Yes, I realize that title is corny and grammatically awkward. Don’t care – my blog, my rules.

Somehow this blog turned into “All the travels we are squeezing in,” and hopefully that will end soon for a riveting series of posts on sleep-training, meal-planning, and things-I-actually-used-from-my-registry (I know, GET EXCITED). But we are squeezing a lot into this last bit of summer, so for the moment, travels it is.

It had been several years since we had gotten to visit James’ family in the summer (since the summer where we drove the PA turnpike 6 times in 2 weeks), and after this visit, I’m pretty sure that summer in the midwest is on our MUST DO list. The weather is cooler, the corn taller, the people friendlier, the garden abundant. We came back relaxed, refreshed, and so so sad that we don’t live closer to the rest of our family. So as I pine for the day when we can somehow live close enough for me to eat my mother-in-law’s cooking regularly and have Henry play with his cousins all the time, here are some pics.

First stop- Cincinnati! Since Henry is our car-hating city baby (“He’ll grow out of it!” they said, “Babies love the car!” they said, “Oh they fall asleep so easily in the car,” they said- LIES LIES LIES), we are always looking for travel ways to avoid long periods of confinement. We used miles to fly to Cincinnati, planning on spending the day with James sister and her family before driving up post-bedtime to his parents. Everything went wrong the morning of our travel (baby diarrhea, early waking, lines that meant we almost missed our flight, lost stroller, rental car mixup..) but we finally rolled into their house about noon.Cousins are the best. The kids can finally play a little bit, and I am now desperate for Henry to get more time with these two.

Our driving after bedtime plan went off (surprisingly!) without a hitch, and we arrived in northern Indiana late Friday night. The next two days were a succession of garden picking, baseball playing, baby chasing, and good food. Henry ate at least 100 green beans. And probably swallowed a total of 2. He just really loves chewing crisp beans. Now, what shamefully did not happen, was enough diversity in pictures to show that my mother-in-law and myself were actually present. We were! The photos basically make it look like a guys’ weekend, and Henry was in heaven with so much attention from his grandpa and uncle. But I promise, we were there too!

Midwest summer, we love you. Mostly because you hold some of our very favorite people!