September 17, 2018
8:00-9:00 Got up, showered, ate cereal for breakfast. Took a letter to the mailbox. Did some last minute things before a trip to Detroit.
9:00-9:15 Youngest daughter arrived from Indy with her 2-year old son and we got my stuff packed into her car. She drove and I kept her son company in the backseat.
9:15-11:00 We stopped near Defiance, Ohio, and got gas in the car and ate lunch at a McDonald’s. It was part of a Love’s Truck Stop. We moved around some and that felt good! We bought a little stuffed animal for my granddaughter who is seven.
12:15-2:30 Headed off again and I drove the rest of the way. We used Google Maps and this app sent us west of Toledo and Detroit and dropped us off in the area in which she lived, which is Southfield. The traffic was much better this way. It reminded me of when my husband and I drive to his hometown in Wisconsin. Most of the way it was four lanes with large medians.
2:30 This was the first time I have been to my daughter’s home. She previously lived in Seattle and just moved to the Detroit area in July. I was sick for the last part of the summer so this was my first opportunity to visit. We thought we should do it before my middle daughter starts work and before the weather gets bad. We sat on her back deck and watched the baby play. At 3:40, my daughter rode her bike to my granddaughter’s school and met her. They both rode their bikes home together. It is neat that they live close enough to the elementary school that she can ride her bike to school (with parental supervision.) School ended at 3:50.
When they arrived home, we had a little snack of grapes, juice boxes, and more fruit. I helped her with her homework, so she could move on to other activities. It was a math paper, front and back. She needs to know her simple math facts more from rote memory. She can figure the answers on her fingers, but she doesn’t know them from memory.
From 5:00-6:00, we went to her tennis lesson. She had a good time and did quite well. She is athletic, so I hope she can continue the lessons. At the venue, my daughter called in and ordered a pizza so it would be delivered soon after we returned home.
When we returned home, the pizza arrived soon. We also had salad with the pizza. The kids played more in the yard – cartwheels, somersaults, and on the swing set.
The two-year-old came in at 7:30 and was given a bath. He got a story and was tucked in around 8:00. The seven-year-old took a shower, read a story and was asleep around 8:30. While they got ready for bed, I talked to my son-in-law about his job and how he liked about living back in the Detroit area. He grew up in this area and that’s why they moved back. Once the moms joined us, we watched a few minutes of the Bears/Seattle football game and then we watched the Rachel Maddow show. Will probably go to bed around 10.