An Unexpected Journey
This is a SUPER picture-loaded post, my friends. Apologies for that in advance! It’s been a very emotional, intense week for us which is why I haven’t posted in so long. An unexpected death in our family took my mom and I north to Republic, MI. That’s in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan (basically Canada, y’all). I’m not going to go into the details of the emotional piece of the week – I’m a pretty open book, but this chapter is going to stay closed.
I will however share some of the more beautiful parts of our visit.
Before we left, I got to spend a little time reflecting with my two favorite guys. We had to watch Corey’s favorite, the Astros, of course. I love that he can just sit and watch the game like his Daddy. It’s adorable. Also a little scary – does this mean he’ll be sports obsessed, too?
We found out about my aunt’s death the same day as the Charlottesville incident. It was a very heavy day for us. I’m so deflated by the events that took place in OUR country in 2017. I thought we tried the racism + Nazi thing – it didn’t work out well for anyone. Why are we still doing this? I don’t have any answer other than to live by the following quote:
After we landed, we had to drive for quite a while. By the time we got close to our family’s home, we were starving. We ended up eating at Silver Lake Resort where my mom actually worked in high school. I loved getting to experience her past with her. It’d been over ten years since I’d been back up north. [The food was yummy, too!]
We stayed at the home my grandpa grew up in with my great aunt. It was pretty cool to get to sleep in the house where so many of my relatives lived. The house was originally moved here from the mine (a few miles away) in 1900. It’s been here and home to my family ever since.
Republic has a few “beaches” on the lake + river that brought back some great memories from when I was a kiddo visiting. I can’t explain how beautiful and tranquil it is up there. Hopefully the pictures do some justice.
We saw deer every day while we were there!
My great aunt had a ton of bird feeders around the house, so we got to watch the birds come and eat while we had our coffee and shared stories from the past. No better way to start the day.
These trees have been here for hundreds of years. My great aunt said she actually had to have two trees removed last year because the wind got so bad it blew them down. Must’ve been pretty bad wind because these bad boys are pretty dang sturdy.
This is the farm my grandpa + grandma owned (where my mom grew up). It’s just down the road from my great aunt’s house (where my grandpa grew up). It’s not in a as good of shape as it used to be unfortunately. There used to be a working well, the fence wasn’t broken, and there definitely weren’t so many cars out front. Seems like a pretty shady place these days if you ask me. Breaks my heart, too, because the inside was so beautiful as only older homes can be.
The flight home was pretty awful. It’s a five hour drive from my family’s home to the airport. We got there with a couple of hours to spare [just in case the traffic gods were against us]. We ended up boarding, sitting on the plane two hours because of maintenance, then deplaning, then boarding again, waiting another hour, and FINALLY taking off. I missed my connection to Houston, so I stayed the night with my mama in Dallas.
The good thing about the whole ordeal is that I can say THESE SHOES are so comfortable – even when you feel like you’re about to rage – because I wore them ALL DAY LONG. 7am – past midnight. My feet could’ve kept going. My patience, not so much.
Blondo Riyan Waterproof Sneaker
After all the emotion + travel, I couldn’t WAIT to get home to see these chubby thighs and their Daddy.
Heavy sigh. That smile.
An Unexpected Journey