Illinois Bound, Graduation Day at the University of Iowa

5-15-17     My memory of the past two weeks or so has been a complete blur. From our return drive from Florida with Karen’s parents to Sam and Nicole flying into O’Hare to Hannah’s college graduation.The drive up from Florida with Karen’s parents Carol and Al went very well. The trip had the potential to be a sitcom. 4 adults crammed into a Toyota Prius along with their luggage, Karen and I bringing a lot back from Last Mango. The trip went great, aside for Carol, a slight crisis in my driving abilities while speeding through Atlanta, at least we are now sure that our horn works. We chose a hotel a little north of Nashville to grab dinner and spend the night which made the rest of the trip a bit shorter than the day before. Sunday we listened to the Nascar race on Sirius radio which kinda made the time fly by. I’m not much of a Nascar fan but did enjoy listening, it may have helped that Carole’s favorite driver won the race. I think Al’s came in second. By the way we averaged 54.3 MPG on the trip.

I was able to do some "Fat Bike" riding before
Graduation. Great weather today.

Thought I'd ride the RR tracks west of
Kingston. Lonely Stretch of track.

It seemed that Karen and I barely got settled in and rested and we were prepping for Sam and Nicole’s arrival from Oregon for Hannah’s graduation. For anyone who doesn’t know, Nicole and Sam will be married fall of 2018. Upon landing at O’Hare Sam’s first request was sub sandwiches at Al and Joe’s on Addison near the airport. He had a substantial list of places he wanted to eat before his return to Eugene.

After 2 days we were packing up and heading to Iowa City for Hannah’s big graduation day or should I say days. Friday was the pinning ceremony for new nurses, I enjoyed seeing our little girl up on stage being pinned from the #4 Nursing program in the nation. It was also fun to see her friends graduating also, it’s amazing to see how 3 to 4 years changes them. The biggest change that I noticed is that they are no longer shy about consuming alcohol. Iowa City is the cheapest place to drink that I know. Graduation went off without issue other than a bit too much alcohol consumed. This consumption of beer was compounded by the fact that Friday was Nicole’s birthday and we all benefited from the bar’s 21 pitchers of beer for $30 during your birthday week. It was really nice to meet more of Hannah’s friends especially since we needed all the help we could get drinking all the pitchers.

Brother's Bar, Iowa City

Sam and Hannah showing off what they learned
in college.

Karen's handiwork.

Hannah’s official graduation was Saturday which was followed by lunch and a quick nap to prep for the evenings celebration. Interestingly enough both Sam and Hannah developed colds for the weekend however it was wonderful seeing Sam and Hannah back together sparring per usual. I have to thank Karen for saving me from certain disaster by making me leave the bars by midnight, had she not done that I would still be feeling like crap.

We  woke up Sunday morning and traveled to my parents so that they could see Sam and Nicole before they returned home. Hannah came afterwards since she stayed for her boyfriend Jared’s graduation. We felt bad not attending his ceremony but wanted my parents to have more time with Sam and Nicole since they needed to return to Oregon very early Tuesday morning. Karen made her home made pizza’s and we enjoyed the time together with our family. 

We surprised my mom as we walked in the door, at first she didn’t recognize Sam or didn’t comprehend what she was looking at when Sam and I walked in. After a few seconds she realized it was Sam and small tears appeared at the corner of her eyes. My mom spent quite a lot of time with Sam when he was small and I think she still feels that connection. It’s been a couple of years since she’s seem him and in that time her memory has faded quite a bit but I could see the happiness come out. She still doesn't like the fact that he’s a Police Officer or has a tattoo or two but loves him anyway.

Hannah, tattoo inspector or nurse looking for
signs of infection?

Old State Capital after dark.

Our two Iowa Grads.

Pizza was great as always and afterwards everyone said their goodbyes and we went back to our place in Kingston. Well, everyone but me. While washing dishes the sink drain clogged and several easy attempts to clear the drain failed so I stayed behind to fix it before I left, couldn’t leave dad with a clogged drain for the morning. Dad directed me to a clean out in the basement that allowed easy access to the clog and it was quickly cleared. I was on the road a half hour after everyone else.

Morning seemed to come very quickly the next day as the girls went shopping for Bridesmaid dresses in Rockford while Sam and I went to Dekalb for manly type stuff. We coordinated the pickup and delivery of Portillo’s as the girls arrived back home from shopping. I’m not sure Hannah has her dress but Karen bought her’s. I gotta say she looks pretty hot, especially for the mother of the groom.

Later in the day Sam and Nicole went to Dekalb to meet with a couple of their grad school professors. They drove our Prius and shortly into their trip Nicole texted saying that Sam felt his masculinity deteriorating after every mile. It may not be a manly car but so far it’s a damn good vehicle. Even my drag racing father-in-law likes the little car, granted not drag racing anymore.

The alarm seemed to arrive early the next morning, early it was, 2:40 AM. Apparently we needed to be on the road by 3 AM to get Sam and Nicole to O’Hare Airport on time. One good thing about going to the airport at 3 is there in absolutely no traffic. We piled their luggage in the  Prius and hopped in ourselves. We arrived at O’Hare in exactly one hour, the return trip was the same. They had no issues with their flight and we had no issues driving. Soon Karen and I were back home trying to get back to sleep. Later that day Hannah left us to go back to Iowa for a meeting and work.

Hannah and her longtime room mate.

Hannah and her longtime Beau.

Cap decorated, at least for now.

The Nursing Graduating Class of 2017

Pure Joy!

As I said earlier the time spent with them seems like a blur, it went so fast. Karen and I sound like old farts when we talk about the kids. Many people have told us in the past to enjoy the time with the kids because it doesn’t last long. That is true, Karen compounded those thoughts as she went to the archives and dug out pictures and notes from school. Funny notes. I think Karen has enough “I will do this for Mother’s Day” promises to clean the house and have breakfast in bed for a month or so. I know I have to tell myself each day to take my time, enjoy every moment. It’s very difficult to remember but I think I’m getting better.