Da Tree and Tunes

Well we still managed to keep the weekend busy and entertaining.  We meet up with Ella in EC to catch a show and a cool little venue for a 'super group' comprised of the lead singers from 3 other bands we like.  The opener was a great find as well.  We had a nice dinner and a room with a great view of the city.  Sunday we meet up with her and her boyfriend for a wholesome breakfast and then headed home.   Back home with the smell of chicken soup cooking, the trees finally blossomed into a Christmas tree with Sophia, Grace and Amy adding the adornments.  Ornament breakage was minimal and the process was efficient...older kids make it easier and harder and it took a week to just align two of their schedules to pull this year's decorating together.

T-Day a New Way

 

All the thankfulness of each previous year, but we did it differently this year.  Amy, Ella, and Grace all headed east to visit extended family; leaving on Tuesday night to make early flights and ultimately getting delayed by a winter storm for an extra night in Baltimore.  They made the best of the extended stay and found a Christmas market to tour, shop, and laugh.  Merrick, Sophia, and I all had a large thanksgiving day breakfast...we also all decided that is sort of the best way to do it.  Breakfast food is always great, and we had pork served three different ways, you aren't full from previous houses you had to visit and the dishes clean up is quick.  Sophia even left me a pie, but to be fair she needed most everything I had on hand to make it.  It was ultimately delicious even though she arrived with frozen apples. We just left them in the oven longer and it might be my new preferred way to back them.  400 for about an hour and then shut the oven down and leave the pies to continue to back, caramelize, and get a nice crispy crust.  The rest of the week was pretty quite although Sophia and her boyfriend did stop back Friday to play cards and laugh well past midnight.  Again so much to be thankful for including rested and ready to return to work.

Fall Ball is Done

Oh of course there will be more games coming and more seasons, but this weekend marked the last traveling team tournament.  Amy said we weren't doing "lasts" on this trip; and she may have had some dust in her eye as she braided Grace's hair in the hotel room.  Maybe it was the last braiding on tournament weekends or that Grace was unhappy with the quality of the braid and wouldn't let her do it again anyways...but either way it seemed that there were some emotions.  We drove to the Chicago area in the dark, given the time of year there are few other options and stopped for some soup/sandwiches on our way.  Interesting that our hour long dinner stop actually saved us 20 minutes of road time as it allowed the traffic congestion to pass.  The Saturday morning games were cold, but Grace played strong score easily through out the day.  There were plenty of recruiters around, but that isn't really out concern anymore as she is locked in for the '26 cohort. Amy and I cheered out of pride and as a means of staying warm in the rain and 38 degree temperatures.  Grace slumped her shoulders and hung her head after the game when she noticed my rain suit was full camouflaged (I was actually a little surprised she could see me at all).  Amy had the best chicken sandwich of her life from a tournament kiosk and then we headed off to do a little shopping to pass the afternoon away.  Dinner found us at an more upscale Italian place than we were dressed for but they kindly ushered us in and out very quickly.  Sunday morning had an added adventure as the hotel had lost power some time during the night, likely from the winter storm that blew in.  The room was cold and dark.  With no hot water for a shower we packed up by the light of our phones and headed to the fields.  They only lost a single game during the pool play, but the point differentials apparently weren't enough to lock in a 2nd place seed for them in the tournament brackets.  We had waited at a coffee shop with pastries and hot drinks for the news but seemingly nobody was too upset that we could head home before noon rather than play in the cold and snow again.  As it turned out the area would get 4-5 inches of snow as we drove north on dry roads.  She will practice and prep over the winter months but as for actual games we will have to wait now until March.

some road time...

To a small extent we have found ourselves on the road and chasing kids a little bit.  Amy and Grace have spent the past couple of weekends in resort towns (Dells and Shakopee) for Lacrosse tournaments.  Grace has been playing well for both teams, but both teams are also so very very short benched without subs.  So that takes a toll on the teams overall performance in during the weekend.  In MN the ref even found the team some subs from another team, just to help get their legs under them in the surprisingly warm October sun. She is off the next two weekends and then we head to the third state, IL, of the fall season for a tournament in the Chicago area.  Likely have to dress warm by then.  She has committed to UWL for next fall and will play for the Eagles, so that is exciting and takes some of the pressure off her application processes.  

Merrick had his first Parents' weekend, so I hit the road afterwork on Friday and picked him up in time for a late burger joint dinner.  He was feeling less than par and asked me to check out the big lump on his neck; clearly an enlarged gland.  Dinner didn't sit to well and Saturday morning found us in the the walk in clinic getting some tests.  Everything came back negative but he tired pretty quickly and has back in his dorm around noon to sleep until we met up for a Sunday morning breakfast before I headed out of town.  We did make the drive up to the bluff to take in the leave colors.  We kept in contact with him during the week and he seems to be healed up and is coming home this weekend.  It will be his first time back since college started so I suspect that will be interesting for him.

 

HoCo

 

Saturday night was a culminating dance for Grace after a full week of Homecoming activities.  We headed to the title town district for pictures with her and her friends.  They had spent the week making pants, dressing alike, carrying their school work in 'anything but a backpack....and TPing around town and school.  It was a little funny to see them head into the house after the dance to take off their formal attire and dress in black clothes and face masks to head out on the town like a G-rated Clockwork Orange.  By Sunday afternoon it was back to normal and she was off to work her last shift at the pool for the season.

Little dimples..little drama

 Last weekend we spent a little time scouting out an area for Grace's senior pictures, it had been suggested by the photographer.  But ultimately we thought better of the location and suggested a few of our own and the results will be beautiful.  There was a little hic-up, Grace has a pretty packed schedule, and the original photo shoot was conflicting with a different event.  We had the shoot moved, but it didn't make it to the photographers calendar and she double booked.  It all worked out fine and especially the lighting.  Grace had a fun time, multiple wardrobe changes and still made it home in time to not eat, but meet friends on a shopping spree for pajama day and midnight toilet papering of the school in prep of homecoming weekend. One of these pictures is not from her photo shoot; alas dear reader can you spot it?  Also a fun note as a parent, sometimes you find boxes of graham crackers with only a single stale cracker left in the box; because somebody was way to full to eat another one...or way to lazy to open the trash drawer.

The Eagle has Landed!

Thirteen years of hard work and perseverance for Merrick lead to his arrival in Lacrosse on Friday as an official UWL Eagle.  We managed an almost full family dinner the night before making the drive (Ella was in Spain).  We gathered around the indoor grill at the restaurant slathering steaks with garlic butter and spices....well not Sophia; she was battling a waitress for a burger that was cooked thoroughly and preferably with a bun.  Then back home to sit around the table and talk about school, classes, and just laugh a bit before an early night.  Merrick and I hit the road early and drove the meandering route across the state to his dorm.  His roommate had moved in the day before so it was easy to build some dorm furniture and trick out his new pad.  He is more of a minimalist than either of the older girls where, and he has a real comfortable space to call home for the next school year. We made run for groceries...all comfort food and nothing remotely healthy was dropped into the cart.  He had some additional items on his 'mental list' but those were forgotten.  We hit MKE burger to fill up on some smashburgers before sending him off on his own; and I made the lonely drive back home.  Amy and I were able to call him and have a quick chat and everything seems to be going well for him and has a good size group of people to run around with until the wee hours each morning; and has only hit his head on the ceiling a few times as he adjusts to his lofted bed.  His first class this Morning will be a Chem Lab...seems like a good intro to college course work.