





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.
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.
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.