Michigan Trip Continued...2 Trips to Higgins for ice cream

My first trip to Alden, Michigan was in February of 2005. My first trip to Higgins to get ice cream was last month. Now, I had been hearing about this ice cream for years! Maybe it’s because it’s one of those hometown, homemade ice cream places or maybe it’s because it’s the only ice cream place in town…either way, I wanted this ice cream!

So, on a beautiful day when the family was working on Grandma Irene’s house, Dylan and I took a walk downtown and made an ice cream stop. Wow, that makes it sound like I was skipping out on house work, huh? I really wasn’t. Someone had to follow the kid around and make sure that he wasn’t ruining all of the work that everyone else was doing! I did everything to keep this kid busy; swimming in the lake, playing at the playground, getting toys out of the shed, eating lunch, and taking a walk into town.

The ice cream stop wasn’t planned…and I didn’t tell Josh until days later. I didn’t want him to be upset that I 1) made my first trip to Higgins alone, and 2) didn’t bring him anything back! So, there were no photos of the first secret trip to Higgins.

To make up for it, Dylan and I took Daddy with us for our second trip. Josh got a man-sized portion of ice cream (maybe because he missed out a few days before) while Dylan and I shared a junior-sized rainbow ice cream (I can’t remember the exact name) cone. And Dylan LOVE IT!! Needless to say, I didn’t get much of the rainbow cone.

His favorite part of the ice cream experience, was kissing me after taking a bit. Therefore, getting all of the rainbow ice cream from his face onto mine. He thought it was hilarious! That meant that I thought it was hilarious too and let him do it about twelve times. I even took a photo after one of our kisses - how funny is he?

What did I think of Higgins, you ask? Must have made quite an impression to write an entire journal entry about it. Well, it was ice cream and it was tasty. It was no Whitey’s (To be fair, I’m sure I’m a bit biased about that). But if it means that I get to share a memory like this one with my boys, then I think Higgins was wonderful!

Michigan Trip Continued...1 NFL Pre-season Game!

Even though there was plenty of sadness on our trip to Michigan, there were so many great moments and fun surprises. One of the surprises was that Michelle and Cindy had gotten tickets for the New England Patriots vs. Detroit Lions pre-season game! Fortunately, Cindy let me in on the surprise so I could (sneak-ily) pack our Patriots Jerseys.

Josh, Logan & Dalton

There were 8 tickets, so Josh, me, Joe, Michelle, Larry, Eric, Dalton and Logan were the lucky eight! While Josh and I enjoyed an adult night out, Dylan spent the night hanging out with Grandma Cindy, Aunt Marlene, and his beautiful cousins (Morgan, Meredith & Mallory). It was a win-win for everyone. I think we all had a really fun night!

Michelle and I sat next to each other and sported our competing quarterback jerseys!

Anika & Michelle

I couldn't resist a photo of my with my tall & handsome nephews:

Dalton, Anika & Logan

Our seats were amazing. We were about 20-some rows up on the 35-yard line. It was my first time at Ford Field (only my second pro football game). I admittedly may have had a tiny bit too much beer and cheered a little too exuberantly for Rob Gronkowski (at least Josh didn't mind...he was cheering long with me), but I had a blast!! Go Patriots!

2 of Dalton’s Football Games & 1 of Meredith Cheering!

We managed to squeeze in several football games while we were in Michigan - Mancelona Ironmen Football and Comets cheerleading!

Josh’s oldest nephew, Dalton, is currently a Junior at Mancelona High School. He is also a major football stud! We were able to see two of his games while were there. I know it meant a lot to Josh to be there cheering him on. And Dylan got to experience his first ‘live’ football game!

Watching Cousin Dalton

Dylan was actually pretty amazed at all the action. He sat in Josh’s lap watching for an entire quarter. And he was right on queue clapping and cheering with the rest of the fans. He really liked clapping along to the fight song. I think the flag girls twirling around those huge flags helped too!

Unfortunately, there was about an hour of lightning delays (even though it only sprinkled rain on us and the lightning was far away). So we had to keep the kid occupied while there was nothing exciting to watch on the field!

Josh and I took him down on the grass in front of the bleachers and let him run around and burn off some of his energy. He had a blast! But between the two game delays and the running around, he didn’t make it through the whole game. Josh ended up carrying a sleeping (and drooling) baby on his shoulder during the last quarter of the game while he followed the team up and down the field.

Daddy, Dalton & Cousin Dalton

But I think we were good luck, because Mancelona won both of the games we attended. And they are still rocking that winning streak. Yay! I was such a proud Aunt up in the bleachers. It’s thanks to Josh that I get to call myself Aunt Anika and have such amazing Nieces and Nephews.

Cousins Meredith & Mallory

Over one of the weekends, we headed down to the Detroit area to visit the family that wasn’t ‘up North.’ When we rolled into town, we met up with the Luttrell Family to watch Meredith cheer at a John Glenn Comets game. We just missed Mallory’s game, so we didn’t get to see her do her magic. But I think Dylan was happy she wasn’t cheering because he was all about the hugs & kisses for his Cousin Mallory!

I think Dylan is getting used to the cheering from the bleachers thing!

Another nephew, Logan, is quite the football stud too! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see him play this time. But, hopefully (since he is a Freshman this year), we will be able to see him play in the future.

I am so happy that we got to be there to support of our nieces and nephews. I really hope that we can get back there again and cheer on the rest of them doing their thing. We are so lucky to have such amazing young people in our lives. I couldn't be prouder of all of them. I met them all almost seven years ago, and I have loved all of them since then. Dalton, Morgan, Logan, Meredith and Mallory are all such amazing spirits. I am so blessed to be their Aunt Anika. 

Anika, Josh & Dylan at the Comets Game

Our Michigan Trip in ‘Numbers’

Last month hosted a longer-than-originally-planned trip to Michigan. We already had a week-long trip planned around Labor Day to drive North and go visit Josh’s family. A little over a week before we were supposed to get into the car and start driving, I got a call from Josh’s Mom. Josh’s Grandpa West was not doing well. As a matter of fact, the Doctors told Cindy that he just wasn’t going to get better. The rest of the day was a whirlwind of events. I called Josh, he got immediate emergency family leave, we packed up 2 ½ weeks worth of our life, and got in the car around Dylan’s bedtime that night.

At a Rest Stop in Michigan

We drove straight through to Michigan. I was really worried about an 18-hr drive combined with a 1-yr old. But he did surprisingly well. There were a couple rough moments, but we seemed to make it just fine. We did make a few stops to either walk Dylan back to sleep through the night, or to stretch our legs during the day. I think Dylan looked awfully cute in his Dinosaur pjs and tennis shoes at the rest stops!

Meredith helping Dylan down the slide

We left home on Thursday night and arrived at Josh’s parents’ house late Friday afternoon. Five of Dylan’s cousins greeted him at the house when we got there! While Josh & I changed out of our driving clothes, Dylan was already playing with everyone!

We quickly got back in the car and headed to the hospital where Dylan got to meet his Great Grandpa Ed & Great Grandma Irene for the first time. Ed was coherent enough to know who he was and to tell us he loved us. I have him a kiss and Dylan gave him a high five. Thank Goodness we got there when we did.

The following two and a half weeks were full of family time, fun, sadness, and (of course) many, many photos. I decided that there were too many stories to tell and to many great photos taken for me to summarize the trip in just one entry. So I will continue to post Michigan trip entries by the numbers…

Coming soon:
2 High School Football games & 1 Grade-school game
1 NFL Pre-season Game
3 Days of Torch Lake (2 tubing & 1 swimming)
2 Trips to Higgins for ice cream
1 Trip to Dzia Dzia & Bussia’s house
1 Family Cookout
1 Funeral
1 Date Night
Countless days of play & fun for Dylan

Dylan's Room

Since we are renters, we decided not to paint Dylan’s bedroom. This kind of makes me sad, because there are so many cute kiddie bedrooms out there with all those bright colors! So I decided that if I can’t paint fun stuff in his room, I was going to fill the walls with a variety of things. This also means that his room doesn't have one theme - unless the theme is lots of bright primary colors. But I kind of love the idea of a crazy mix of awesome things everywhere! I know that I’m not the craftiest person, but I continue to try! And I’m always looking for a cheap and easy craft to make. Putting Dylan’s room together has actually been a lot of fun for me.

If you remember Josh’s Father's Day Present, I painted SITKO letters, had Dylan pose with them and then framed them all. We hung the photo frame in the living room, and Josh hung the SITKO letters above Dylan’s door in his room.

When I bought the SITKO letters, I also got DYLAN letters to put above Dylan’s changing table. The letters are a huge hit! He loves them! Every time we finish changing his diaper, we read his name and point to each letter. Then Dylan points to his last name and we have to go read that one too!

Yes, that’s a huge banana! Josh actually won that 5-footer for me at the San Diego Fair a few years ago. We figured it belonged in Dylan’s room. And the rainbow quilt on the wall was actually from my childhood bedroom. My mom said that she thinks my Grandma Vi made it! It was a pattern that matched the rest of my bedding and room décor. How cute is that? And the quilt over the back of the couch is the amazing quilt that Cindy Drummond made when Dylan was born. It’s really incredible.

The lantern in the corner is actually a blue Chinese lantern that I made into a nightlight. I cut out over 20 paper stars and glued them inside. I originally mounted a tap light in it, but tap lights drain batteries like a Swede drinking coffee (if you aren’t a Swede and don’t get that reference - just know that Swedes LOVE their coffee!). So, the tap light only lasted one night. However, I must say that it looked really cute in the short time that it was working. I’m going to have to figure out a new plan for lighting. But until then, it’s just a floating blue ball.

One of the Coastie wives here has a craft blog, and that is one of the places that I like to look for crafty inspiration. I found this post on her site and I thought it would definitely qualify my ‘cheap’ and ‘easy’ craft requirements!

I used a few pieces of scrapbook paper that I already had, and then picked up a few more cute ones when Dylan & I went to Hobby Lobby with Katie & Elleah a couple weeks ago. So, overall, this fancy border that I made for Dylan’s room cost about $4!

I know you can’t see it perfectly behind the chair, but that quilt on the wall was from Jack, the guy who signs my paychecks! I was so surprised and excited when he sent it. It has the entire alphabet on it, and Dylan’s full name and birthday embroidered on the bottom.




I do have one more project in mind that I’m keeping a secret for now. I need to decide exactly how I want to do it and figure out the cheapest way to go about it. But if it all works out, I think it’s going to be awesome.