Let Them eat Cake!

 

The opening salvo of April is always a little frenetic and to that we added a couple of milestone birthdays as well.  Merrick became an adult and I became a mailing list candidate for AAA and AARP.  Grace was nestled into the sweet spot straddling adulthood and fleeting adolescents. Merrick opted for a home dinner to celebrate and we gathered around for some sous vide, reverse seared flat iron steaks.  Grace opted for the more traditional birthday sushi..making sure we ordered enough for a left over sushi breakfast.  Grace had been lobbying hard for about 6 months for a friend party as well so by Sunday morning and late late into the afternoon she hosted a brunch for her friends and then they all painted portraits of each other.  Her actual birthday coincided with the LaX season opener and she filled the stands with fans.  Jan and Ron drove up, Bob and Nancy drove over with Ella, and Scott and Sonya meandered the DP roads to cheer her on. Grandprize had made a big roll out sign for her birthday and Ella convinced the team to roll it out during the game.  She scored 2 goals and an game MVP in an overall tough loss to a solid team.  The fans headed back to our house for some cake to celebrate even if she was out team bonding.  Saturday we switched gears to my birthday and we headed downtown to join the hands-off protests that were happening across the country before heading out to eat and then back home for some some more cake and laughs with the whole family.  Sunday was an early start for Bob/Nancy as the carpooled Ella back to EC in time for work.  Sophia stopped over to get her car before heading back to LaX, Merrick went golfing, and I tried to catch naps during Grace's party.  Just another great week surrounded by great people.

I would drive 500 miles, and I would drive 500 more..

 

I would drive 500 miles, and I would drive 500 more...catchy little earwig from the late 80s and a solid theme song for the past couple of days.  The house is on Spring break, and with Grace busy with work, prom dress fittings, and Lax practice and Merrick spending is time at the Y to recertify for summer life guarding Amy and I hit the road.  We set up mid day on Wednesday to meet up with Sophia in LaCrosse for dinner.  It was wonderful.  We ate tapas and had a few specialty drinks, before she gave us a tour of downtown including "Brad's school" where she has been interning and heading back to the Bodega for a few more drinks.  It was a great evening listening to her make her post graduation plans and consider all the impacts of adulting.  Amy and I spent the night at the Charmont and were unknowingly treated to a bit of celebrity conversation at the bar.  We ate at the Breakfast club and then made the beautiful drive through the hills north to meet up with Ella for a late lunch, stopping to watch the eagles gathered at the confluence  The temps were so nice and in the mid 60's with full sun.  Ella suggested lunch at The District and we all had comically large and sloppy sandwiches of some variation.  We wanted to hear all the details about her Civil Rights tour.  It was amazing, and the emotion in her telling was still very raw.  We took a walk around downtown and over the foot bridge...strangely arriving at the local jewelry store before heading back to Ella's Apartment and 80 degree indoor temperatures.  She worked at setting up her new phone and showed us the pictures of her trips and told us more about the experience and intensity of some of the days. It nearly 5 when Ella had to start writing school essays and we had to start our drive back East, feeling like proud parents, feeling blessed, feeling like we could have stayed another night and played in the Eau Claire spring air.

Activity looks different as the family gets older.  I was thinking this morning of everything the kids have going on right now, and essentially how little I am involved in a way that requires direct help.  We raise them to be adults and they become adults, spreading their own proverbial wings, and attacking the world with their own talons as they come into their own.  Merrick was prepping for a summer work season this week with a phone interview to return to life guarding. He had a bunch of online work to complete to recertify and will spend next week (spring break) doing the practical testing in the pool.  Golf starts for him in full swing right after spring break. Grace had made similar plans as well as keeping her barista gig. LaX has officially started and she gave an amazing speech to her teammates a few days before her coach came to the house to tell her that the coaches had voted and even though she is junior that she will be named team captain. Sophia was in town for lunch and is neck deep in planning her next steps after graduation as her plan comes into focus for her, one that the rest of us have pretty much known all along.  Ella is having her heart and mind wrench on a 10 day trip through the south and immersing herself in the pains of America's dark racial past that is highlighted only by current events. I will include an excerpt of her email to us below, and hope she is keeping a journal of some form as well...even though I know she is coming home with so many resources as she is already planning her future classroom....like I said they are all so busy becoming adults that Amy and I are now needed in different ways.  

It is the natural course of things, a course that was emphasized as four generations gathered in Eau Claire to celebrate Grandpa Bob's 71 birthday, unfortunately I didn't think to capture a photo of everyone.  Sophia drove up from Lacrosse, and Ella came over after she finished a 5 k race that morning as she preps for a summer marathon...again busy in new and exciting ways.  Grandma Irene was there when we arrived with Grace from our travels across Hwy 29.  

All of the generations aging, changing, growing and needing each other in different ways.  Such is the beautiful thing about life.

From Ella's Civil Rights Pilgrimage:

Some more updates from my trip! No time to do Wordle, I’m too busy!! The last few days have been very heavy. We did a couple of activities such as a slavery reenactment and “segregated” seating in the Emmett Till Courthouse that have made me very uncomfortable, angry, and overall emotional. I have been to many museums and exhibits, and have spoken with even more people involved in the movement. One of the craziest parts of the south, especially in Alabama, is the large amount of racism still so obvious and present. We visited a confederate solider cemetery, which is well kept and eerily beautiful. It is ran by the “Daughters of the Confederacy”, a white supremacy group. There’s many flags, statues, and monuments representing the confederacy all over the state, including three statues on the capital lawn- no statues of Dr. King though, even though he lived in Montgomery. The KKK is still active and present as well. I still have three days left, but I have done so much already! I have a lot to say that I can’t fit into an email, so I can’t wait to tell you all about it when I get home!!


The first picture is a monument with the last name of every known enslaved person or one of their descendants- it has 10,000 names on it. The next picture is all of the education majors in Selma after walking the bridge where Bloody Sunday took place. Next is the confederate cemetery, and finally, my favorite speaker of the whole trip, Mr. Thomas. He was an activist and protester during bloody Tuesday. I spoke with him after, and he told me that he was proud of me for getting an education and made me promise him that I would never stop learning for him, since he wanted to get a higher education but didn’t have the opportunity:) it was really inspiring, and made me cry! Overall, a lot of emotional and important lessons. I also am really sunburnt.

Quotidian times

 Mid-February already after the longest January in the history of man-kind.  Our adventures have been few as we embrace the hygge season.  Plenty of school work for the kids and all four have started their second semesters now.  Sophia did stop home over the weekend with Augie as she prepped for her LSAC exam and a job interview.  Ella is toying with the idea of a camp counselor over the summer, and also had an interview that went well.  Merrick is getting close to making a commitment for his university.  Given our strange weather he was able to get out and golf on the first weekend of February...I think January is the only month he didn't hit the links.  He is heading off to the UP to snowboard this weekend, again odd weather.  Grace is getting plenty of hours at the coffee shop and filling any remaining time with school clubs and social engagements. She is considering if she wants to switch summer Lacrosse teams.  She has been getting a lot of exposure and various programs are still reaching out.  This weekend however was Snowball dance weekend and she headed to the school gym...to support a friend that was volunteering, but it is safe to assume they had plenty of laughs along the way.  As for us 'Rents' we generally putter around the house cooking, cleaning, and napping.

Family Cruising

 

We left the house at 3 am on the day after Christmas for what would become an amazing trip and also an epic travel day clocking in at over 24 hours.  After nearly 8 months of planning we were able to surprise the kids with a Bahama cruise for Christmas break. We were warned of a potential flight impact due to weather and our connecting flight in Dallas. We decided to not change flights (with 6 of us and needing to load the boat on time there wasn't many options anyways.)  With the plane half boarded our flight was cancelled...not just delayed, but full out cancelled..do not pass go, do not collect $200 cancelled.  We were gob struck, but did rebook a different set of flights into Miami rather than Ft. Lauderdale. We arranged for a 1 am limo shuttle from Miami to our Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. The rebooked flights didn't leave for almost 12 hours...it was a full day of just hanging out in MKE and eating airport food.  As the day progressed, the weather was impacted other flights in the areas as people rebooked and delays were racking up....I was losing confidence that we would make our connecting flight in Philly.  The gate agent said not to worry..it was the pilots last flight of the night and he would want to get home and make up time in the sky.  We did make the connecting an we meet with our placard holding limo shuttle to drive us to the hotel.  The girls bunked together and we dropped them off and headed to our room with Merrick.  The hotel key didn't work, I went back to the desk, security came along with us and when Amy finally got the door to open she screamed and quickly slammed it shut again thinking somebody was already in the room.  It was what we were all thinking an with the lights on and the fan blowing her mind went there immediately.  We were all blasted from the day's travel.  

We slept until about 10:30 and then caught a quick Uber to the boat.  Our check in time was 1 pm...but that didn't matter as we were quickly ushered through security and customs and to the boat (pro-tip: arrive early and ignore the check in times).  We dropped off our luggage, walked around in awe at jewelry stores, bars, 14 story glass elevators, art museums, and the just the massive-hulking opulence of where we were....then we headed to the buffet to feast.  The kids headed off to explore the boat themselves and we later found out that was essentially working the system to bar hop.  We  found them about an hour later after then invited us to Craft Social...a nice little niche bar in the mid section. It was great that we got to the boat early because we almost an additional day to explore before we celebrated with everyone else when we left port.  Merrick and I chilled by the pool and the girls headed off to a bracelet/charm show.  

Each night has its own dress code and we put on our business casual to head to the main dinning room where we were blown away by the service of Vincente and his assistant.  The food was 8/10 but the service and experience were amazing.  Sophia didn't make this first dinner...having passed out about 5:30 pm in her room..blaming the drink package, and I didn't make to long after dinner, feeling the motion of the ocean and just needing to sleep. Merrick and I headed back to our room while Amy and the girls went to a regrettable comedy show.  

Everybody rebounded and was ready early the next morning as we landed in Nassau and loaded on the catamaran for some snorkeling.  It was cool, everyone was glad they didn't it but it was tourist snorkeling: no fins, dead reefs with mostly Sargent majors and a few parrot fish.  I did see French angelfish and some blue tangs; Amy, Grace and Ella saw a spotted sting ray.  The water mid to low 70's and everyone felt it was too cold.  The hour long excursion was a long enough duration.  We did get rum punch (Sophia was having a water day) on the way back but still we decided to walk back to the ship to change, warm up and eat.  Once heavily fortified from the buffet we walked back into town to check out Nassau port area.  We only walked about a 7 block radius and no body feels the need to return.  It was a dirty combination of tourist trinkets, and carnival level barkers.

Back on the boat to lounge around the pool and hot tubs before everyone getting dressed up for Elegant night and fine dinner in the main restaurant.  Merrick had lost track of how many steaks he had eaten by this point.  Dinner went late and after a few after dinner drinks at one or two of the bars we turned in for the night.

By our 4th morning we were way more relaxed and didn't meet for breakfast until about 10 oclock before heading into the beach resort in Bimini.  The weather was cool and even rainy but everyone was still in good spirits and we racked up a sizable bar bill.  I think all the kids made it into the water.  Amy and I weren't that interested in getting wet.  We all lounged around the white sand beach in the big chaise lounges, chatted, and generally chilled out before heading back to the boat hot tubs and buffets. On the boat I dozed in the indoor pool while Sophia and Amy sat in the hot tub and eventually heading to dinner.  At some point in this continuum Ella, Sophia, and Grace got into a fight with an old man in a wheel chair and read shirt.  I think think they were trying to order coffee at the Cafe a'Bacio and took 'his' menu and then words were exchanged...I don't have all details other than Ella initially grabbed the menu, and then apologized to him, and then Sophia slammed the menu back on the table and he had on a red shirt...because he came wheeling past us at dinner....oh, those girls

After dinner was pretty fun.  Merrick wasnt up for anything and hung back in the room, even as the girls literally tried to pull him from his bed to come out for the last night.  Amy and I hit up the Martini bar, with its frost covered bar top, and made our way to the casino.  The cruise is such a social place where everyone is looking to be 'camp friends'  the whole trip we were meeting new people and then continuing conversations with them hours later when bumping into them again...the casino was no different as we talked to the people we had met on the Bimini beach.  The girls found us at the martini bar and invited us back to a Bollywood DJ party they were dancing at....it was pretty cool and we stayed until we were out of place and then headed to the top floor for more dance parting in the SkyLounge. The girls all wanted to quite before Amy...she out lasted all of them.  Sophia and Grace ghosted and Ella hung out so Amy had somebody to dance with and I hung out because Amy didn't have a key to the room.  Back in the room we chilled on the veranda until nearly mid night before calling it a day.

The disembarkment procedure was a little chaotic but we got it figured out an grabbed a cramped Uber back to the airport and started our trip back home and a few days of sealeg recovery.  As if poetically fitting Amy was able to get a picture of 'our ship' heading back out to sea from her seat on the airplane.

Christmas Time EC to R

 

What a season, what a year.  We spent the weekend before Christmas proper in EC.  Driving over on Friday after work.  Ella was already in town still finalizing semester exams and Sophia had been back for a few days.  Merrick and Sophia traveled together with plans of skiing at Granite on the way back from the yuletide festivities.  Ultimately the weekend would wear them out and they would skip this plan.  Everyone was already there when we arrived so we found some spots in the crowd and joined in the merriment.  Ella came out after work..so we the driveway looked like a Subaru lot.  There was easily two more conversations than their were people, but I was part of the one that made Grandma and Becky's jaws drop to table as Sophia spoofed them with her new 'tattoo" as an unforgettable 'tramp stamp"..the timing was perfect.  Saturday Ella worked a double shift so we just went to visit her for burgers and lots of pinball.  We stopped in to see Grandma Judy and Irene, but kept our visits short before heading back to the table of all solutions and lasagna dinner and massive pallet fire.  Back in GB we had an early family gift opening in preparation for the family cruise in the Bahamas but still did all the traditional Christmas eve pool, pull tabs and spaghetti dinner. Merrick and Sophia came back over Christmas day for big breakfast and 5 pounds of hashbrowns and Ella's request before we all headed down to TR to celebrate Christmas in Ron and Jan's new place.  It worked out really well with the big open concept and the fact that all the kids are older and don't really need a separate play room anymore. Kory set up the random spin generator on his phone and the gifts were selected.  Amy got an email about our flights and possible weather issues so we did leave a little early to get that straightened out before our early morning departure.

Christmas Markets..

 Well we are slowly getting the house fully decorated, and of course by we I mean mostly Amy and Grace; I mostly just haul stuff upstairs and down.  Grace has been crazy busy with school clubs and her new coffee shop job.  So we don't see her around much but she is pretty good with giving us a daily update of her day around 9pm just before I head off to bed and Amy starts in on work.  The weather finally turned to winter...Merrick was going to snowboard last Friday...but didn't like the snow conditions so him and his friends golfed on Sunday instead....it has been a warm fall.  Today however is our first blast of sub zero temps.  With our free time Amy and I have been hitting some outdoor Christmas markets..in the middle of the week even as we come to terms with a more emptied nest of a household.