Life in the Mitten Archives

Like I mentioned earlier this month, we are spending this week “Up North” with Andy while he does a preceptorship with a doctor here in Gaylord, MI.

Up North is a real place.

Well, if you’re a Michigander anyway.

We’ve decided that anything north of the “Jesus Sign” is considered officially Up North.

Exhibit A:

Source

This sign along I-75 is a sure sign that we are progressing up the mitten!

Also? I recently heard another Michigan blogger refer to our state as America’s High Five.

Isn’t that so fun?!

I think I’ve heard it called that before, but this time it really made me smile :)

As much as I sometimes grumble about living here (mainly during the long winters or when re-entering from the southern border and seeing how oppressive Detroit is after hours upon hours of other states’ beautiful highways) I think I’m really going to miss the mitten in a couple of years when we are gone.

It’s down to about 2 years before we move for Andy’s Navy hospital residency and I’m equal parts excited and despairing.

It will be such an adventure to explore another state, meet new people, get plugged into a new church and really start understanding the military lifestyle.

But on the other hand, it will be a devastating loss to move away from friends we’ve had since childhood, almost the entirety of each of our families, and our current church home which has been a part of our lives for almost as long as we can remember.

Not knowing where we will go has really helped me to live in the present. Take one day at a time and not look too far ahead.

And for that I’m grateful :)

So, back to this week!

We made the almost 4 hour journey up here on Sunday and got settled into our hotel after having a tasty dinner at Qdoba. I haven’t had one of their queso burritos since I worked at Bluewater and boy was it good!

About a million calories, but so yummy.

Maybe only 750,000 calories since Avery ate a bunch of mine!

Our hotel room totally exceeded my expectations! It’s roomy and nicely decorated and has an awesome extra sink with a fridge and microwave! I don’t plan to do any cooking while we are here, but having the extra sink and little fridge has been awesome for storing foods to make us all lunch everyday.

The hotel offers hot breakfast each morning and we’ve been enjoying it so far. I’m sure I’ll be ready to get back home to my leaner breakfasts by Saturday, but it’s been a fun treat to have biscuits, eggs and sausage every morning :)

Andy doesn’t have to report to the doctor’s office until 9:30 each day which has made for downright leisurely mornings! The girls and I drive him the 2 miles to “work” and then head back to the hotel to plan our day.

We pass this “ice tree” everyday and it’s just so cool! (pun intended)

On Monday we spent our morning at the Gaylord Discovery Center and the girls had a great time. There was a ton of room to run around, lots of fun toys, and some really unique hand-made features (a water table, maze, variety of musical instruments and toy car race ramp).

The woman running the center was super friendly and there were only a few other moms and kids there so it wasn’t crowded or chaotic. Just right for an old lady like me ;)

Last night we ate dinner at this cute local place called “Gobblers”. They’re famous for their homemade turkey dinners and BOY OH BOY were they delicious! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten stuffing that good in my whole life. It was a total game changer.

Sadly I didn’t take a picture because I was too hungry. Sorry!

Today has been a really chill day. After breakfast, we dropped Andy off to work and came back to the hotel room to rest and play. Avery woke us up at 5:55 this morning so she was ready for a nap by 10:00. That was fine by me because I wanted one too!

Grace was all too happy to watch a couple episodes of Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the iPad and I took a little snooze.

After lunch we suited up and headed to the pool for a while!