Ma Famille

We are in Ohio and while it is VERY cold outside, it is nice and warm inside with friends and family.

The drive on Friday was the longest so far - 7 hours - and we saw some definitely Midwestern sights along the way. The rolling hills and rivers out the window were so pretty:

And I'm sure you're curious, so here is a picture of the latest interior sticker decorating. The snail's name is Pierre Escargot.

Not to subject you to a picture overload but here are a few more things we saw and couldn't resist - the Amish in action, Live bait (I think Matt was wondering why he left his rod in RI), and a gas station sign advertising 'Pop'. You know you're not in the East when soda is pop :)

After all that driving Matt and I arrived in Madison at my Uncle Sarge and Aunt Sue's where we had a great big family dinner. I got to see a lot of cousins I hadn't visited with in years and their kids - some for the first time. It was my Aunt and Uncle's 46th wedding anniversary so it was very kind of them to put this all together for us and let us spend the night. They put out a lovely spread of food with both fried chicken and buffalo wings so Matt was thrilled - he is a man who loves his chicken.

Sadly we only had time to be there for one night, but I'm hoping we can visit again and see some of the cute things we missed like local wineries and Geneva-on-the-Lake which I haven't been to since I was little. Look it up - they had all these amazing old arcade games and boardwalk shops and eateries.  I still have photos of Mom, Emily and I from one of the old picture booths where you pulled the curtain and they took 3 in a row and you all made funny faces.

Once we left Madison we headed for Willoughby Hills to see my Mother's best friend Ellen and her husband, Dave for lunch. Luckily their daughters were around as well because I hadn't seen them for a while either.

Then we drove the last bit of the way to my cousin Michelle's in Toledo where we were to stay until Monday morning.

It's monday morning now and we have to get up and packed and ready for our drive today (West Virginia, here we come) so I will write about our Toledo stay and all the other family we saw there later on tonight. Get excited - there are cute kids, an awesome tree house, sushi and more :)