Another busy weekend. After going to Fort Wayne all day Thursday, Mom and Dad and Beth and the kids and I all piled in the van and drove up to Michigan on Friday. We had Mom and Dad's new GPS navigator with us, which they named "Tess," after the girl of the Limberlost, because she'll help you to not get lost, get it? Get it? It's a pretty cool thing but it told us to take a "shortcut" off the interstate through some small towns in Michigan, which we vowed not to do on the way home. Missy, of course, had to go potty bad bad right as we were driving through a very unpleasant part of Detroit, so we stopped quick at a convenience store, which inconveniently turned out not to have a bathroom, and they sent us next door to a garage with the dirtiest bathroom I've seen in a while. No sink, no soap, no towels, no nothing. Anyway, we got moving again as fast as we could and made our way to one of the Grosse Pointes where Thomas' parents live...nice neighborhood. Ben took the kids out to a park while the adults visited, and for the rest of the evening they just hung around him. The kids love Ben. Laura and Thomas' party was at his aunt's house somewhere on a lake up by Pontiac or Auburn Hills...even nicer neighborhood. It's where the super-rich have summer houses. Very, very nice. Beautiful house. The lake was a bit cold for swimming, but the kids don't care about that sort of thing. We did a little boating too to tour the lake...all very impressive...and a nice cookout including some very raw chicken that Laura had spent a lot of time preparing and Thomas had spent too little time grilling, ha ha. He did finish cooking it. There were lots of kids to play with so our kids were good, until I accidentally got bug spray in Alex's eyes...doh...We stayed until quite late so we could see the fireworks Saturday the 4th, which were as impressive a privately-funded display as I have ever seen. We got back late to Thomas' parents house, and since we beat them home we had to have Missy pee in the backyard because she had to go bad bad. We hit the road again just after breakfast today so we could have a bit of readjusting time at home for the kids. And we didn't use Tess most of the way home, which disappointed Alex and Missy.