We ended up Leaving a day early on June 9th, b/c I was able to get everything done I needed to after finishing up my first year of teaching. Yep I made it through my First FULL year of Teaching, and NO I have not heard ANYTHING about next year :( Anyway we left early and traveled to my Grandparents in Ohio which took about 3-4 hrs off the drive the next day.
As soon as we left the house Aliya started waving at all the cars saying Bye-Bye, I told her it would be a long trip if she did that to all the cars!! hehe
Wednesday, June 10, we were going to have about a 12-14 hour trip to Appleton, Wisconsin, but b/c of the leaving early it was only about 8 maybe 9 hours. We were able to get in early enough to be able to see Grandma Bev, she was the Prayer Warrior from Grand Rapids, Minnesota when we lived there, she know lives closer to her Daughter in Wisconsin, So we were able to have dinner with her and her Daughter. She was able to meet Aliya which is very fitting b/c Grandma Bev is Aliya's Spiritual Name-Sake (if you don't know the story email me it's pretty cool) - So We spent about three hours sitting at Perkins talking and catching up. Aliya of course sat there and was content as could be for the whole conversation. 
Thursday, June 11, we left early and traveled through Wisconsin into Northern Minnesota! One thing we reallized was the only time Aliya fussed was when she had to poop b/c she didn't want to do it sitting in her carseat, so we had to pull over let her walk around and then change her and she was good to go! We arrived in Grand Rapids about 6 pm and went straight to the church they were having a work night, so we interrupted for a while, Till Elizabeth (Fultz), her Husband (Jeremy), and Son Tommie showed up and we had dinner with them.Friday, June 12, was the reason for the WHOLE trip - for those that don't know, Fultz, Sophia, and I when we were 17 right before I moved signed a contract, stating that when we were 25, in the summer of 2009 we would get together to reunite, only opt out of it was 9mo pregnancy or death, our contract actually stated that we take a vacation to New Zealand, Australia, NEw Orleans, or the Bahamas - Well now that we are adults and realize what the 'real world' costs, Fultz and I left GR in the morning to travel to the fun and exciting city of DULUTH! We did some shopping and Soph met us there (she lives in the Cities, Minneapolis) We did some shopping then went to check into the Hotel to get ready for our Dinner Cruise. We took a Cruise around Lake Superior, it was AMAZING - the food was really good too! We then went back to hotel, hopped in the Hot Tub, and then went back to the room to talk till 2 or 3 am, it's been a LONG time since we've been able to sit around talking like that it was AWESOME to reconnect!
Saturday, June 13, well we didn't have to check-out from the hotel till noon, and that's when we checked-out, It was nice to sleep in till 10am, especially since 2 of us have children and that is a RARE thing. We then headed into Superior and toured a Mansion that was used as a Children's Home from 1920-1960's, Ate Chinese, did some more Shopping, then went to stay at Fult's parents house like we did back in the day, another night of staying up late. eating pizza, watching, movies, and them trying to set me up....lol.
Sunday, June 14, we went to Solid Rock COG - IT was great to be able to reconnect with people but the best part was that there was a Church Picnic afterwards and that made it nice to be able to sit around and just reconnect and talk to people! We then Headed over to Josh's Grad Party which is Soph's little brother - Now that was WEIRD! 
Monday, June 15, we went over to a friend's Sharalee's house and hung out with her and her kids, besides the fact that my daughter was teething and kept trying to bite the kids it was a nice relaxed day and a great time to catch up. That night I was able to go to their Youth Group service which they have on Monday Nights -I have really missed Mary's teachings, then some of us headed over to Applebee's for some fellowship - ended up being a 2 hr discussion on Organic Food, lol it was interesting! 
Tuesday, June 16, Mom and I took the van and drove ALL around the northern part of Minnesota looking at all the different cabins that we had lived in while we were there, yes we lived in 3 cabins that spanned 1/3 of our time in Grand Rapids. That night Mary made an amazing dinner for us, and of course that meant we were leaving in the morning, it was good but way to short :( 
Wednesday, June 17, Leaving early we drove through Minnesota, following a house for awhile toward Sioux Falls, SD, to have a late lunch with a friend of Moms that was the first place my parents Pastored when they were 20! As a 25 yr old I can't IMAGINE pastoring a church at the age of 20 or 21. Then we went on into Norfolk, Ne were we lived from the time I was 7 till almost 13, on our way there we started hearing about storms, and of course aout 9:30pm, the TOrnado warnings started going off and we couldn't be in NE without having a tornado warning so Aliya had her first TOrnado! 
THursday, June 18, Mom and I drove around Norfolk, looked at what had changed, ate at SONIC, and just went down memory lane. That Night, Carla Schaffer, had contatcted a few of the people that use to go to our church and we had a BBQ, once again it was good to be able to sit around and just Catch up. 
Friday, June 19, Now remember Aliya has been a PERFECT little ANGEL the WHOLE time, except she had been teething a little bit, we left early in the morning toward Omaha to have lunch with our old Associate Pastors, about 15 minutes down the road, Aliya starts puking chunks ALL over her carseat and herself! White, curddled milk, chuncks, we pulled over to the side of the road, looked at it and had no idea where to start, mom handed Aliya to me to clean up while she tried cleaning up the car seat, we did our best but WOW did it smell. Got to Chilli's to eat, and I look down at Aliya's highchair, and there is a puddle under it, soon to realize that she has peed all threw her diaper, highchair cover, and enough to make a puddle :( So this is change of clothes #2, we get on the road about 6 hrs trying to get to St. Louis to my Aunt's House, and all of a sudden, my mom realizes that my daughter has pooped and it's inbetween her legs, and everywhere. So we pull over and once again, I'm cleaning up Aliya and mom's cleaning up the carseat! So that was clothes #3, I told mom unless it's going to start coming out her bellybutton I'm pretty sure we've got every cavity covered! But we finally made it! 
Saturday, June 20, we got up and went to my 2nd Cousins little baseball game it was 8:30 in the morning and felt like 100 degrees- Remind me to NEVER move to St. Louis! IT's too HOT! My aunt and cousin were then have a debate about which donuts were better a local place or Krispy Kreme, so of course we had to find out ;) - Mom and her sister then went and hung out without any children or grand children, Aliya and I went swimming with all my other cousins kids it was a lot of fun but like I said HOT - Then me and my two cousins were able to go out after all the kids were in bed and See the movie "The Proposal" which was really cute. 
Sunday, June 21, was of course Father's Day but since we had celebrated before we left it was kind weird. WE went to church with My Aunt and COusnins and since there church has 4 services we went to early service which ran from 8:45 - 9:45 and we were home by 10, which it's really weird to be home from church by 10am! We had a cook-out, then we went to do some Shopping! Came back watched some movies, and got ready to pack.MOnday, June 22, we started driving back to Ohio to Grandmothers - uneventful
Tuesday, June 23, WE RETURNED HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3400 miles and it was an amazing trip!
And at one point she layed down and rolled over and decided that she had had enough!
