Day 5 - Tuesday 23rd September

I decided to stay home with Kingston and relax a little, it had been a very busy few days.  But Craig took Hunter and Mackenzie, along with Chris, Addison and Jack to visit Grandma Hondorp in Grand Rapids.  They were gone all day and had a really nice visit with her. 

 Addison and Mackenzie.  

The kids trying to sneak up on chipmunks!   

Day 4 - Part 2

Our day didn't end there.  We met up with Chris, Addison and Jack, and went to Ann Arbor.

We took the kids to the Hands on Museum.  Hunter told me it was the most fun museum had had ever been too, and it was pretty cool!  

Kingston and Addison played with the trains.  

Hunter and Mackenzie LOVED the water play.

Craig and Addison did too. 

 Even Kingston had a turn.

Afterwards we arrived back to the house just as the kids were getting home from school.  It was so nice when they were home, we hardly saw Hunter and Mackenzie, they were always playing with Victoria.

Day 4 - Monday 22nd September

Once again we all slept late.  I think it was 11am when Hunter finally appeared downstairs.

Vanessa had gone to work and the kids had gone to school, but John and Chris both had the day off.  

We decided it might be fun to take the kids to a Cider Mill, we don't have anything like that here in New Zealand.   

So off we went!  There was a little farm where the kids could see some animals, which they liked. 

Everything was decorated for Fall/Halloween.  I love that time of year in Michigan!  

We went inside and watched how they make the donuts, then we sat and drank some cider and had a donut each.  They were GOOD!  

Afterwards we took some pictures outside.

Day 3 - Sunday September 21st

We were shocked to wake up the next morning at almost 10am, and Hunter and Mackenzie were still sleeping.  I ended up waking Hunter, he had slept about 17 hours!!! Poor guy, I guess all that travel wore him out.  We were treated to another stellar breakfast from John, and then we were off to Craig's sister Lisa's house for a party.  It was great to catch up with friends and family.  The kids got to meet Grandpa Jim and Grandma Carolyn for the first time. 

We ate, drank and took lots of pictures of everyone, it was nice to be able to see the whole family together. It was really nice to catch up with old friends, and be able to show off our family.

The Theme for the party was "A Cousins Birthday Party", so each cousin received a present from an Aunt or Uncle and there was even a birthday cake to share.

It was late when we finally headed home, the kids were tired after a busy day, and in the car Mackenzie asked John if they eat dinner in America?  I guess the first night she'd slept through it, and we didn't really eat after the party since we'd been eating all day.  It was really cute!  So he asked her if the next night, she would teach him how to have dinner.  Mackenzie thought that was a great idea.

The missing stroller....

So Craig heads off to find some help tracking down the stroller, apparently it hadn't been brought up from under the plane yet, so the helpful man, let's call him Orlando, tells us to go on home and he'll have it delivered to us when it gets brought up.  Sounds great, so off we go.  

We drove back to John's house, and the kids got to meet their Aunt Vanessa, and finally their cousins, John William and Victoria.  John even treated us to one of his specialty breakfasts.  It was pretty tasty!

Kingston had started getting a little wheezy when we got on the plane to Detroit and by this stage he was getting pretty bad, luckily for us, John is a paramedic, AND he had a nebulizer at the house, so we were able to give Kingston some treatments and get him breathing easy again, without an expensive trip to the Doctor.

Now I haven't forgotten about the stroller, as promised it was delivered to the house a few hours later.  But my relief soon turned to horror, when I realised they had smashed it, and one of the handles was completely gone.  Not my Maclaren :(

A little later that morning we headed out to watch John William play soccer.  Gramma Joan met us there, and the kids were excited to see her.  We also finally got to meet Chris and Debbie's little ones, Addison and Jackson.  They are just too cute!

The kids were still going strong, they were so happy to be with their cousins.  But by about 5pm they finally hit a wall, Hunter was falling asleep on the swingset and Mackenzie was curled up on the couch and I was ready for bed myself.  We all slept very well that night.

Where do we begin???

Soooooo. We flew out of Auckland on Friday September 19th.  Craig had only gotten in the night before, and we were all so excited to have him home.  We flew Qantas, the flight ended up being delayed an hour, which turned out to be a good thing, since they made the time up in the air, so instead of a 12 hour flight, it was only 11. Woohoo!  The kids travelled well.  They watched some movies, ate some dinner and slept.  Kingston was a little restless, not having his own seat meant either Craig or I had to hold him, and he likes to lay flat to sleep, but we made it!  Getting through the airport in LA was a breeze, the staff were friendly and helpful, and we were outside waiting for our shuttle in no time.  Since we were arriving in at 11am and our flight out to Detroit wasn't until 10pm, I had found a hotel offering day rates, where you get the room from 8am-8pm, which was perfect for us, really we just wanted to shower, sleep and eat before heading back to the airport.  Our experience that evening was very different to the morning, I think they might pay better over at International!!  But a little after 10pm we were in the air on our way to Detroit.  This flight was a little tougher, the kids were still tired from the night before, and not at all excited to get on another plane.  But they soldiered on, and 4 hours later we were home!  Craig's brother's Chris and John met us at the baggage claim, it was so good to see them!  Pretty soon we had all our bags, minus a few wheels, and with some new rips and dents. (thanks northwest) But wait, where was Kingston's stroller?

We're baaaaack!

We are back, the trip was amazing.  I'm sorting through my 2000 photos then I'll share pictures and tell all about what we did.  Craig is back in Sydney already, and the kids and I are getting back into our usual routine. They were so happy to get back to school yesterday.  Kingston is sick again, poor baby had a bad night and was getting wheezy so I took him to the doctor this morning, turns out he has both ears infected, as well as his chest and throat!  So he's on antibiotics, steroids and of course the ventolin every 1-2 hours to try to get that wheezing under control.  He's being his usual cute self though.  I'll take him back in 2 days just to make sure he's getting better.  Here's a picture of us meeting the Mouse.  Many many more are to come!