CBU Visit

I flew down to visit Kari and Joel over Presidents Day weekend and had the best time! Parents Weekend is always the same weekend as the state water polo tournament in November, so we’ve never been able to go. Had to make my own “parent weekend” before Kari graduates. The weekend it worked out was the same weekend as swim districts, so Greg took over swim district duty and kept me updated on how Grant and the team did.

Friday night Kari picked me up from the airport and took me to her apartment, and then we met Joel and Rebecca for dinner at Chick Fil A on campus. There was a softball tournament going on, and there were lots of people out and about. I got to meet Joel's friend, James, while we were finishing dinner. We walked over to Joel's apartment to see Drew and Jake, too, and I met their other roommate, Dawson. He was not as thrilled to meet me, as I was to meet him. He's not very social.

I got to see Joel's room and where he's been living this year. The boys' apartment is not nearly as cozy and cute as the girls'! We walked over to Rebecca's apartment and spent a while there chatting with Morgan and Maggie (Eleison wasn't there that night).

Before I went to my hotel for the night, Kari and I had to clean up a mess in the trunk of her car. The DampRid bag exploded/leaked all over the trunk and all over my luggage and backpack. My backpack was already wet from a water bottle leaking incident on the airplane (my waterbottle was full when I boarded the plane and totally empty when I went to take a drink from it towards the end of the flight--oops!), and then with the DampRid grunk, it was now also very sticky. We got a lot of it soaked up with a roll of paper towel, and I headed back to the hotel where I watched some Olympics before falling asleep. I woke up early the next morning, worried about my backpack and work computer. The computer was fine, but the backpack was a sticky mess. I did some internet research and discovered it was a saline solution and just needed to be diluted with lots of warm water to get rid of it. So, I filled the bathtub with hot water and plunged the backpack and the other sticky things from Kari's trunk (first aid kit box and an umbrella) into the tub. I wrung it all out and set it on towels and chairs in the room to dry. I filled a big ziplock bag with warm water--reinforced my thinking that ziplock bags are a must when you travel--and soaked a hand towel in it and snuck it out in my purse to the parking lot where I doused the trunk liner of Kari's car, trying to dilute the saline solution there, too. It worked! I brought it all back into the room and used lots of towels, trying to dry everything out, and ran the hair dryer on my bag for a while, too. Housekeeping probably thought I was crazy with things hanging all over the room, an umbrella open, and all the towels I used in the process. 

I drove across the street to Walmart and then over to Costco and got some snacks and food for Joel and Kari. Joel's pantry shelf was sad and empty when I saw it the night before. They were both very happy when they saw the food I brought for them. Joel was especially excited. :-)

After my morning clean up and store runs, I drove back to Kari's apartment, picked up Joel, and then Kari drove us to Laguna Beach. The kids showed me around some of their favorite spots. We ate pizza, got gelato in this cute little shopping area, and then drove to a beach they really like further south. They went in the water (and terrified me!), and I soaked up the sun and enjoyed watching them have fun (when I wasn't freaking out about the big waves). It was just a beautiful day and a sweet time with our two oldest.

That Saturday was Valentine's Day, and Joel and Rebecca had dinner plans, and Julia and her boyfriend had dinner plans back at her apartment, so Kari and I decided to go to Downtown Disney for the evening. It wasn't the best experience (super crowded!), but it served the purpose of getting us out. We

The next morning we went to Joel's church, Pathways and then out to lunch at a BBQ place near the church that Maggie's boyfriend recommended. It was really tasty (even had banana pudding), and getting to have lunch with all the kids was great. I enjoyed meeting Sam's girlfriend, Maddie, too. She seemed very sweet. 

I loved getting to see a bit of the kids life down there and loved the time I got to spend with them. I left feeling so thankful for the blessing of CBU and for kids who are growing in their faith while away…and who were willing to spend a weekend with their mom.