We made it back home. That’s a total of 1,522 miles which roughly estimates to 236 reaches to the back seat to fetch milk from the cooler or pass out a cheese stick. That’s a lot of reaching.Last year, we tacked Mackinac Island on to our Michigan trip–the first time I had been there since I was a little girl–and I knew I wanted to take the kids back again this year. There are no cars on the island, just horses and bikes. That means no reaching to the back seat to fetch milk from the cooler or pass out a cheese stick.When we’re on Mackinac Island, we walk. We walk and we walk and we walk–down Main Street, past pubs and markets and fudge shops, popping in when lured by window displays for sea salt dark chocolate, glossy Petoskey stones, tiny replicas of lighthouses, framed portraits of Elise McKenna…and tentacle hats. Fudge couldn’t compare with the tentacle hat that won Nella over–my friend Laura ran back in the store to buy it after she left crying without it.…and we smiled the rest of the day for how happy it made her. She flipped her head back and forth many times, admiring the way her tentacles swayed. When my girls admire anything about their hair and the way it swings/braids/brushes/curls/lays on their shoulders, they attribute it to one girl and one girl only: Elsa.Back to Elise McKenna…if you don’t know who she is, watch the movie Somewhere in Time, filmed on Mackinac Island. I made my friends watch it the night before we arrived on the island, and when it was over, they hated me. Richard! RICHARD!!! The houses on Mackinac Island are beautiful. For every one we walked past, I liked pointing out where I’d have my morning coffee if I lived there.This one? Top balcony on weekdays. Upstairs in the turret on rainy days. Front porch rocking chair on Saturdays and Sundays so I could sip and watch, watch and sip, and holler to all the fun neighbors who walked by to come join me for a cuppa. And a cherry scone. Because cherries are all the rage in Michigan. “Etta! Etta! Put down that paper and git yer ass up here and have some coffee with me! I have SCONES!”We stayed at the Island House again. It’s my favorite, close enough to Main Street so we can run up to Doud’s Market to get another milk for Dash but far enough away to feel private and cozy. Plus–giant front lawn overlooking Lake Huron and little stoves for marshmallow roasting. Perfection? Check.Good times in our family often involve a bag of Rold Gold pretzels.After leaving Mackinac, I searched my Sleep Sounds app for horse hooves. Got nothin’. Boo. Torrential downpours will have to do.Nella loved the horses.Main Street Pancake House. Order the blueberry silver dollars. By silver dollar, they mean “as big as your head.”Croquet on the front lawn? Why, thank you.This is when we pretend we’re Kennedys but immediately laugh at the mention because we swing more towards the Griswolds. So we coined a new phrase: we are the Grennedys. Kinda classy on the outside, but dragging phone cords, losing phones, forgetting diapers, spilling bottles–okay, we are not even classy on the outside. But look! Sailor Suit! Jon Jon has a sailor suit! It’s from a thrift shop and I cut the sleeves off and never bothered to hem them, but hey! Grennedy Power!No matter how much church did me wrong in the past, when I travel, I find the steeples. I’ll be forever intrigued and inspired by the beauty of steeple against sky and the structure of what I hope serves its purpose.Fun game in Mackinac? Name a Horse. Any horse you see–you have five seconds to name it. Almost as fun as naming nail polish colors except instead of The Thrill of Brazil and Red Hot Rio, you have, as seen below, Hooves, Lord Pistachio and Harold.The return of the red phone booth, located on the Grand Hotel lawn. The Grand Hotel is pretty fancy and pricey for a stay, but it’s such a beautiful place to visit. Headed to Mackinac? Tuck a lawn blanket in your tote–you’ll find many places to lay it out, one being the Grand Hotel lawn. Make a call from the red phone booth. Order a drink at the lawn bar and sit under the striped umbrellas. Listen to the horses, watch the people.Grennedy kids love playing with the flags.Walk down the hill back towards town and stop at the elementary school playground and the Mackinac Island Public Library. If I taught at the little island elementary school overlooking Lake Huron, I’m afraid I’d be too distracted by how quaint everything was to actually get anything done. The classroom windows look out at a lighthouse. I mean, come on.At the end of our entire trip–at an Outback two hours north of Naples–we played the “favorite moment” game. Top contender: this one. Last night on the island, a few hours to kill before taking one of the last ferries back. The lawn outside Fort Mackinac started filling up for a concert. Good folksy music, lattes, a quilt on the ground and happy kids who were set free to make their way among the maze of blankets.As we were packing up to leave and catch the ferry, we turned around and saw, kid you not, a rainbow. And then we boarded the ferry, turned a corner and there, just past the lighthouse, was a pink sun tucked in the cotton candy sky, whispering goodnight to it all with us. A much better ending than Elise McKenna’s.Give me rough hems of thrift shop sailor suits. Give me Rold Gold bags and tentacle hats, dragging phone cords, spilling bottles and suitcases with zippers that don’t stay closed. Grennedys will always find their steeples and rainbows and pink sunsets. You can be sure of that.

Long blog pause due to proper summering.

We are Week 2 into our road trip and other than missing Brett, we are cartwheelin’ across Michigan and loving every minute of it. We started strong with a travel game plan and a promise to keep suitcases organized and the minivan clean, but let’s be real here–it ain’t happening. More Griswold than graceful, we’ve logged miles, pumped gas, pushed strollers, packed bags and good Lord, we’ve had fun.

Stop one was Nashville, specifically the 12 South area where we shopped, played at Sevier Park, enjoyed breakfast at Flipside (Tator Tot Nachos!) and discovered Las Paletas popsicles, thanks to IG recommendations (thank you!).

Jet lag has officially subsided, made easier by the fact that I strategically planned every minute of sleep on the flight back so that it would line up as perfectly close as possible to Ready to Roll when I got home. I forgot that Ready to Roll includes three kids waking up at 7 and all asking for French toast at the very same time, but whatever. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I was home for all of seven minutes before friends wanted to know about Africa.

So give me the two sentence summary. What did you take away from your trip? Do you feel changed? Was it what you expected? Was coming home weird? How do you feel?

To that, I can say, it was beautiful—all of it. I learned a lot, I felt a lot, I came home with a lot to think about. I don’t know what it all is, but whatever it may be, I’m thankful for the experience and so grateful for the new friends I met. I like visuals, so I imagine bringing home all the love of Rwanda in a tall glass—let’s call it a chalice because I like that word—pouring it into our life, stirring it all together and hoping the flavor shows up in how we love. I will write more about this later–it’s simmering.

We’ve been quietly enjoying home life this week before packing up and road trippin’ up to Michigan this weekend. Brett has to work, so we have good friends going with us and FaceTime to fill in the gaps. We’ve been counting down the days for this trip since summer began, so there will be a few cartwheels tomorrow morning before we pull out of the driveway.

In the midst of travel and unpacking and packing up again, we’ve found plenty of little things to enjoy, a few left over from the other side of the world and many right here at home.

Enjoying…

The Kigali Fabric Market
I don’t even sew, and it still felt like a candy shop–hundreds of colorful patterns folded up in stacks that lined the street and samples neatly hung from rafters so that every square inch of shop space was draped with color and art and culture. Let’s just say Joann’s fell back in the fabric race.

Open Air Bowling
On our last night in Rwanda, we went bowling with a group of teenage IJM clients. The bowling alley was beautiful–open to the outside, full of sunshine, colorfully decorated. After the first turn knocked a few pins down, we were delighted to see at the end of the lane a man’s hands reaching down and quickly replacing the pins.

Our farewell dinner completed our week–under twinkly lights and a purple sky, we hugged, praised attempts to say goodbye in each others’ language and thanked our new friends for sharing their precious stories. It closed as beautifully as it began, and by the time I boarded the plane to go home, I had our first e-mail from my kids’ new pen pals.

Coming Home
I pictured slow motion running, a field of daisies, open arms and a movie soundtrack playing, but it went down more like I slipped in while they were sleeping and restrained myself from waking them all up to kiss them. The next morning though? The best. Coming home is just as much a journey and meaningful destination as the places to which we travel.

Pick-up Sticks
Have you played pick-up sticks? Yeah, but have you played it on a dog?

Kitchen Scenes
Little hands on big shoulders. Never gets old.

Memory Quilt
More on this quilt and some room redos later, but this week I picked up the memory quilt I commissioned my friend to make, and it hasn’t stopped feeling like Christmas since. She transformed 82 pieces of my kids’ baby clothes, maternity favorites, an apron, two hats, a baby sling, a crib pillow and eight years of memories that were hard to let go into this most beautiful keepsake quilt. The story-telling has already begun–“This was your first birthday dress.” “That was your Dorothy Halloween costume.” “That dress was so huge on you, but I wanted you to wear it so bad, I took you out on your first shopping trip in it, and it swallowed you whole.”

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
If you invite a papa to come help with the kids while you’re gone, you just might come home to handmade presents.

Summer adventure awaits.

Fun favorites from on and off the road to come…

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And some contributor articles last week for eHow if you’re interested:

7 Ways to Decorate Your Kids’ Room with Cardboard Letters

…and…

Creating an Indoor Camping Adventure