Canche Chronicles: Our trip to Michigan

The day after Christmas was our last full day in Pennsylvania and it was packed full. We started out by leaving all of the children at home and going to Linda Smith's house for a Christmas brunch. Linda is a friend of the family and has always been known for her amazing cooking and baking. It was such a special treat to be able to go and enjoy brunch with her, without children. David and Jonathan graciously stayed home and watched all of the children. Grandma and Grandpa came by and helped the boys with the kids so they were actually in pretty good shape.

When we got back they were just finishing lunch and Haley had just gone down for a nap. Pops was walking around with Emily who had apparently been a little bit high maintenance. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out together and getting ready for the company we had coming at five. This actually took a while because everything was pretty crazy after our Christmas the day before. There was still wrapping paper out and most of the new gifts were laying around. I told Mom it was a great idea to have company the day after Christmas because it forced us to clean up.

At five the guests started arriving. David and I spent a lot of the beginning packing upstairs while Haley played downstairs and Emily got passed around. Mom had made lasagna for dinner with salad and bread. Haley didn't eat any lasagna but she did eat some bread and applesauce. After our company left we set up Settlers and played one last game. Caleb beat us all and then we played a new game he had gotten for Christmas called bang, it was pretty fun and I won. Then we all headed to bed.

Our night was short because THURSDAY morning we got up at 3am so that we could leave for the airport by 3:45. Haley woke up while we were transferring her to the car and she stayed awake the whole way to the airport. I looked back at her every so often and her eyes were always looking back. When we got to the airport we ended up standing in line to get our tickets. It was a crazy long line, Southwest definitely needs to set up more counters. David had the hardest time with it because he had to roll three suitcases and a stroller. Looking back it is pretty funny to think about, I should have taken a couple pictures. Haley continued to stay awake but Emily slept the whole time until we made it to the counter (she never woke up in the transfer to her carseat).

David and I only added to the long line because we ended up taking forever at the counter. Two of our suitcases were overweight so we had to take stuff out and put them in other bags and it took a while. We finally made it to the security line where we were ushered to the family line which is always a lot shorter. By the time we made it to our gate we had just enough time for David to go buy us some breakfast and use the bathroom and then we boarded. Haley ate an entire hashbrown from McDonald's, I was pretty impressed! Emily messed her diaper as soon as we got on board so I changed it and then she sat in David's lap and fell asleep and slept the whole flight. Haley fell asleep shortly into the flight and then I fell asleep.

After a while, I'm not sure how long, the flight attendant shook me awake to inform me that Haley was on the floor going through my wallet. Sure enough, she was sitting nicely on the floor with my purse open and my cards everywhere. I thanked the flight attendant, put everything back, and then held her the rest of the flight. Our flight was direct to Chicago and when we landed we went straight to baggage claim and then stood on the curb and Dave's family came and picked us up.

Sarah, Abuelita, and Abuelito all came in the Ford Expedition to pick us up. We did have quite a bit of baggage so our first stop was Starbucks to pick up some coffee and put a stroller onto the top of the car (it had been at David and Sarah's feet). Emily slept almost the entire car ride and Haley didn't fall asleep until the last thirty minutes. We also stopped for gas and Burger King for lunch. Emily woke up towards the end of the ride and I had to take her out and feed her but then she was happy.

When we made it back to the house we put Haley down for a nap and the rest of us also laid down. Emily was pretty wide awake so David ended up taking her while I slept. Haley did not end up sleeping very long, I couldn't believe it, she should have slept all afternoon. When we woke up cousin Isabella was here! Haley was so excited to see her cousin and play with her. Isabella just turned four around Thanksgiving (I am just now realizing, I still owe her a Birthday tribute!!!!) so she is quite a bit older than Haley but she is super polite and played so nicely with her.

We ate dinner and then Adj and Jesse came with Bennett and we all hung out for a while. Haley was pretty pleased with her cousins, almost too pleased. She kept trying to sit on Bennett while he crawled around. We ended up putting Haley down for bedtime at 7:45, she was so tired. We stayed up a little later and talked and then we all headed to bed too.

Haleyism:
Haley saw Abuelita at the airport and immediately said 'Abuelita!'

Emilyism:
Emily does not seem to recognize anybody in particular because she smiles at everybody anytime.