To Michigan and Back!

        

Been traveling...

 

The last week of September we packed up and headed to Michigan to visit Hannah and Christopher for the first time since they were married last September, 2022!

It was a long anticipated visit to see how they were settling into married life, seeing the way Hannah had decorated and set up her new home, visiting our oldest grandson while in the state, and participating in a virtual baby shower for the little boy Hannah and Christopher are expecting in December!

This will be our 8th grandson...who joins our only granddaughter!

It was so fun seeing Hannah work in her own kitchen and enjoy all the special touches she planned for us:

The first day we were there was extra special! We traveled 2-1/2 hours from Hannah and Christopher's home to visit our grandson, and it was wonderful to see him again! He's certainly a tall cool dude!

First activity...treating him to lunch out!

This was our first time at Zingerman's Deli, and it was all very unique, including all the freshly baked bread on display:

Great sandwiches, great fellowship, and a wonderful fall day out!

Our second planned activity was heading to a local park to geocache...a favorite thing to do outside to enjoy the nice weather:

On the hunt...for the first geocache. Success! Grampa spotted this one under the bridge:

Next...2nd geocache involved some rock climbing. Unfortunately, this was a hard one (or destroyed one) and could not be found:

The third and final hunt for the afternoon was a micro-geocache and was found magnetized to the iron posts of this bridge:

Time out for some photos with Grampa and Granny along the route:

We finished up the afternoon by visiting an apple cider mill where we enjoyed apple slushies, apple cider, and apple donuts!

The next day was Hannah's virtual baby shower for mostly our church ladies here in Virginia, hosted by her sister Sarah and Sarah's mother-in-law, Victoria (both long distance in Georgia).

So here's the setup in Hannah's living room. Since no one was attending in person, everyone sent their gifts either via Amazon or the postal service. Before the party started, I was responsible for opening all the boxes which had arrived and putting the gifts into gift bags for ease of Hannah opening during the virtual shower and to look prettier.

The hostesses were great and went beyond expectations with sending us decorations and also sending each family attending a gift card to buy their own snacks for the party. It was like everyone was really attending and eating snacks together!

Hannah planned the menu for the two of us with her gift card...and she prepared the food and set it out as if we had a crowd with us!

Looks like a lot of eats for just two of us! Although Tom and Christopher popped in for the snacks. :)

And here's the setup for the folks on-screen to participate virtually. What a great way to include long distance friends!

Here's Sarah, one of the hostesses, on her end of the computer (sorry blurry), testing out various baby boy party backgrounds to set the stage for the online shower:

I was so glad that I could be with Hannah while she opened gifts....we were a party of two!  Thank you to everyone who attended and sent gifts! And thank you to the marvelous hostesses, Sarah and Victoria!!!!

One evening Hannah and Christopher hosted a campfire cookout for us, and Christopher's family came over to visit. We sat around the campfire til dark, and then everyone went inside for a hymn sing before saying goodnight:

On our last night there, we went down to the pier and saw the sunset at Lake Michigan. This was such a beautiful evening:

And here we are with our loved ones:

Looking forward to their little one making his appearance in a couple of months:

Well, all good things must end. Our long awaited visit had come to a close. Hannah wanted a final photo of us in the early, foggy morning before we drove off:

On our return trip to Virginia, we made plans to stop by and see friends in Indiana from over 25 years ago when we were in church together in Newport News. Thanks Pat and Gail for letting us pop in and say hello. Great visit!

We absolutely loved our visit to Michigan and can hardly wait to travel back again!

~Deb

Comments

[Sarah]

Glad you had a fun visit...wish I could have been there, too! It was fun to at least have a virtual shower even though we couldn't be there in person. :D

[Hannah]

Fun to see the recap of your visit and remember the good times we had! So glad you could come and be in our home. Come again!

[Jill Lancieri]

So fun to see Hannah in her home, which is so cozy. She looks so radiant too. What a beautiful virtual shower and it's so special you could be there with her.

[Tammy C]

How exciting for Hannah and Christopher!

Cute virtual shower. Do want some pimento cheese croissants.

YES You do have a tall grandson and I am sure he is not done growing.

[Sharon Baksa]

What great pictures! So very exciting for Hannah and Christopher, what joyous news! She is glowing…so fun to see her in her house…my how time does indeed fly! Blessings!

[Bobbi]

I have been waiting for this wonderful news! Such a blessing. I'm so glad you got to see them. I'm so happy for all of you.

[Nancy]

I somehow missed this post and just read it now! How exciting- so happy for Hannah and Christopher! Y’all are truly blessed!