Michigan...

The plan...to see Aubrey as Cinderella in her High School play "Into the Woods".  

Alas, the play was moved because the football team was in the playoffs. It was moved to a weekend we could not travel.  So, being the great parents/grandparents that we are, we headed to Muskegon anyway and stopped in Chelsea on the way home to see all the Michigan branch of our family tree. 

As Claude and I drove through Cincinnati, Claude sings "I'm living on the air in Cincinnati..."  We look in the sky for flying turkeys. I say, "Oh the humanity!" Claude says, "Honest, I thought they could fly!" Then we both break out laughing. 

This all comes from an old sitcom on television WKRP in Cincinnati.  The radio station in this television show was doing a Thanksgiving promotion where they were going to give away free turkeys.  For some reason, the turkeys were put in an airplane and flown over Cincinnati and dropped for people to get as the flew down.  The problem, turkeys don't fly. 

I posted Claude and my comments and laughter on Facebook and asked, "Anyone remember that delightful moment on TV?"  Our friend, Dave Rennick, reminded us of the line, "The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!"  Sent Claude and me into peels of laughter again. Delightful way to start our trip.

At another point in our drive, Claude commented that he felt tired. I assured him he could take a nap and I could drive for a bit.  He told that would not be necessary, he could keep driving.  I told him I had driving this particular drive several times by myself and really could do it.  He said, "I know.  You are a strong woman of the 90's." Really.  The 90's.

Late we passed a white car with red duct tape down the entire driver's side, front to back. Claude looked at it and said, "Is that just to hold it together or are they going for a racing stripe.

We passed the funniest billboard.  It was for Meijer.  The caption was Rock this Thanksgiving.  The picture was a beautifully roasted turkey with those paper things on the ends of the legs.  Some of the ends of the fringes of the paper were turned down so that the turkey looked like it was making the hand gesture for 'you rock'.  That is one clever bit of advertising.

The forecast was for some snow.  We drove most of the way with clear skies and were so very grateful. About Lansing we started to alternate between thick snow showers and sunshine.  Nissa sent me a text saying that was the lake effect snow she enjoyed in Michigan.  

Then we got to Grand Rapids.  It was white-out conditions.  Claude slowed way down and kept going.  I focused on staying quiet and not moving so he could focus on driving.  We drove like that for half the distance between Grand Rapids and Muskegon.  Then the skies cleared and we were able to get back up to speed and get on into Muskegon.  When we got there, Claude said he was very happy we were doing that during the daytime.

We got to Muskegon and I hurried into the hotel to check us in.  When I got back to the car, Claude and I started to get the things out of the car we wanted to take inside.  I looked in the back seat and realized I had no coat.  I wore a sweatshirt with a turtle neck under it so I would not have to put on my coat to run into the gas station or restaurant on the way up.  It was only at this point I realized I left my coat and gloves on the sofa in Sadieville.  Yike!!

I knew I was warm enough to just go from inside to the car and back to inside again. But Claude was very concerned in case we had car trouble or an accident and had to be in the cold for a while.  Our next stop was Walmart.  I found a wonderful red coat with a hood with fur around the edge of the hood.  I told Claude it would be my Eskimo coat.

Thursday night we had dinner with Todd and Nissa.  They took us to Hennessy's Pub.  This is a traditional Irish pub. We had a wonderful dinner including Irish soda bread.

Friday we picked up Paul for the morning.  We purchased him a pair of shoes, then went back to our hotel room to visit till lunch time.  At lunch we picked up Nissa, who would have the afternoon off, and ate lunch at the Pita Place.  Then we went back to Nissa's home.  Katelyn and Drew joined us.  I gave haircuts, we played the piano, Aubrey came home from school and joined us.  When Todd came home, we ordered pizza for dinner.  It was a good day with family.

Saturday we slept in as there was a forecast for freezing rain.  We allowed them to treat the roads before we got on them.  Jake found a new deli in Chelsea were we had great soup and sandwiches and a quiet place for conversation.  Then we took Jake home and headed to Sadieville.

Here are a few pictures of family.

Katelyn, Paul and Sandi (me) enjoying a musical moment.  I asked Nissa, my daughter, to take this picture.  I'm the photographer in our family.  My girls are also the photographers in their families.  This simply means you are not in the pictures very often.  Thank you Nissa for taking this for me.  Love music.  Especially when it is our family making the music.

Katelyn and her boyfriend, Drew Roper.

Aubrey Anne snuggling with her Grampa Claude.  All the grandmonsters love to snuggle with Claude.  I can't blame them one bit.  

I asked Todd and Nissa to put their heads together for a picture.  The first one I took was this one. I honestly like it best.  I love that Todd is looking at Nissa and that happy look on his face just makes me happy.  

This picture is a real keeper.  When we cleaned out Papa's garage he had a couple of small tool boxes full of tools he will never use.  We brought them home and Claude went through them.  We made a good tool box for Papa's apartment to aid in any quick repairs we might need to do while there.  The remainder of the tools Claude went through and melded into his tools.  The extras he used to put a tool box together for Jacob.  Jake had a couple of basic tools but this will get him off to a better start.  Claude put them in his first red metal tool box.  

As Claude was talking to me about this process, he started to laugh.  He couldn't stop laughing.  I tried to get him to let me in on the funny but he couldn't stop laughing enough to tell me anything.  After a bit, he showed me the tool he felt it was time to give to Jacob.  It was a tool his father had given to him.  A treasure from Claude's childhood. 

Saturday, we stopped in Chelsea and had lunch with Jacob on the way home from Muskegon. When we took Jacob back to his apartment, Claude got the tool box out to give to Jacob.  He opened it and explained some of the tools he was giving him.  One was a socket set I bought our first Christmas for Claude with my tips as a beautician.  That was 44 years ago.  Jake asked about the one larger odd tool in the box.  Claude started to laugh again.  He was able to get out that it came from the ranch in Utah and Evan gave it to him.  The light began to dawn and Jacob also started to laugh.  I raced to the car to get my camera to take this picture.  The tool is used to castrate horses or cows.  Yep...that is a true treasure to pass from father to son.  Now...you may laugh as well.

This was a quick trip but so good to be with family who won't be able to come for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It was a very nice way to begin this holiday season.