A trip to Michigan

Almost 2 weeks ago, my Grandpa (dad's dad) passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. While it is so sad that he is gone, we know that he is in Heaven and no longer in any pain.

My dad left for Michigan the next day and my mom, brothers, the boys and I followed a couple days later. The boys did just wonderfully on the plane! I was so relieved. They also did really great on Sunday at the funeral home during the visitation. We were there a really long time and they were just golden boys. Isaac took a couple naps and was content to just crawl around and Jacob played so nicely in the corner with all his toys.

The funeral was on Monday and I thought it was a very nice service and a great tribute to my Grandpa. The boys were well-behaved during the service too which was a huge relief to me since we were sitting right up front. :)

Jacob didn't really want us to take his picture in his nice clothes


It was hard to get a picture of Isaac dressed in his nice clothes too because he was just so busy working on his standing up skills. He really improved during our trip. He can now just pop right up next to the couch. Here he is walking along the couch trying to get a pack of Kleenex.


Isaac found my mom's shower cap so we put it on him. I thought he might be bothered by it and try to get it off right away, but he just crawled around with it on. Too hilarious!


My mom and brother Jeff took Jacob out to play some soccer. Jacob is pretty good at kicking the ball. I guess you can't tell that by this picture since it appears that he is running away from the ball. Take my word for it, though. He is pretty good for a 2 year old.


Look at the beautiful colorful trees in the background. We hadn't seen fall color like that in years and were just amazed at how pretty it is! You kinda forget. Some of the trees in CA turn colors, but it just isn't as brilliant.


My other Grandma had us all over for a yummy lunch on Tuesday. At first Jacob didn't want to come to the table to eat because he was so interested in playing with all of Great-Oma's cool toys. His favorites were the matchbox cars. He would line them all up, move them to a new place and line them up there, then move them again.


He did finally decide he was hungry and he ate a lot. Grandma is a good cook!

Isaac playing with Great-Oma Schepers


Me and my boys. Again, Jacob was not into having his picture taken. Notice a pattern here?


Here we all are: My two grandmas, my brothers, Jacob, Isaac and me


That night we went to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. Jacob had fun playing with MORE toys and I was afraid he would refuse to eat again, especially since he had a late lunch. Nope. He heard that we were having enchiladas and he was waiting at the table. He ate a ton of those too!

Jacob playing with Great-Oma.


While we were there, we taught him to call my grandmas 'Great-Oma', but he pronounces it 'Great-Homa'. We heard a lot about Great-Homa. We also heard a lot about Uncle Mike, but that's because everyone was Uncle Mike - my brother Jeff, my uncles. My brothers do look a lot alike, but Jacob totally knows that my brother Jeff is Uncle Jeff. We can tell him to take something to Uncle Jeff and he trots right over to him. He just doesn't like to call him Uncle Jeff and prefers to call him Uncle Mike.

Isaac and his Great-Oma Boersen - I love this picture!



The trip home wasn't quite as smooth as the trip out, but it still went really well. Jacob had a little moment on our first leg, not wanting to sit in his car seat on the plane, but giving him my water bottle fixed that pretty quickly. During descent on the second leg, things got a bit rocky and Jacob threw up a little. Fortunately it was the end of that leg and I had packed a change of clothes in my carry-on. When we arrived in Ontario we waited and waited at the baggage conveyor belt, getting more and more nervous when we didn't see any of our bags. Sure enough, all of our baggage was delayed. Guess it didn't make it on the plane in Chicago. Boo! It was delivered during the night, so it wasn't all that horrible. If that was the worst part of our travels, I'd say we fared pretty well.

Traveling with kids is no small feat, but I am really glad I decided to make the trip out for the funeral. I know it meant a lot to my Grandma that we came and it helped ease her pain a bit having those silly great-grandsons there.

I wish my Grandpa could have gotten to know his great-grandsons. I know he would have really enjoyed them.

This is a picture of Jacob with my Grandpa taken when we went out to visit a couple years ago.