We arrived to Ann Arbor just before dinner time. Of course, our friends had made a table full of foods waiting for us. Noooooooo!!!! It meant I just missed the opportunity to learn Agnes’ secret recipe for her famous Polish borscht! It was a secret recipe because there was no recipe at all, and the only way to learn it was to stand next to her in the kitchen.

I almost cried!

As it turned out, I was not alone. This was Piotr’s reaction when he found out my hubby would soon be his godfather. “Okay babe, you have exactly 12 hours to convince this little guy”:

I guessed their serious man talk was okay, because the next day at church went pretty smoothly (except the part where Piotr almost changed his mind about his cooperation in this baptism process):

And voila, our friend has been baptised!!! Here is the little guy all smiley and happy with his dad (see where he gets his good look from ;)) Alright, Andrei, you can stop blushing now:

The day passed quickly with the kids running around with their friends and the adults passing out on the couch because of exhaustion…

After dinner, we drove straight back to D.C. with the kids sleeping soundly in the backseats. Actually, it was great driving overnight – less traffic, less noise/complaint from the kids, more peaceful mind. Well, also, I enjoyed the overnight driving because I slept the whole time too. Our designated driver may think otherwise…

Some notes about the road trip:

• Keep several children music CDs in the car to avoid going banana with “If you’re happy and you know it…” playing n times.
• Bring hard candies for the kids. I repeat. Hard candies. That would keep the kids quiet and happy for quite a while. It doesn’t work with soft candies or cookies, because you’ll hear a constant chorus “more… more… more…” every few minutes.
• Gasoline in Ann Arbor is not cheaper than elsewhere even though the price tag in each station appears so. What a cheater!

You know, in most places, they post prices for regular gasoline, plus gasoline, and premium gasoline in that order, right? So you would think this is what these prices in Ann Arbor correspond to, right? Oh we were so wrong.

The average price for premium gasoline in D.C. was about $2.8 per gallon these days. So when we saw $1.89, we pulled over right away to fill the tank. It turned out, these prices were for regular gasoline, paid in cash, debit, or credit card. For our usual premium gasoline paying with credit card, it costed even more, at close to $3.0 per gallon. CHEATER!