This weekend was HUGE, and we had so much happening that I am going to give up all pretense of narrative thread and just use big headings like an undergraduate writing a term paper.
COLLEGE DROP
Dropping BABY HARRY at UW-Eau CLaire went great. Sure, we had a bickering fight (mostly Ben and me) right before we left but that is normal for our family because we like to use our words to express ourselves, so it was the only way we really could have kicked doff our weekend you know? Everyone acted like we were killing them slowly by asking 3 kids to sit together on a bench of seats made for 3 people, and a couple of people were annoyed that they could not pack their personal cords and chargers and device peripherals in a pack pack because space in the car was a little tight for the first leg of our journey and we asked people to either throw stuff in our bags or take something smaller. BUT WE PERSEVERED.
The very first thing we did was hit up a local sports bar and eat SO MUCH GARBAGE. I also had a Very Large beer, and this is a definite pro tip, so remember it when it’s your turn: Steps 1 and 2: Giant lunch. Giant beer. (Bonus points for leftovers for you kid’s dorm fridge).
Ben dropped Harry and me about a half mile from the dorm and took the other kids to grab a Target pick up order we placed from Madison for pick up on Eau Claire, and that was **chef’s kiss**. I had tome to make Harry’s loft bed and help him finish unpacking the rest of his stuff from last weekend and the final duffel bag he brought on Saturday, and we even sorted his stuff into piles while we waited for the shelving cubes, drawer storage, and rolling cart to arrive. I met his roommate and his roommate’s buddy, and Ben showed up with the rest of the stuff and kids to help carry it up (one trip!) at the perfect moment. We said goodbye, handed Harry some cash, and got the heck out of there.
Ben went back upstairs to throw a wiffle golf ball at Harry (they did this to each other for days and tried to catch the other person off guard, and he brought one in his pocket for one more gotcha), but when he got there, Harry’s door was open, and his roommate was back, and the two of them were assembling shelves with his roommate’s tools, and other people were milling the hall and dropping in on each other’s rooms, and Ben snuck away.
Last night at home: sushi and euchre. We played 3 games (eat to 10 points) so Harry could be everyone’s partner and started the weekend exhausted.
Ok, so move-in mom uniform seems to be cut offs and a college t-shirt. I also tried tall socks like the kids (stole them from Dorothy in fact) and like it a lot!
It is SO WEIRD that you just… drive way and leave your kid someplace after 18 years of constant helicoptering. THANK GOD FOR LIFE 360 (it’s me hi I’m the problem it’s me).
WEDDING REHEARSAL
We drove an hour or so past Eau Claire (kids were like so happy to be riding 2 in the 3rd row; it was bananas) to my cousin’s wedding. We shucked off our sweaty move in clothes and made it just in time to the lovely rehearsal dinner at the cutest little bar on the cutest little street in St. Paul. I haven’t been to a big family thing on my mom’s side since Thanksgiving pre-Covid, so this was Minnie’s first time to meet a lot of relatives. She is still not sure that my twin uncles are two people, actually. I kept expecting to bump into my dad, so that was sad— I could just imagine him there the whole time because I can’t remember a big family function (that last thanksgiving is the exception) without him. The panny really delayed a lot of that grief for me because, yes, it has been 5 years, but we did not see anyone for a few in the middle. Plus, I love weddings. The idea of speaking yourself into being is so appealing to someone who studies the power of words for a living. I also missed my grandparents who doted on Molly and were so delighted to have a late-in-life grandkid when the rest of us were past the cute age. They would have loved her wedding and seeing her so grown up and beautiful.
My cousin and I drank classic cocktails in Bomma’s honor (and also because, um, that’s just what we drink).
MALL OF AMERICA
The kids had plate after plate of hotel breakfast (suckers for waffles, all of them) and we spent a rowdy hour at the hotel pool on wedding morning
Ben and I both agreed that MoA is a VACATION DESTINATION, and we FOR SURE want to go back. If you have fond memories of malls from your 1990s life, you need to go to there. CINNABON IS THERE. It is a time warp in the BEST WAY. Also, Dorothy FINALLY found clothes she likes at Abercrombie Kids, and now I can order them online with confidence. (She is so teeny that the 000 short at American Eagle is too big. She is limited to Athleta Girl and Lulu, with the occasional Target find or Von Maur juniors item— maaaaybe something from kids at Von Maur but that’s a unicorn, and, sometimes, she wants a variety, and she is very picky, so she needs to try stuff on first. Phew! What sentence structure! And I didn’t even mention the Nickelodeon theme park in the middle. It’s a campy delight, the whole thing. And no sales tax!
We hit up a Whole Foods for pizza, sushi, and wraps to eat at the hotel (after gorging ourselves on mall sweets) and got dressed SO FAST for the wedding.This is where I made a terrible mistake. While Dorothy was relaxing in our room (we had a girls’ room and a boys’ room, and this was perfect), I decided to wash my face and start my makeup from scratch. BUT! I brought waterproof mascara and eyeliner, and they WOULD NOT come off. I had to use this Clinique makeup remover goop, and I got some in my eye, and it was red and swollen and weeping (just the right eye!) all night long. YUCK.
And then of course I did cry because weddings and my judge cousin and lawyer brother officiating and looking so adult and cute flower kids and strong golf course cocktails just like the ones at home and all of the things.
WEDDING!
END OF SUMMER
You bet your bottom dollar that we drove right back through Eau Claire and took Harry out for coffee before helicoptering back to Madison for the last! Whistle! Of! The! Season! At the pool (the pool that we will miss until we see it next May which I am sure will feel like no time because I am old and time is slipping through the hour glass at an alarming rate).
A few close colleagues also dropped their kids off at college this weekend and it's so funny to me because their and your stories are so different from my own "drop off weekend" (my parents, I know now, were whatever the polar opposite of helicopter is). My friend picked me and my roommate up and we loaded up her car (a Volkswagen Jetta) with all our stuff (this was the night before classes started) and instead of heading straight to campus we diverted to a dive bar where her much older boyfriend was playing a show with his band (omg). They let us all in even though we were clearly underage. THEN around 2 am we drove to campus and my friend, who was supposed to just drop us off at our dorm, ended up crashing in our dorm with us for a few days. I don't think I met an adult that entire time and it took me a while to realize this scenario was not normal, ha.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds teen movie worthy
DeleteCINNABON!
ReplyDeleteI was sure there was a Cinnabon at the mall, but it's a "Cinnzeo" and probably that's different. I mean, maybe? I have no idea.
Wow, what a weekend. I love weddings and it's been like eight years since I've been to one. I guess the next wedding generation is my kids' and their peers generation, so we probably have a couple of years before that happens.
Our dropoff was not even a dropoff, M just...drove himself with a full car to campus. I mean, this is his second year so he knew the drill but still it was a bit anticlimatic.
The Mall of America reminds me of West Edmonton Mall, which was SUCH a destination back in the 80s, complete with waterpark and an amusement park.
Oooh another destination mall! Maybe I should do a tour— this would be SO FUN when Dorothy and Minnie are older—- just spend a month at malls
DeleteMOA is in my backyard here but I have a very different reaction to that place. Like it's kind of my personal hell to go to the MOA because I do not like shopping!! But I did have a fun time with Paul there on his birthday although I think the highlight for him was riding the escalators... But it is a place to experience since it's so freaking massive! And now with the attached hotel with waterpark it's really a destination for families!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that the drop-off went well overall. I can just picture Ben stealthily going back up to his room to hit Harry with the whiffle ball one last time and then being like 'ope, not the time for this.'
The pool by us closed on August 18th!! I guess they employ so many college students that they have to close early or they won't have enough staff. It's a bummer, though, as that is so early!!
I love shopping, and that mall is a caricature of a mall, so it appeals to me, but I would not, like, run in there real quick for something
DeleteI love that you have enough kids to make college move-in an easy process! We do this thing at the start of fall semester where faculty line the main sidewalk through campus and cheer/welcome the first years as they file through. It's super fun and I loved that there was someone I knew - I may have shouted "I know him!" when Harry walked by - lol.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaaw I love that! And I saw pics of that on IG— it looks so welcoming and festive!
DeleteThe above comment is from me, not sure why it showed up as "anonymous"
ReplyDeleteGosh! Could you have shoehorned anything else into this weekend?! I think not! You said you cried at the wedding... did you cry at drop off? 'Fess up! This is a safe space ;).
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed Harry consented to Life 360!
I didn’t!! No tears! I think the beer helped— we were all very rowdy. We all like stalking each other via app LOL
DeleteMaybe I will try alcohol prior to my next drop off, or try to couple drop off with a fam wedding because this looks like a ton of fun. Dying at the kids not liking sharing a bench seat. When we dropped Lad off at the school he transferred to as a sophomore, I was videoing us moving his stuff in. We practically dumped him (begged permission to leave him early) and bolted home b/c I had a kid starting freshman year of high school. My video footage includes me returning to the car and hearing the younger sibs in the backseat as we were getting ready to drive away. Remember Lad was horrible to them all summer? Well, they were chanting "Lad's outta here! Lad's outta here!" or something equivalent. I promptly shut the video camera off.
ReplyDeleteMy heart hurt for you as you described missing your dad at the wedding. I can only imagine.
Great pictures. You all dress up real nice. Oh, and we are last whistle of the pool type people too. Esp when the kids were younger - I'd feel a bit lost once the pool closed as I'd miss the social time with other moms, and the absolute fun the kids always had there.
Hope Harry has a wonderful year and finds his people in no time. xo
LOL for days at the sibling chant— that soooo sounds like my kids
DeleteWhat a weekend! First kid off to college (yay!)! Wedding! MOA! MOA was my main mall when I lived in the Twin Cities and I miss it so much.
ReplyDeleteIt’s an AWESOME mall. Was it hard to just run in for something real quick? The parking seems like a lot to deal with
DeleteThis is all awesome- WHAT a weekend! I would need to come home and sleep for a week after all that. Instead, you all started school, eek!!! Never a dull moment for your family!
ReplyDeleteWow - you packed a lot into that weekend! Amazing...and also, exhausting? But it all looks so great (aside from the eye issue; unpleasant!). So many exciting things happening in your life.
ReplyDeleteIt has been years since I last went to a wedding. I love weddings! I need someone I know to get married!
A world of awesomeness. We had a weekend sort of like that just before Angus left for Charlotte and I drove Eve back - houseguests, two different groups of visitors, then my sister and BIL coming. Slightly smaller scale, of course, because everything I do is slightly smaller scale than everything you do, or I'd be dead.
ReplyDeleteWhat a weekend indeed. You fit so much in! Including the biggest thing: dropping Harry off at college. I hope things are going well with him - and you guys at home!!
ReplyDeleteI always think of The Baby-Sitter's Club when Mall of America is mentioned because I'm pretty sure they go there during one of their super specials. I think the road trip one? I know too much about a book series I read as a kid, lol.
Oh my gosh— I think I aged out of those books right around the camp super special, so I missed this one but will check it out for Dorothy
DeleteMy wife and I visited Minneapolis for the first time ever last November, and naturally, MoA was a must-stop. It was everything you described and more. I actually can't wait to go back!
ReplyDeleteSAME!
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