Grandpa Dean Smith

We drove back in to Flint after our visit with Dan's family in Bad Axe, MI. Morgan Dean Cox was named after Dan's much loved Grandfather, Dean Smith. His cemetary was on the way into Flint. We stopped to pay our respects and get this fabulous picture of my two men as his grave site. It was a precious moment.

Our Trip to Bad Axe, Michigan

I know that he's screaming. But, it's always so hard to find a picture with me in it because I'm always taking the pictures!

Morgan with his Great Grandma Smith and Grandpa Dan Kiehl
The groom, Joey, flaming up the grill at his house
Dan with his sister, Beth.
This is part of Marie & Dan Kiehl's land. It's so nice out there. Everyone has their own space.
Here we are with Grandma Smith.
Dan Kiehl, Grandma Shirley Smith, Dan & Morgan Cox and Marie Kiehl.
We even had our own welcome sign!
Here's Dan's family!
Dan's brother Joey, Dan, sister Beth and brother Jimmy. A bunch of tall people!

I think that one of the cousins took his sand shovel away. Ah, life lessons!

Morgan Meets His Cousins in Michigan

We drove about an hour and a half from Dovy's house to Bad Axe, MI. It was so wonderful to see all of Dan's family. Dan's mom, Marie, flew in when Morgan was born. But, this was the first time that everyone else had the opportunity to meet my little man.

He had a great time playing with his cousins.

Driving to Dovy's House

We woke up the next day and continued our journey to Michigan. We drove through St. Louis. Ok, I already know that I am immature. But, does anyone else think that a town named 'Effingham' is hilarious? What the eff?
Morgan ALWAYS says hi to everyone. I've just never caught it on video until now. Isn't this precious!?!??!?!


We finally arrived in Flint, MI at about 1am. We were exausted. Dovy, Dan's grandmother, was so sweet to put us latecomers up. Morgan had a great time the next morning playing with his great grandmother.

Dovy is so tiny. Morgan looks like the world's largest baby. I still can't believe that she gave birth to Dan's dad. He weighed 11 pounds!

The Drive to Michigan Begins!

We drove to Michigan to visit Dan's family and celebrate his brother Joey's marriage to Megan. They were actually married in February, but decided to throw a party in the summer when the weather was better.

I was a little... o.k. a lot terrified at the idea of 25plus hours in the car with Morgan. We decided that we would stop in Branson on the way up and the way back. Morgan was a total rock star. I sat in the backseat and basically surfed the internet the entire trip. I know that we watched all of the Shrek's at least once... some twice. I was so sick of the 5 DVDs that we were traveling with. So, we stopped at Walmart and bought about 12 more. I'm now totally sick of those too. I'm Disneyed and Pixared out! But, it kept my little man quiet and happy. We did stop for all meals so that we could sit down as a family and stretch out. I didn't want to ask him to sit still for that long.

We went to a mini amusment park for toddlers in Branson. They had about 4 rides that Morgan was able to ride. Of course we tried them all!

He LOVED the teacups. We were both cracking up. Dan didn't want to get in there with him because he didn't think that the teacup was made for a 6'4" man.

He was also a huge fan of the swing,


Morgan begged to touch the bunnies and kept pointing to the bunny ride. He was totally unsure when it started off.
It didn't end well. Actually, he didn't even get to the end. I had the operator stop the ride when Morgan's meltdown began. Poor baby!