Jennifer's 365 Project

Today we're in the Detroit area to celebrates Quinn's 5th birthday, which is technically on the 18th. He's not feeling well today, so it's been a pretty low energy day today.
 He made out with plenty of toys, so he still had a great time.
And his best bud, Fuzzy, now can dress up as Batman too, so he really enjoyed pajama time when we arrived home.

 We met up with Chris and Amy and went to an early showing of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker.
 We hung out a bit at my parent's house with them as well.
 In the evening we headed over to Grandma Karath's house for another round of presents. 
 I love this toy - it came with Han Solo's voice.
Chris and Amy even stopped by to say hello to Chris's mom before the evening was over.

 We spent the day at my parents house, letting the little one play with his uncle and tire everyone out.
We opened presents and played video games.
The kid made out like a bandit, with a bunch of stuffed animals to keep him company at the hotel.

 We visited Grandma Karath in her new apartment today.
And we spent the afternoon at my parents house, showing uncle Jeff how to play Luigi's Mansion 3.

After that we spent some time at 12 Oaks Mall letting the little one run around and play, since it was still raining on and off.

Since it's a holiday weekend and I have Monday off, we drove to the east side of the state to spend some time with family. We visited the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum, which is great for kids.
 We were able to find a quiet restaurant so the little one could take a break from all the excitement and eat some lunch.
He had a lot of fun in the hotel room as well. He really enjoys going on new adventures.

 Then we headed out to 12 Oaks Mall so he could play for a little.
 After fun at the mall it was time to head back to Grandpa's house for some cake!
Quinn really enjoyed having cake again. I think he's gotten over his uncertainty about frosting.

We stayed overnight in the metro Detroit area to celebrate Chris's dad's birthday today!

The hotel we stayed in had in interesting contraption. You have to slot your key card into a spot next to the wall switch in order to use the lights. Otherwise the lights wont turn on.

Or the bathroom light. It was actually kind of annoying.
 We went out to eat at a local Koney Island restaurant. This was Chris's view...
Then it was time for a tasty lunch with Chris's brother and dad!

It feels like it had been ages, so it was good to catch up with them both. Plus there was chocolate cake involved. You can never go wrong with chocolate cake.
Then it was time for a snowy drive back home....

So it's Sunday, and it's the last day of Youmacon, which means lots of people checking out and rushing around to get wrapped up.

Even though we were up late last night, I managed to wake up around 7:30.  We hung out in the hotel room for awhile, listening to local news and some crappy national shows about Halloween while munching on our tasty breakfast provisions.

I checked out via the TV, which is a first. Usually you can just leave your key in hotel room and that's it, but this was cool too.

The hallways of the Renaissance Center weren't quite as full at 10am, but there was still a pretty decent line for the Potter Puppet Pals event. We skipped that and stopped by to see Adam and Comfort briefly before heading out to Novi.

Chris and I had plans to have lunch with his father in Novi.  We hit the area on the early side, so we swung by a Borders (which we do not have in Grand Rapids) and Chris was able to snag a cute plushie of Green Lantern (Hal Jordan).

We had a lovely lunch with Chris's father at Olive Garden.  It was nice to meet him and watch them interact.  I can definitely see the family resemblance.









When we arrived back home we were met with a lot of political flyers tossed all over the hallway. Leki, as you can see, was super excited to see us when we got home.  So excited he forgot that he doesn't fit on my shoulder and kept trying to crawl all over to get the best perch.

Anyway, here's a slideshow of the weekend's events at Youmacon. It was a great time.  I really enjoy the format of the convention being built into the hotel, as opposed to most conventions where the convention center is separate from the hotel.  It certainly gives it a very social feel.  I really hope that they're able to maintain that atmosphere, although honestly it felt like the convention was nearly busting at the seams at the Detroit Renaissance Center, which is a VERY large hotel (and, consequently, the largest building in Michigan).