A Few Days Back in Michigan

We’d been wanting to plan a dinner with the family while Nicolas was in town, and my Mom had a little project she wanted help with, so as soon as Bryce had an afternoon scheduled off, we all headed over to my Mom’s house.

We had picked up the supplies we needed to seal the cracks in her driveway and reseal it, so the three of them got started on filling the cracks that afternoon, before we went to meet everybody for dinner at Inkys – a family favorite.

We had a big group for dinner – 20 of us – and it was delicious, as usual.  Jaxon was excited to see a couple of his favorite people!

I had made an ice cream cake for Nicolas’ birthday, and everybody came back to my Mom’s for dessert.  Nick was glad to see everybody, especially since he doesn’t know how many opportunities he’ll get to come back to Michigan once he reports in Norfolk.

The next morning, the guys sealed the driveway,

while Grandma and Casey supervised!

Bryce had to work that afternoon, so after a couple hours he headed back to Sandusky by himself.  The rest of us were staying for another night.

Tom and Nick put the finishing touches on the driveway.

It looked pretty good when they were done!

After getting cleaned up and having some lunch, we headed up to the Milan Dragstrip for an evening of drag racing.

Tom’s brother, Dave, and our niece, Kathleen, joined us there, and we all enjoyed watching the races.  After a couple hours sitting on metal bleachers, Tom and I needed to stretch our legs, so we took a walk over to the “Pit” side of the track.  Walking around, we ran into our friend, Ed, from work.

He was there helping some friends of his who had a couple of cars in the action.  While we were talking, it was time for them to go to the starting line for their next run.  Tom and I hopped onto the back of the gold cart and rode up to the starting line with them.

This was my first time towing a race car!

We watched from behind the starting line while they waited for their turn.

It was quite a few from back there!

Lots of smoke as the cars do the customary burn-out!

It had been a beautiful evening, but it looked like storm clouds were brewing! 

Tom and I went back to the spectator side to get something to eat with Nick, Dave and Kathleen, and then back up to the bleachers to watch the elimination rounds.  They didn’t get too far into them, though, before we suddenly found ourselves in a downpour!

We gathered under the bleachers in an attempt to stay dry while waiting out the rain,

but it didn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, and we doubted if they’d get the track dried off to be able to continue the races.  We decided to make a run for the cars, and got completely drenched!  Just a few miles south at my Mom’s house, though . . . completely dry!  She was shocked to see us walk into the house looking like drowned rats!

On Saturday, we headed back to Sandusky for Nicolas’ last week of his leave.  It’s been cozy in the motorhome with 4 adults and a dog,

but I’ve loved having the boys both here with us!  Bryce had a couple more evenings off, and we managed to have dinner together a couple more times!

The signs of his impending departure were around me though, as I sewed his new patches on his uniforms and he got his sea bag packed up.

I’m going to be so sad when he leaves!  At least I’ve got Bryce here for a little longer!