Double Digits and College Dropoffs

Last week our little caboose turned double digits!

Brendan woke up early to find cards and the traditional 10th birthday gift of a tablet:

Listen, when you're packing up a kid for college and celebrating another's bday, sometimes Christmas wrapping paper will have to do!

Then Phil, Maggie, Declan, Brendan and I loaded up in Vanna White and started the trip to bring Maggie to college.  The plan was to stay at a waterpark along the way to split up the trip and also celebrate the birthday boy, and everything was going smoothly until Vanna White started acting up.

I turned to Phil and said "The air conditioning doesn't feel cool anymore."  Then I saw the engine light flashing on the dashboard and then the car started bumping along.  I looked up an Auto Zone, and there was one at the next exit so we pulled in.  The owner was very nice and told us not to worry, he would get us all fixed up.  He took the diagnostics, handed us a bag of the parts we would need and gave us the address to a mechanic around the corner, who took us right in and said it would be a couple hours to fix the *car parts*.

Maggie: "Let's take a photo for the blog saga you're going to write"

There was a restaurant across the street, so we had a leisurely lunch and the waitress brought over a tiramisu for the birthday boy at the end:

Then we walked down the street, and I saw a barber shop and thought how the littles needed some fresh back-to-school haircuts, so inside we went!  There were two available chairs and Declan and Brendan had the most professional haircuts in their life (anything's better than in the driveway with a mom wielding clippers).

We walked back to check on the van, and the mechanic was just pulling it up!  Phil had to pay in cash (sketchy) but it was probably the best way to ever have a car break down.  We were on our way 2 hours later than expected and arrived to the waterpark around 4pm.  While Phil went in to check-in, Maggie pulled the van through the drop off lane because "this will be the last time I drive for a long time!"

The kids were off swimming and sliding and riding in no time!

We went to dinner at 7:15 and walked around outside the restaurant for a bit after, looking for dessert, but couldn't find any:

Birthday cupcakes from the hotel for the win! 

We woke up early Thursday morning to travel to Franciscan, and were surprised to be driving in pouring rain for most of the trip:

When we were in the car, I put on the song I Hope You Dance which Maggie had never heard (!) and told her that was the advice I was giving her for college - 

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance".

  

She added it to her playlist and we finally made it around 1pm to beautiful Steubenville!

The orientation team grabbed all Maggie's stuff and brought it to her 3rd floor room (the moving bags worked great) and we quickly began unpacking.  Andrew stopped by to help for a little between soccer practices, and we got the job done in record time.

I found my old room in the same dorm that Maggie is in and made a really weird face

The rug and fridge came after we left

Maggie's roommate (from California) plays soccer so she had been there for a few days already and she is LOVELY!  They both have parents who are alumni, only applied to Franciscan, have siblings also attending (Eamon is friends with her sister, that's how they matched up), have the same unique phone case, same bedspreads, and literally got dressed the second day and had the same outfit on without seeing each other.  They're going to get along just fine :)

We left to check-in at our hotel in Weirton and the kids swam for an hour while Phil brought Maggie to Walmart to get some snacks and water for her room.

Then we drove to Andrew's off-campus house that he rents with four friends.  Let's just say it looks like... a house that college guys rent.  He made his room look very nice, and he is rooming with his friend who is also a Senior Biology major, so I'm hoping the friend's study skills rub off on Andrew a little.  We got pizza for everyone and JP was able to drive over from Pittsburgh to join us, as was Karolina (Andrew's girlfriend).  Andrew picked up a cake to celebrate with Brendan:

Then we went to the opening ceremony that night at the Fieldhouse, after running through the tunnel of orientation kids that Maggie did not want to do but I encouraged her, reminding her to "dance":

Fr. Dave Pivonka, President

Maggie met the daughter of her godfather's college roommate who is also a Freshman.  Did you follow that?  Haha!  

I also got to meet Heather who was sitting behind us and we hugged and introduced our daughters to each other.

We drove back exhausted to the hotel and crashed.  In the morning, we woke up and ran on the treadmill (me) and swam in the pool (them), had breakfast at the hotel and drove back to campus to meet up with Maggie.  When we pulled up outside her dorm, she was standing outside and I thought "there's our college girl" like she was just meant to be there.  

We met with her nursing advisor and then the registrar, and that wrapped up all the important things we had to do!  I got to chat with my college bestie who is a professor on campus and then we walked up to watch the end of Andrew's soccer practice and say hi to the guys we knew on the team:

JP came back to campus after his morning quiz and we all went out to lunch at The Harp:

Irish flag ceiling

JP brought some presents for the birthday boy who had now been celebrating for three days straight!  An illustrated Harry Potter book (we let them read Harry Potter when they turn 10) and a Slinky that he really wanted made for a very happy Brendan:

Trash bag wrapping paper - bad wrapping skills run in the family!

And then much to quickly, it was time to head back to Maggie's room and say goodbye.  A few tears were shed but we all know that she is exactly where God wants her to be and feel comfort in that.

We are so thankful to Eamon and Xander for keeping the Ice Cream Cottage running (and the dog alive) while we were away for these few days.  Poor Eamon was working doubles through Saturday night, and then had an early flight out to Pittsburgh on Sunday morning.  No rest for the weary!  We couldn't do *waves hands around the air* all of this without the family teamwork, and we are so grateful.

After arriving home the next day, I had friends sending me screenshots from social media of Maggie and her roommate at the Freshman Dance, and methinks she is going to be just fine:

When she had the choice to sit it out or dance, she danced :)