Spring Break in Detroit!

We went to see Alex's folks in Detroit for "Spring Break."  Actually, we went in April because flights were cheaper, and we were paying for 5 seats (well, sort of - frequent flier miles for one leg were also more available that week!).

We left Portland on a Thursday early - spent the night at a hotel the night before; where JP regaled us with his increasingly popular demand of "Outside!" - grabbing his shoes and heading for the door:

The kids did remarkably well on the flight - even though we had a quick layover in Denver.  JP had a seat with his carseat, and though he did conk out a bit both ways, he was still up and around a lot.  The hardest part of the flights were trying to strap him back in when the seatbelt light came on mid-flight as he was having none of it!  But we distracted with toys, snacks, videos, books, etc and all the kids did pretty well.

Upon arriving in Detroit around 3 pm EST (noon to us), we got our rental car and headed for the suburbs.  I can honestly say that we spent zero time in Detroit proper during this trip.  Oh well!  Alex's parents have a great young family for next-door neighbors who were gracious enough to let us bounce on their 15' trampoline complete with safety netting, play with their kid cars and tricycles, push their kiddie strollers and grocery carts, swing and slide on their playground, and play house in their plastic kiddie outdoor "house."  We spent every afternoon at their house playing with their 8 year old son and 3 year old daughter, our kids loved it!  Susan also bought a stash of Dollar Store toys for the kids, and Tom checked out several library books upon my recommendation, so we weren't without Fancy Nancy for the trip. :-)

On Friday we went to the Henry Ford (museum, though they want it to be like the Louvre, so they don't add the word Museum to the name - ha!).  It was super awesome.  Alex and I had taken Lucia there the last time we were in Detroit, which was for Thanksgiving when she was just one.  This time she had an even better time, and so did Magdalena.  All the kids loved the Dynamax circular module home, the giant generators, the locomotives, and the airplanes, but the BEST was when JP first saw the cars - he went racing as fast as his little 16 month-old legs would carry him crying out "CAH CAH CAH!"  I have an awesome video - you can't hear him very well, but take my word for it.  He was in little boy heaven:
Here are some other pics from the Henry Ford:

Ahh, the Jones Team.  JP had to drive, of course.  He now tells me "I Want Drive!" as soon as I get home from work every day. :-)

Generators Galore

Human Hot Dog!

CAH!

This was an awesome exhibit!  The kids got to "repair" this wooden/rubber car - everyone was into it.

JP really loves watching the "Big Boys"

All the kids loved the trains too.

Susan joined the fun at the museum.

Someone was tired out!

At dinner that night, Alex busted out his old high school cello.  He played us a few tunes including Twinkle Twinkle/ABCs/BaaBaa Black Sheep.  I got JP off to bath (in the laundry sink) and bed, and the girls played the cello with Daddy.  Lucia even tried her hand at it the next morning!

Dinner and music!

Daddy and Daughters

Tom & Susan

Lucia at the cello

Next up on Saturday, we went to the ice rink.  Susan has a pro shop there, and the college-aged girls she employs were READY for our kids.  They dressed the girls up and got their skates on them, gave them each an "American Girl" doll with ice skates (faux American Girl, I think), tried to convince me that each of them needed a Lula bag (or something like that) - these fancy box-like duffle bags on wheels that light up when you walk with them, apparently they are ALL the rage for the pro-desitned skater youth.  We all skated, even JP!  And Uncle David joined us on that day, helping Susan with her skate sharpening.

The cutest girls out there - thanks Grandma!

Everyone on the ice!  The girls who work for Susan had these small size 6 skates and one of them brought JP out first.  Alex took over when it became apparent that he wasn't going to stand on his own steam (ice?).

Magdalena loved to go "FAST!" with this blue skating walker!  Sometimes she was even pulling me!  The only downside is that it doesn't do great for teaching balance.  We have gone once so far since being back and she is doing pretty well on her own.

My skating guys!

Because who *doesn't* love to watch the Zamboni?

These sweet employees were practically trying to give away the store to our girls!

Note the safety glasses!

Uncle Dave has arrived!

 On Sunday Alex and I got up and took JP to Mass with us.  Then the whole family: Tom & Susan, David, Alex & me, and the kids - all took off for Ann Arbor.  We went to the Museum of Natural History as it had a pretty decent dinosaur bones exhibit (though as it turned out, most skeletons on display were castings made from the real bones), and a great planetarium.  I'm sorry to say that when JP got unruly in the planetarium, I refused to take him out (I LOVE SPACE! THE FINAL FRONTIER!), and Alex had to do the honors. :-)   And, although I don't have the picture (I think Alex does), as we were driving away we saw a billboard ad for Michigan theater.  David was Hamlet in the University's production back in 2003 and - you guessed it - one of his pictures from that show adorned the billboard!  It was so awesome!  Way to go Brother Dave!  You're famous.

That night we had Alex's dad's cousin Matt and his SO over for dinner.  The kids regaled us all with their antics, and we all had a great time.

Matt & Diane in center/back

When we were visiting 4 years ago with Lucia, I ordered Tom & Susan this little chair insert child seat from amazon.com.  Fortunately Susan kept it!

Monday was a low key day.  Though Tom & Susan told us the weather had been super atrocious all winter, even up to the week prior to our arrival, we were blessed with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s.  Monday, however, it did rain on us, but that was fine as we just chilled out and got ready to go.  We managed to hit up JC Penney's to get some family portraits taken (I'll have to post those later), and that was enough for the day.

Tuesday we were off again for another early flight.  Susan made us a great breakfast and lunch to take on the plane, so no one was hungry!  We all had such a wonderful time.