Ann Arbor and other recent photos

First a few photos from the last weeks (or month, who knows)...

she sat like this for at least 20 min

the water room at the Children's museum (this convinced me I need to get her a rain jacket because they're adorable!)

Saturday shopping on Michigan Ave. 

 Brooke and our mama stopped for a short visit

 she LOVES her private pool

Tuesday morning farmer's market

cuddles

this is all she wants to do at the park anymore

devouring tomatoes as we stroll through the farmer's market

And now for a little Ann Arbor...

Kristin and Brody have been living there for a year now and we finally made the trip (about a 4 hour drive from Chicago).

We learned a few things along the way: 

Michigan is gorgeous. 

Road tripping gets easier with age. Clara did pretty great. Only freaked out in her car seat once or twice the whole way! 

Don't stop in Gary, IN. Just keep driving no matter how bad you've gotta go. Makes our sketchy neighborhood feel safe. 

On campus at the University of Michigan

 Zingerman's Deli

Cider Mill for donuts

On our drive back we stopped to pick apples at a small farm in Michigan 

 she made this face every time she tried to pick up the heavy bag

DC, Richmond, Raleigh, and Holden Beach

all crammed in to one post. because I don't have the time/energy to do it differently. this'll be a lot of pictures. I'll try to add some captions with a few highlights of the trip. here we go...

our only full day in VA we returned to DC for Eastern Market Crab Cakes

and checked out the Native American Museum

we're road trip wimps (post-Clara) so we split the six hour drive up into segments

we stopped in Richmond for lunch and caught up with friends (plus a few who aren't pictured)

and spent the night in Raleigh so we could visit Tim and Chelsey and Mason

(sad we only got this one blurry iphone pic- oh, well)

then we drove some more (Clara was sickish and slept beautifully in the car)

Holden Beach, at last

day 1 Clara was timid in the water and wouldn't take her shoes off in the sand

but by the end of the week she had ditched her sandals and was running off into the waves

we spent an evening in Southport (adorable town where they filmed Safe Haven and A Walk to Remember)

she's a fish girl, but her favorite part of dinner was the tarter sauce (she proceeded to lick the cup clean)

 Oh, my sister Katelyn and Dan got engaged at the beginning of the week!

loves fishies