Our first stop was Hollywood, where we stayed a walk away from the main drag, and decided to just explore the first day. We did the walk of fame twice - in daylight on our way to Scoobies Hot Dogs for lunch, where the dogs were delish and again after a busy day sightseeing on a moviestars homes bus tour. We went to one of the oldest Hollywood restaurants for a good bite to eat, before dragging our very tired children back to the hotel for a good sleep. Madelyn had woken us every hour that first night, so we were all pretty exhausted by the end of a full day in Hollywood.
Next on the agenda was a long but fun day at Disneyland where Austy's first ride had to be the Dumbo ride just because there was a water fountain underneath. We wished we'd hired a car as we didn't realise how long the bus trip would be - "Disneyland Express" stopped about thirty times, so not very express at all and we didn't get there until 1pm, which chewed up some good ride time. But then again there was so much to see, and as it was Austy fell asleep in Andrew's arms as they lined up for the Toy Story ride, so who knows if he could have handled more anyway.
But he'll tell you his favourite ride was the Buz Lightyear ride where he even got to meet Buzz as we came out.
Then it was off to Michigan where I had my graduation and became a Master of Engineering in Global Automotive Manufacturing Engineering (a mouthful I know!) We enjoyed a pre-graduation reception with the Deans and Heads of Schools in the robing room, where Austy nibbled chocolate chip cookies and attacked the fruit platter that noone else seemed to be interested in. They also took some family photos of us, and some shots of me with one of my professors, Jack Hu and the Dean of Engineering, so I will post those when they arrive. For now these dodgy shots will have to do - poor Andrew had his hands full with a 3yr old who wasn't keen on sitting still and a baby who needed to sleep. The ceremony for the Engineering school was held in the Chrysler Arena. Afterwards we went out into the Michigan stadium and had a looksie while Austy safely ran and ran - it's huuuuuge! We'd skipped the earlier graduation ceremony as it was just going to make it too long a day and there was no way Maddy would take a bottle (we tried, but she spat out my hard pumped milk thinking we were trying to trick her or something!). The stadium was left open for clean up after the event which is why there is rubbish strewn everywhere, but we had to get a pic or two. Excuse my messy hair and the bunched up hat - the hat would NOT stay on despite it being a "surefit" (yeah right, they weren't expecting a pin head like mine to graduate I guess) and it was super windy.
We had a fantastic dinner with Dianne (GM TEP manager) and her husband Fred the night before graduation which was a highlight for Austy, as he grabbed her son's guitar (he apparently brings them home when a string breaks and goes and gets another so she had a few lying around) and made up his first song. He called it "In my mind" and entertained us with his musical talents at 3.5! Diane had suggested we go to the hands on museum in Ann Arbor, which we did the day after graduation. Another highlight for our boy. He wanted to go back there every day for the rest of the trip!
On our last night in Ann Arbor we met up with one of the guys that I met at the TeamCenter training when I took the trip over last year and had dinner with him and his wife and their adorable blue eyed baby girl Sophie.
Next up was a busy and drizzly couple of days in New York (we actually stayed in New Jersey as it was cheaper and only a short bus ride away). By this stage the hotel hopping and late nights were starting to take their toll on Austin and at times we thought we were absolutely CRAZY taking a 3yr old on a trip like this, while Madelyn was easily pleased keeping snuggled up to me in the baby carrier form dawn until dusk. We took Austy to the ToysRus store in New York for a ride on the ferris wheel, and also did the Empire State Building, going up all those floors in a superfast lift that you could hardly feel moving. I don't think Austy fully appreciated how high up we were as the little daredevil kept climbing the wall to look over, raising the eyebrows of the people that look after security up there. Andrew and I listened to most of the recording set that we hired to learn about each of the points around the lookout balcony before Austy got bored and it was time to come down. 
One night we stayed out just a little too late, and realised just how difficult it is to stay together with a stroller to push along after 6pm on Broadway. We couldn't believe how busy the footpaths got and it was like a human-car gridlock at just about every street crossing.
After all that we were more than ready to slow the pace down a bit with a trip over to Chicopee by car, where Marty & Leslie were kind enough to let us displace them from their condo so we could have a bit more space than the hotels had offered. We were so grateful of having two separate bedrooms and a living area (the hotel rooms had all been a single shared room with two beds in them), as we were able to put both kids to bed in their separate rooms and shut the doors so we could sit up and have some time together ourselves rather than laying in the dark and silence waiting forever for Austy to nod off. Madelyn loved the floor space too, where she could be laid on her rug and have some kicking time after all that time being carried. She learned her new trick while we were there, which was to pull her toes up to her mouth and bite her socks off. Luckily it was warm enough for no socks most of the time we were there so we just let her lick her toes to her heart's content.
We met Andrew's cousin John and his family, and Austy had a ball with Spencer and Allie, even having a good long turn on their 4-wheeler. We watched Allie's softball game... well Andrew did, I played with Austin and Spencer in the plaground there as well as a few other kids that Austy was calling his best friends by the end of the game. We also explored the Dr Suess gardens in Springfield - how cute was Austy playing amongst the statues?!
And went on the Merry-go-round in Holyoke a few times.
Then it was back to LA to stop over for a couple of nights before the long haul flight home. This time we stayed in Long Beach, a really nice area, we wished we'd stayed there longer. At that stage Andrew was quite comfortable with driving on the wrong side of the road and worked out how to read which exit to take from highway to highway without going around in circles, so we drove out to Santa Monica and Malibu for a bit of a looksie.
All in all we had a great time, and enjoyed having some family time together. It was great to meet everyone in Chicopee, John, Kym, Allie, Spencer, Marty, Krystal, and the adorable Lily (Austy's age) and hope to maybe see some of you again over here one day.
*NOTE* More photos to come... sorry, it just takes too long, and blogger adds in a gazillion lines between every paragraph everytime I load a pic.
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