Troy, MI

A couple months ago we went to Troy, MI for a little getaway. It was perfect. Obviously, it wasn’t too far from us, but just far enough away that it felt refreshing. We decided to go again. This Winter has been tough. Our driveway is a solid sheet of ice. Every time we walk out to the vehicles, someone falls. It makes us feel cooped up inside, leaving only when necessary.

Friday, Joah packed his schoolbooks and went to work with Brandon. Brandon worked while Joah did his school. When they were both done working, they worked on a project together in the shop. They built floating shelves. This might sound wonderful, but they made them to place wild hog skulls on(amazon’s were super expensive so Brandon decided to make his own). They hunted the hogs last year in Oklahoma City. The taxidermist just got done with the skulls. Oh joy! It will be very nice in a couple years when we build our house and I don’t need to live among the dead(animals that is) anymore. I have been relaxed about the cabin, but I am putting my foot down in our home…..absolutely no heads allowed!

Like we usually operate, totally last minute(Friday morning) we decided to go to Troy again. I picked the boys up from the shop and we headed out. We decided to leave Isla behind with a friend. I realize she’s a part of the family. I know I probably get some judgements about leaving the baby’s behind(I used to do the same with Caed. We were never outnumbered until the third child). I always miss them like crazy. I also always enjoy the time with the older kids more when the baby is left. Babies are so needy and demanding of all my time. When I can just focus on the older kids, we all have so much better of a time. They are the ones that remember these outings. I am more relaxed and have a lot more fun. Those are the main reasons for leaving the little bug. Although we can’t wait to see her and miss her like crazy!

We went to the Sommerset Mall. I mentioned in the last blog how obsessed Caed has been with the Mall of America. He asks every day if we can go. We told him we can’t go to the Mall of America, but we can go to the mall of Troy. He was thrilled.

Brandon had them pose like the statues.

What sparked the idea to go the Mall was us hearing about Janie and Jack going out of business. I was so bummed. Both Gymboree and Janie and Jack are now closing the doors. I always get the kids coordinating outfits for pictures or holidays at those stores. We got one final Easter outfit for the kids.

We walked over the skywalk, because we wanted to eat at PF Chang’s. We were going to eat at J.Alexanders, but they had a 1.5 Hour wait. No thank you. We wanted to take our kids to eat there, because that’s the restaraunt Brandon took me to on our engagement night. The problem was we were all way too hungry to wait around and be sentimental. The kids were just as excited about PF Chang’s. We took them to one in Sacramento, and that was one of the highlights of our trip. It was very memorable, because we saw a HUGE rat on the walk back to our car after our dinner in Sacramento.

We didn’t shop in any of the higher end stores, but we did check out the fountain.

Then we ate dinner. There was only a twenty minute wait here. Joah said “now that is manageable.”

My wake up call this morning was Brielle rolling over on top of me and whispering very loudly “it’s time for hotel breakfast, mom!” Hotel breakfasts are her very favorite.