Graduation Celebration

This past weekend I had the pleasure of road tripping with my mom and the kids. The guys all left to go fishing on one of their annual trips so my mom and I decided it would be fun to head up north to visit my cousin and help her son celebrate his high school graduation.
We had a great time! The kids did awesome and they are really becoming such good travelers. I had to laugh to myself when we were pulling out of the drive way and one of the kids piped up from the back "hey mom, what time is our flight"! This was funny to me because it shows what little travelers we have and the preferred method of travel. They were disappointed to know that we were DRIVING not flying. A few things I learned very quickly on this trip....Grandmas plus gas stations plus grand kids are not a good mix!!! Grandma would take the kids in for a treat and I am surprised there was anything left at the station by the time we pulled out! The kids LOVED it. Grandma Mary was sure having fun too. However, buying the kids "Bug Juice" at the start of the trip was not a great idea because it resulted in 5 bathrooms stops in 3.5 hours! Oh well, live and learn.
It was a lot of fun to see my cousin and help them celebrate her oldest High School Graduation. There were a lot of people at the open house on Saturday and every time a new boy showed up, K was best friends with them within 5 minutes. Then when his new "friend" would leave, he would have to walk them out and ask if they were planning to come back. This happened at least 3-4 times in about 4 hours. I think I have a social butterfly on my hands. The biggest hit of the trip was the bug catcher that my cousin Colleen bought for the kids. They loved going around the yard collecting bugs. K has been at bug catching now for 2 days straight. Watch out bug world here comes K. A tried to get into bug catching but that was short lived as she would run and cry every time a bug got close to her.
We met everyone for breakfast the day after the graduation on our way out of town. At breakfast we got talking about the history of the city and my cousin said it would be fun to drive up to the Mining tourist spot after breakfast. I am so glad she suggested it because for one I had no idea of the history in that town and for two the kids LOVED it. They had huge trucks, wheels, and scoops the kids could climb on and I could not believe my eyes at how wide and deep the land was. They call it the Grand Canyon of the north. It was beautiful and amazing. We were at the Hull Rust Mahoning Mine. There is so much history there and I was so clueless. I guess I need to brush up on my history.
They had a mining truck there you could climb on and it was as big as a house. I guess this truck is now considered a "baby" truck compared to what they are using now. It was HUGE. It was pretty amazing to see what the iron range was all about. We snapped this picture in case anyone was interested in reading about the Iron Range and the mining. The kids had fun running around and getting some energy out before we had to load them back up in the van and head out. It was a fun weekend and the sun was out for us the whole time. the guys all returned shortly after we did and it is always a relief when you get back home safe and sound and we finished our weekend over at Grandma Mary's house with some hamburgers, cocktails, and trip talk! Summer is finally here and we could not be happier!