Wowee!!

Wow, this trip has just been a blast and we're not even a week into it. As mentioned previously, our first stop was in Norman, Oklahoma, to stay the night with a family we met on an unschooling list. They were great...seven kids and not a moment without someone to watch or interact with. We visited the omniplex in Oklahoma City with them and had even more fun, plus learned lots.

After we departed Oklahoma, we drove through Kansas and ended up spending the night in Kansas City, mere miles from the Missouri border. On Thursday, we made it all the way to Minnesota where we camped in a state park and hit the Mall of America on Friday.

The Mall of America was very exciting. We think it may be so named because you can find just about every major store in America in the mall, including a Best Buy! We do highly recommend a trip to the mall, it's worth it. Friday night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at our camp site.

We packed up Saturday morning to hit the road and head east for Detroit, but we didn't get very far before our car started dinging at us like there was a door open or something, but it gave us no message. We finally found an open Chevy dealership and took the car in to find that the electronic module on the passenger sliding door was not working properly. We were able to not have it replaced (big $$), but we did have to pay to have it diagnosed and the noise cleared, etc. As a result, we're on a much tighter budget than we began.

This has not dampened our spirits, however. We drove straight through from Minnesota to Michigan to save $$. Everyone has declared that this is a great vacation and so it shall remain.

Leaving Michigan

Well, we've been here for about a week...We arrived at 4 in the morning last Saturday and we'll be leaving at noon "today," which is Friday. It's been a great visit. The kids got to meet their cousins, Mikayla and Rachel. They also got to meet their Uncle Bryon and Aunt Christine for the first time (except Aurora, who had met Bryon before).

We went to our very first ultrasound to see their newest cousin five months before his birth. Christine is pregnant with Joshua Michael, who will be the first boy for Bryon and Christine. It was truly an awesome experience. Sam had attended several before (being the biological father of four), but Andrea had never attended one and neither had the children. Christine wanted a boy so bad that when the nurse announced, "You have a boy," everyone broke out in applause.

We need to tuck in for the night, so even though there's more we wanted to write, we'll have to catch you up later.