Madison

My cousin Sarah has the most adorable, hilarious little girl: Madison.

Madison is quite a bit older than Mia, so we were wondering how everything would go down when we got the two together in Harvard. Madison has plenty of toys and things at her grandparents' house, and my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Russ were a little concerned about how having a visitor all over her toys would play out. Mia isn't really old enough to share, and Madison is just old enough to know the things are hers.

Success! After a little crying, all was well. They even blew bubbles together.

Madison is known for being pretty outspoken, which is pretty funny coming from who looks so sweet. I called the house while Leigh and I were in Chicago for the day to see how Mia was doing, and Madison handled the call. She told me to put Leigh on the phone. They had a good talk.

Mia v. the popsicle

As a little P.S. to our roadtrip, I wanted to share photos of Mia trying her first popsicle. As you can imagine, it ended with a bath. Thanks, Aunt Debbie.

Going to Harvard

Our stay in Harvard, Ill., was just as great as you think staying somewhere named Harvard would be. As you can see above, we could not resist taking a picture with Harmilda, Harvard's famous cow. She used to be in the center of an intersection where three roads meet, but for some reason the fun-hating state Transportation Department said she had might be a hazard.

Here are some other photos from our fun time in Harvard:

It was fun staying with my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Russ. When I was a kid, I loved visiting their house in the summer. It's outside of town and full of all the things kids think are amazing - a fort, a zip line, the woods. It was fun seeing Mia exploring all of that. She especially enjoyed the swimming pool that my cousin Sarah's daughter, Madison, uses. Mia combined the pool with the kiddie golf set.

Mia also had fun playing in the fort. What did she have to do? You know it. Clean.

Johnson family reunion

Oh my word. We had a family reunion. It was the first time the Johnsons had all been together for many years, so it was fantastic to see everyone (and all their kids). There were so many kids! They were crawling around everywhere!


There was plenty of picnic fun.

Then it was time for photos. Boy, the Johnson family - we love photos. The first groups were the Johnson kids (my mom's generation) and the grandkids (my generation).

Then it was time for the great-grandchildren (Mia's generation). Mia and my cousin Liz's little boy weren't too excited about this prospect. Her husband handed their son to the oldest child. My plan was to drop Mia off, run away really fast and leave her sitting perplexed just long enough for my aunts to snap the picture. Well, that did not work. I love that you can see the progression: drop, fit, all the other children staring at Mia freaking out off camera.

OK, so that didn't pan out. But she did OK in the family group photo.

After a few hours in the heat, we decided to take Mia home for her nap. She was winding down quickly, so we figured it was best to get out ahead of any pre-nap calamity. This is what happened before we made it out of the parking lot. Fun times had by all.