Michigan Trip, Part 1

We made it! I flew with both girls by myself from Denver to Michigan late last week and SURVIVED! Two planes, a few My Little Pony DVD's and a lot of suckers later we made it safe and sound! Violet and Willa were really great and did wonderfully on the trip. Here they are on the plane:
And our favorite reason to visit - COUSINS!!!We also got to meet the newest member of the family - this is Willa with my mom's new airedale puppy "Klu"
Willa was SOOOO tired and off her regular schedule (thanks to the time change!). She fell asleep on her Aunt Leah's lap at dinner.
Violet and Claire have SO much fun! Here they are being silly at lunch.
We went to a special "Dora the Explorer" storytime at a local library. My sister and I sat with approximately 19,300 other moms and their kids anxiously awaiting the arrival of DORA! I think we all had thought it would be an actual character with the HUGE plastic head. Apparently the only criteria for being Dora is having black hair cut in a Dora-like way. The lady who walked in was approximately 42 years old, wearing a cropped orange shirt, jean shorts and a purple backpack. It was actually pretty hilarious! Despite that, the girls did have fun making some crafts together (Violet's FAVORITE THING!). Here they made telescopes out of paper towel rolls.
Here they are making various kinds of sand-cookies in the sand box.Miss Willa's very sweet profile
Me and my lady!

Willa (and her ginormous thighs) with Claire and her Uncle Joel

There is something so very strange about watching your kids play with all the toys YOU spent hours and hours playing with as a kid. Here is Violet dressing the Barbie & The Rockers Ken doll (remember the Rockers??), while Willa plays with a doll bed that apparently started WWIII - my sister got it for Christmas one year when I was little, and when I climbed in to lay down she threw the world's hugest fit!

I took this before we left for our trip - Violet is really into walking Porter, and bless his canine heart, he goes right along with it. Despite barking neighborhood dogs and a very indecisive Violet (she wants to RUN one second and the next is squatting down examining a bug for a VERY long time). He's such a good boy!