Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

We kicked off our two-week vacation by picking up my parents and sister at the Chicago O'Hare airport on Friday May 5th and my graduation the next day. On Sunday, they got to meet our house church and some very close friends at a cook-out. Simply said, our Slovak family and our Grand Rapids family finally met. Kaiya took to my parents in no time – the first morning they were playing with her and feeding her peaches and cereal. They also brought us gifts from my grandparents, uncle and aunt. A particular gift that Kaiya loved (see picture) was a bear almost as big as Kaiya.

The following Tuesday morning we dropped off Jessica and Kaiya at the airport and by lunch they were picked up by Jessica's parents in Greenville, SC. After that we loaded up the wagon and started our three-day driving journey from Michigan to South Carolina. On the way we visited some of my dad's cousins in Cleveland, OH, and my mom's good friend in Fayetteville, NC. We also hit several national parks on the way, including the New River Gorge National River (see picture) and multiple Wal-marts.

On Thursday evening, we joined Jessica, Kaiya, and Jessica's parents Randy and Gail, at a beach house they rented in Charleston, SC and spent a relaxing extended weekend at the beach. Kaiya enjoyed the beach a lot, tasting sand and feeling the cold ocean water with her feet, and putting up with being coated in baby sunscreen. One night my mom and dad prepared typical Slovak dishes and another night we enjoyed a low country shrimp boil prepared by Randy and Gail. We revisited Randy's famous statement – when someone declares he or she is full and can't eat any more he usually says, "you gotta eat through the pain!" We also got a tour of Charleston from Jessica's brother Paul, who has lived there for several years. It was also special to spend Mother's Day with both my mom and Jessica's mom together. All of the moms received flowers, Kaiya owes me! On Monday morning we left the beach house and drove to Andreson, SC, stopping by the Angel Oak (see picture) and picking up lunch at Chick-fil-A in Columbia.

We spent a couple of days at Jessica's family's lake house on Hartwell Lake going for walks at the near-by state park, sitting on the beach, relaxing on the porch and watching movies at night. Pastor Robbie gave us a ride on his pontoon boat. Kaiya had fun despite the constraining life vest. (see picture) On Thursday night, Jessica's parents prepared a graduation party for me where my parents got to meet Jessica's extended family and friends. I was afraid this was going to be overwhelming (for both my family and me) but it wasn't – we all had fun and many great conversations were had around great food. The entire time in Anderson we borrowed Jessica's grandparents' Cadillac, which could comfortably seat all six of us when we went places.

On Friday morning we packed up the wagon again, went through a difficult time of my parents saying goodbye to Kaiya and hit the road. This time we drove up highway 441 through the Great Smokey Mountains to Knoxville and then up I-75. We spent the night at my parents' friends' house in Cincinnati, OH. We arrived in Grand Rapids later in the evening and went to bed, but only after hitting two more Wal-marts. What's with the Wal-marts you ask? We were looking for specific shoes for Marina, which in the end we didn't find. They were either in the wrong size or the wrong color. That was disappointing because it sure wasn't for the lack of effort. Maybe next time.

The next morning (Sunday) was their final day in the States. We loaded up the car and hit I-96 to Chicago. Despite my skepticism, we found free parking in downtown Chicago and parked the car exactly 2 hours and 56 minutes after we left our house in GR. That was the best time I ever made from GR to Chicago! We spent a total of three hours in the 47 degrees and strong wind. We walked from the Sears Tower to the Hancock building, spent an hour in H&M and walked back to the car. Saying goodbye at the airport was very difficult and I tried to make it as quick as possible as we all were suppressing tears.

As I was driving home alone I did the math and realized that in those two weeks I spent over 3,000 miles in the car with my parents and traveled through 11 states. We had a great time.

On Monday morning, I went back to work after two weeks and worked for three and a half days before flying back down south to join Jessica and Kaiya for Memorial Day weekend. I was supposed to arrive in Greenville, SC, Thursday evening, but due to our plane's engine trouble, tornado warnings and thunderstorms and finally the crew timing out, I ended up spending three very long hours in the plane on the runway, followed by several more hours standing in lines at the airport and finally a hotel room in Detroit (paid for by Northwest Airlines). I flew out the next morning, finally arriving in Greenville around 3:30 pm. The entire trip, which took Jessica and Kaiya a little over three hours, took me 26 hours. I could have driven there and back in that time! But I made some new friends, including a guy from Egypt and a couple that visited Slovakia not long ago.

Memorial Day weekend was spent attending Jessica's friend Jeanna's wedding and reconnecting with friends from Slovakia. The wedding was nice and Jessica was able to reconnect with friends from high school and college. It was also the same weekend we got married on three years ago! The next day we met up with Anndrea (was a teammate of ours at Kompas) and her husband Jon at Anderson's Freedom Weekend Aloft. We saw Collective Soul in concert, but enjoyed more the time spent with them. The last time we saw them was at their wedding almost two years ago. However, they are moving to Chicago in July so hopefully we will be able to see them more often.

On Memorial Day, we overbooked ourselves (mostly thanks to Verizon Wireless' new modification to their call forwarding) and had to combine lunch with Jessica's cousin Stephanie and her family with our good friends Bekah and Andrej from Slovakia (nope, not every guy from Slovakia is Andrej). Luckily, it all worked out well and we had a great time even though it was their first time meeting each other. It was sad to see Andrej and Bekah go. Andrej was one of my best friends during my three years in Zilina. I still laugh when I think of all those times we were together and someone asked one of us a questions, spontaneously, the "wrong" Andrej would always answer just for fun.

We ended the vacation, after more than three weeks, on Tuesday morning as we drove to the Greenville airport and Jessica's parents said their teary good-byes to Kaiya. Jessica noted that it's funny that there were never teary good-byes when they dropped us off at the airport before Kaiya came along. I guess granddaughters have that affect. We returned home tired, but grateful for quality time spent with family and friends and all of the wonderful memories. I've posted all of our vacation pictures here. Enjoy!