And We're Off...Again!

We will be away for the next two weeks, doing the same trip we do every year in August. This will be Sasha's first vacation with us (not counting the few days we spent in Dubai on the way home from Ethiopia.) We'll be driving to a cottage we're renting on Lake Erie in Ontario with some family friends- my mom, growing up, used to own a house in the same area that she went to during the summer, so this is a nice tradition for us. On the way back, we'll stop in Michigan for three days to visit my grandparents and uncle who live there so we can show off our newest addition :-). This will be our first time introducing Sasha to extended family! (Unfortunately, all of ours either live several states away or in a different country.)

Driving to Canada means 12 hours in the car, so I have to give my family credit for taking on this risky- and possibly dangerous- journey! In the past, we've had no problems- we have a DVD player in the car, I have my iPod, and the boys have comic books, so the trip has been relatively smooth. Of course, it will be totally different with an 18-month-old. Having said that, she was an angel on the way home from Dubai, so maybe it won't be as horrendously horrible as one can imagine driving for that long with a young toddler. Having said that, she has been noticeably antsier (is that a word?) since coming home, since she's realized there's so much to do when not sitting still and so many people to give her the attention she greatly takes advantage of. So, this is an experiment. Wish us luck.

Luckily, we will be breaking up the driving into two days, to mitigate a little of the potential problems that might come in this situation. We'll leave early tomorrow morning (my mom said 9, which of course will mean 10 or 11...we've had problems getting out of the house on time even before Sasha joined us) and driving six hours to Batavia, New York, to stay overnight before driving the rest of the way the next day.

I'm really looking forward to this. This is the fifth consecutive year we're doing this, but it will be totally different with an 18-month-old baby sister in tow- and not just having her will change things. In Michigan, we're going to go to an Ethiopian restaurant, which we wouldn't have gone out of our way to find had we not become so strongly linked to that African country.

I highly doubt I'll be able to post until we get back- unless my dad lends me his coveted work laptop, which I'm not counting on- so I'm leaving you this picture for you to enjoy for the next two weeks (above.) Friends of ours sent Sasha a "welcome home" gift, which included this cute vest. Sasha, being Sasha, put it on and refused to let anyone take it off her for the rest of the day.