  The noise was getting worse so Claude took the next exit at about 90 miles from Kentucky. Amazingly, there was a Chipotle's there. We parked and went in for lunch. Then came out as we knew exactly what the problem would be. The flaw with my car is the under covering behind the front bumper. The front of the car is low and scrapes on every curb. Eventually it wears thin where it is attached and comes loose, then it drags the ground and you have to re-attach it. Claude does this with these plastic tie things. After our lunch, Claude laid down on the ground and I kept watch so no one parked on him. I watched as he took his belt off and used it for the tie part to get us home. We didn't have any of the tie things in the car and no place close to purchase any. Necessity is the mother of invention! 

We made it home and, after a bit, Andie and the Mini's joined us for a Fall Break visit. That on the next post.