I'm not dead, and a high five to the mitten state

K and I on the beach :)

I'm back kiddies! I swear I'm not dead. I just took a little roadtrip vacay to the mitten to visit my dad.

My dad lives on the west side of the mitten state, in the coolest place on the planet: Silver Lake. So we decided to travel through Canada and across the mitten to get there.

We thought going through Justin Bieber's home country would make the trip shorter. We were wrong. Fourteen hours and two frustrating stops at the border later, we were in the mitten. Canada, do we LOOK like we're trying to smuggle drugs in our cooler? Pipe it down.

Niagara Falls -- gorgeous!

We stopped in Niagara Falls for a night to break up the trip, which helped. (And was beautiful!) But I forgot how frustrating it is to travel through a foreign country, even if it is Canada. Our credit cards wouldn't work at the gas pumps, and trying to convert miles to kilometers to figure out the speed limit was a challenge. (Come on, you know I'm bad at math!)

We finally arrived in the mitten state, and the week was wonderful. It was great to spend some quality time with my dad and stepmom, and my stepsister and her son even stopped by for the weekend. It was so awesome.

K and TJ, playing in the water :)

K and TJ especially seemed to hit it off, and he has since become known as "the guy with the beard."

We spent most of the rainy week just talking and catching up, and then we made it to the beach for the last day, which was awesome!

I forgot how much it centers you to be around family. I think I needed this trip more than I realized.

We finally had to say our goodbyes and make the long journey back home. The trip back took us about 16 hours, and we were exhausted when we got home. But it was SO worth it.