College adventure

We are in Logan this week taking Aubrey to USU.  It has been a fun adventure so far.

On our first morning at the hotel, Savanna lost her brand new retainer in the trash.  She and Aubrey did a little dumpster diving and saved the day when they found it at the absolute bottom of the trash.

Later that day at lunch, Zachary was complaining about how he couldn't eat his corn on the cob because his loose tooth was causing him pain.  Mark reached over and in about 1/10 of a second, twisted the tooth right out.  No blood, no pain.  Zack was one happy dude.

We all made it safe and sound, and a little squished.  In order to not drive two cars to Utah, we shipped Aubrey's stuff via UPS, and then everybody got one small bag and we drove my car.  It was very cozy, especially because Aubrey couldn't live without her guitar, which took up almost all the cargo room behind the back seat.   But we survived.

 We all survived the journey, but Aubrey's boxes didn't do as well.  I bought moving boxes at Home Depot.  That was not the best idea.  Aubrey's boxes all did make it to our hotel, but they were absolutely destroyed.  I don't blame UPS at all, because one of the 4 boxes was a Nordstrom box, which was just as packed full and just as heavy, but it arrived without a scratch.  Miraculously, all of Aubrey's things made it.... at least she hasn't noticed anything missing yet.  The lesson is that Home Depot boxes may be inexpensive, but they are garbage and nobody should ever use them for shipping anything.

Savanna helped Aubrey get all moved into her room and to get things organized.  If anyone ever needs help organizing, just talk to Savvy.

We got Aubrey all moved in on Saturday just in time to attend Cache Valley's annual cultural event, The Cache Bash.  I had not ever been to a demolition derby before.  It was fun, but very, very loud.  It was incredible how absolutely crammed the stands were.  Everyone in town was there!

I admit that it was hard for me to watch the crashes.  It just hurt my tummy to see people racing toward each other on purpose.  Eventually I got more comfortable watching, and by the final round I was cheering for a black Impala.  One thing we learned is that old station wagons are pretty tough, and so is an old Impala.

 Coming from Nike Town, and the land of Pre, we decided to go check out the university track.  It wasn't very easy.  The track is crammed somewhere between the football training field, a giant parking lot for the football stadium, and a soccer field.  There was one tiny set of bleachers.  It was no Hayward Field.  But it was a nice track!  The kids took a lap and practiced their high jumps.

 Mark is loving the trees on campus.  So much variety.  He taught the kids how to tell a juniper tree from a cypress tree by looking at their berries.  They thought it was pretty cool.

 Then the kids climbed the pine trees.  Yes, they are pine trees, and not fir, hemlock or spruce trees.  The kids can tell you all about why pine trees are the best for climbing.

Today we had some fun, played UNO, ate waaaaay too much food at the cafeteria.  That Aggie Ice Cream is just so good you keep going back for me.

 Noah got a haircut at the official campus barber shop.

 Aubrey has met new friends, and is having lots of fun being a college student.  She met us for lunch today, but is pretty much into her groove and doing her thing.  Which is awesome, because that's what we came here for.  It will be sad to say goodbye, but we are so happy that she is here and learning what college is all about.