The Life of Anne & Brian: Midwest Family/Friends Tour

We are settling back into some semblance of normalcy after a whirlwind month in the midwest. We certainly made the most of our airfare from Juneau, that's for sure. Our trek began with a day and overnight layover in Seattle, where we were able to meet up with all three of our cousins in the area: Sarah, Bryce & Sylvie, Eric & Amalia (not pictured, darn it!), and Beth, Kyle & Griffin. Fun times!

Sarah & Sylvie hangin' with Brian and Isaac. Sarah and her husband Bryce had just moved to Seattle for Sarah's internship to wrap up her doctoral degree. Yay for us, we get more family on the west coast!

Isaac and Griffin met for the first time, while in the cozy arms of my cousin Beth and her mom Peggy. Griffin is as sweet as this picture suggests: reaching out to hold Isaac's hand. It was adorable.

Peg enjoyed having TWO babies to swoon over for an evening. :)

From Seattle, we caught a flight to Detroit. Brian accepted his upgrade to first class and we traded seats throughout the flight for me to get some shut-eye with the classy folks up front. That actually worked really well. At some point Isaac was fussing for about 10 minutes while Brian walked him up and down the aisles (I had no idea, of course, snoozing with the upper class), and a woman came up to Brian and told him she thought he was setting a fine example for other men on the plane because of how sweet and patient he was being with his son. Kudos to Daddy Brian!

After landing in Detroit, we rented a car and drove to Croswell, MI and stayed with the Geigers: all of them! Milton, Cheryl, and Roslyn and Milton's sister's family were all visiting at the same time, so John & Dee had quite the full house. Thankfully, they have a big house! Brian spent ages 4-12 in Croswell and the Geigers have always been like a second family to him.

John & Dee

Milt, Cheryl & (active toddler!) Roslyn

We enjoyed some fun porch time with Milt & Cheryl, walks around town, and some swimming pool time at Milton's aunt's house. Isaac rocked the swim diaper and girly infant sun hat for the occasion.

From Croswell, we drove to Royal Oak, MI and had lunch with Brian's grandpa Bob and his Aunt Carol. After a delicious, healthy lunch at a local hippie restaurant, we had a visit at Grandpa Bob's house and Brian showed me where he used to play during holidays throughout his childhood. Then Grandpa (former restaurant owner) sent us on our way with a very nice vintage bottle of red wine. Brian was beyond excited to pop it open as soon as possible.

From Royal Oak, we drove to Kalamazoo, MI and stayed a few days with Grandma Billie: Isaac William's namesake (the William, not the Isaac). At 101, Wilhelmina (aka "Billie") was overjoyed to meet her newest great grandson. Aunt Ellen also drove down from Petoskey, MI, cousins Andy & Kathryn drove over from Lansing to meet Isaac, and other cousins Matt & Christie had literally just moved to Kalamazoo from Chicago. Isaac got to meet a lot of Vander Naalds and Kilpatricks in just a few short days!

Grandma Billie & Isaac William

Cousin Kathryn

Isaac meets his Great Aunt Ellen - and she is pretty great!

Cousin Christie

Cousin Nick (Cousin Owen is here, too, but camera shy….and baby shy :))

Aunt Ellen

From Kalamazoo, we headed toward Indianapolis to meet up for dinner with old friends from Juneau, Matt & Maggie and their daughter Ginger. We got tripped up by a traffic jam and time zone confusion, but made it there eventually. Brian helped pass time in the traffic jam by introducing Isaac to fellow traffic jammers.

After our dinner in Indy, we drove to arrive in Cincinnati late at night. Lew & Val were already asleep, but were thrilled to meet their third grandson the next morning. A couple days later, Uncle Kevin was also able to arrive from D.C. for a visit to meet his nephew!

Grandma Val loves to read books to Isaac :)

Grandpa Lew loves to sing and play with Isaac

Smitten grandparents :)

Sweet Uncle Kevin :)

Grandma and Grandpa Vander Naald were more than happy to babysit, so Brian and I got to enjoy a date night. We went to Over the Rhine and enjoyed some beer and pizza…and ironically, a downpour similar to Juneau standards!

From Cincinnati, we drove to Piqua to visit Grandma Genevieve and then up to London to hang with some Yosts! Isaac was held by many loving arms here, including being passed around a surprise anniversary party for Mom and Dad, full of 50 people! He seemed to enjoy the crowd.

Grandma Genevieve was more than happy to hold little Isaac, and she couldn't stop staring at him during our visit.

Uncle Ben

Aunt Becky

Uncle Tom

Aunt Laura

From the farm, we drove to Cleveland to visit with Tedd & Laura and the boys I used to babysit in college. Now those boys are 17 and 20 years old, oh my! They and all their friends were excited to meet Isaac.

Laura & Isaac: love at first sight, for both!

Rachel!

Grace!

Frannie!

Laura, Isaac and I treated ourselves to pedicures one day!

The pedicure ladies loved Isaac :)

Isaac was less than impressed with Lake Erie, but loved the white noise it provided for his afternoon nap :)

Thankfully, Isaac seems to enjoy his car seat. It's a good thing, because he spent a lot of time in it while we drove all over the place!

Cute, tired boy :)

Laura and I also went to the Westside Market to pick up some veggies and tasty treats. Love this place! This was a stop along the way to the Cleveland Botanical Garden, where Rachel (pictured above) gave us a free tour. Such a cool place! (and wish I'd taken more pictures…alas, new mama life)

While in Cleveland, I got to meet up with a few old friends/vball teammates that are still in the area.

Erin has a little girl on the way very soon!

Lori just got a promotion and is moving to D.C.!

This is Isaac and I at brunch with Ryan (not pictured), sadly WITHOUT his wife Alison and baby Lizzie who were out of commission thanks to stupid Foot & Mouth :( In order to keep everyone healthy, we Facetimed with Al and Lizzie instead and Ryan and I got to enjoy a visit.

After my two weeks were up in Cleveland (they FLEW by, thanks to the awesomeness of the VanRoosDale clan and Cleveland itself), Laura and I flew back to Juneau together. This was her first visit to Alaska and we really, really, really hope it's not her last! :)