Magnificent Michigan

In our last post we promised spectacular photos and brilliant stories of our fantastical journey to the magical world of the midwest. Are you ready??

On day one we left West Lafayette around 11:00 am and started our long (okay, only 5 hour) journey north. We made it all the way to Fort Wayne (about 2.5 hours) before we had to stop. We were helped along by a Dean Koontz book on cd, which passed the time wonderfully. It was about crazy killer clowns who hate trapeze artists and invade the lives of a baker and his family, who was told by his grandfather that he would experience "five terrible days" and gave him the dates. Most of the problems included the clowns but, once they were killed, the baker had to confront an incestuous trapeze artist and kill him too. Needless to say, it was heart-pounding entertainment. (We highly recommend it for your next road trip). There was a lot of bad language and violence, so we were scared Ezra might pick up some bad habits. So far, we're in the clear.

By the time we reached Fort Wayne Annika had clearly had enough, so we found a parking lot and then decided we would get lunch while we were there. 

This is a picture of Ezra outside the restaurant. It has nothing of significance with respect to our trip, but it is adorable. I mean, look at this kid. What a cutie!

And speaking of cuties, we used the nice backdrop of the Taco Bell to snap another picture, this one of our beautiful little Annika. Who would have guessed that just minutes prior to this picture she was screaming bloody murder?

Ezra is getting pretty good at coaxing Annika to crawl. All it takes is an empty box of raisins to get her scooting your way! 

Here's another picture of Annika being held by our fearless pilot of the Corolla. Look at that face..Pure determination! 

Once we finally made it to the hotel, the kids were really excited to do something fun. So, we put them in their new swimming suits (so adorable!) and went to the swimming pool for a while. Ezra thought it was fun as long as he could hold on to his mom, and Annika had a blast twirling around and splashing everywhere!

On the second day of our trip, we ventured out to see the various sights and sounds of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We found the downtown area and went to Hollander's bookmaking shop, which was full of paper, leather products, and other materials for making books. Christina was really excited to look around that store. It was not, however, a favorite for the kids. Being pushed around a crowded store where you can't touch anything is apparently not much fun for a little kid.

After the store, we went to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, which is sort of a miniature version of the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. It was a lot of fun for the kids and the parents!

Here is Ezra and Jonathan by the Tornado Machine, which was interactive (you could blow on the tornado and change its shape). Ezra thought this was pretty cool!

The museum had a spot for itty-bitty babies and Annika had the whole place to herself while we were there. She crawled around and grabbed everything, laughing and throwing things. She's really crawling fast since we've been home, going into the bathroom, the bedrooms, trying to grab anything she can. Her personality is really coming out! 
Here's a closeup of this little cutie. She sure looks sweet!

Ezra was really excited to see a water pond at the museum. He hoarded all of the animals into a corner and made them talk to each other about the benefits of being in the water, about being eaten by a shark, etc. 
AND NOW...AS PROMISED...THE MOST JAW-DROPPING, EXOTIC, EXTRAORDINARY, UNBELIEVABLE PICTURE OF ALL. WE REACHED THE ZENITH OF OUR TRIP, THE HIGHEST POINT OF ENTERTAINMENT, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD...

WAIT FOR IT...

WAIT FOR IT.... SCROLL SLOWLY, PEOPLE!

Here it is, Canton Michigan's very own IKEA store. We spent about 3/4 of our trip here. If only they stayed open 24 hours, we wouldn't have rented a hotel at all. We ate our anniversary dinner there, which was pretty romantic. And we got a few things for the kids. 

So this was our trip in a nutshell. It was kind of a long way to go just for an IKEA and a bookmaking shop, so we think next time we'll try somewhere else. We didn't plan to just go to shopping, but there really wasn't much else we could do with two little kids. Although Ann Arbor does have a lot of burned-out hippies, which was a really nice perk.