Mission-agin (with a hard "g")

My little bro, Ben (or, "Benjamin Bunny Boy", as we lovingly still call him), used to call Michigan "mission-agin". I'm not sure exactly how he came up with that pronunciation, but I think it had something to do with my oldest brother being on a mission when Ben was learning how to talk.

I have waaaaay too many pictures from Michigan. I won't post them all, even though it's tempting. I'm fairly certain Megan is in every single picture. I know I'm obsessed. I know every stinkin' post is about Megan. But, I don't care. That's just the way it is! Honestly, I really don't think about anything except what I'm making for dinner, and how cute Megan is.

In a nutshell, it was great to be in Michigan! Megan was incredible on the planes, of course. Everyone we sat by on both flights commented on how good she was. I was very grateful for the baby carrier I brought with me, because it was the only way I could get Megan to fall asleep on the plane- strapped to my front with her arms stuffed inside the carrier. Granted, she only slept for an hour the whole day, but at least she did sleep.

Instead of explaining everything we did in Mission-ah-ginn, I'll just post a few memorable moments with pictures and captions: (but not 100 pictures; just 11.)

This is Megan with her St. Patrick's Day outfit on. She is such a little cutie-wootie! Also, Megan was in love with the plant behind her. Anytime she got near it, she would grab it like it was the last bottle on earth. My mom was even worried that Megan would tear it apart!

This is Megan in her St. Patty's outfit, with St. Patty's stickers on her face. The stickers were from Grandma Paulson, though I don't think Grandma intended for them to end up on her face. Better on her face than in her face, right? I love that she just sits there and lets me do anything I want with her.


On St. Patrick's Day, my friend Kimberly (aka Kimmie Jo, Kim, Kimmie, KJ-squared) came over. We went out for beer. Just kidding; we went out to TCBY and talked for about 3 hours. It was so fun! I love how, with your best friends, you can talk for hours when you haven't talked for months, and it's like nothing ever changed. The pose in the picture has special meaning, but I won't tell you what it is.

This is Megan in the exersaucer (which she LOVED) conversing with Ben's Taco Bell dog. The dog had a button, that when pushed, said in things like "I think I'm in Love" and "Can't this boat go any faster?" Everything was said in the Taco Bell Dog voice. I thought it was hilarious. I can't lie.


This is Megan with her cousin Isaac, who lives in Cincinatti. My brother Colter, his wife Kelly, and their 5 boys, drove up to Troy to see us! We felt so special and I was so happy they came. (Notice in the picture that Megan has her hand in Isaac's mouth. Apparently she wanted to share her tasty fingers. Yum!)

When people would come over to see Megan, my mother would strip her down to her diaper to show her off. My mom is convinced that you haven't lived until you've held a chocolate baby. I totally agree with that statement. Also, this picture makes me laugh, because we put Megan in this chair to take a picture, and she held up her left leg and placed her hand on it to pose for us. She kept it in this position for about 10 minutes straight, and I'm not exaggerating! It was sooooooo hilarious! We were all laughing our pants off, and Megan actually had her pants off! Poor baby...


This is Aunt Kelly & Uncle Colter enjoying some Megan Time. Megan sure loved that exersaucer. We're tempted to get one for her, but we don't really have a place to put it. I suppose it'll have to be a Grandma-&-Grandpa's-House-novelty.

These are Colter & Kelly's other 4 boys, enjoying a bowl of popcorn. Aren't they handsome boys? Megan didn't want to look at the camera because she was too interested in the popcorn.

This is Grandma P. playing with Megan. My mother loves babies like nobody you've ever seen. If babies really were made in a factory, you can bet my mother would be CEO.

This is Megan chillin' with Uncle Ben. Don't you like how they are posing the same? We didn't even plan that one! Uncle Ben had a lot of fun wiping Megan's drool off of his homework.

And, lastly (and only "lastly" because this was taken the last day we were there), this is Megan with G & G Paulson. Megan really loved my dad's moustache. Just sayin'.
One more note: On our way back to Utah, we were stuck in the Denver airport. There was a crazy snowstorm and the planes couldn't be iced off before they would ice over again. Our flight was supposed to leave Denver at 7:00, after a 2-hour layover. We finally boarded the plane at 9:00, only to stay on the runway for another 2 hours before taking off. When we got to Salt Lake at 12:30 am, they had lost our luggage, which they finally found- still in Detroit. Unfortunately, that luggage included our car seat, and the airline had run out of car seats we could borrow. They finally found one, after searching for a long time. We didn't get home until 2:30 am.

Extra side-note: Megan is the most amazing baby in the entire world. You can never talk me out of that statement. You see, on the day we flew home, she only slept one hour from 11am-9pm (she normally would have slept 7 or 8 hours during that time). Yet, she never complained, or even cried. She just sat in her umbrella stroller. She just looked around and sat there. Amazing. A-MAZE-ING. Again, everyone around me commented on what a good baby she is. Two ladies even said she looked just like a little doll. Just sitting' there all cute & adorable-like.

That'll do, donkey. That'll do.