NHS Trip

January 30 - February 2, 2025

Emily has been looking forward to this trip since she was chosen as an NHS officer last year.  The National Honor Society Conference was in Chicago this year and all the GW officers got to go.  So, very early on Thursday morning they were off!  When they landed, their first adventure was to take the train into the city!

    

When they arrived in the city, they had lunch and waited to check into the hotel.  Then they were off to dinner and to see Harry Potter at the theater!

   

   

The kids were apparently pretty wiped out after the very early flight and some (including Emily) fell asleep during parts of the show, but she reported that it was a lot of fun and that the show was good.

The next morning they had breakfast and set off for a tour of Northwestern University.  Unfortunately it was raining....buckets and buckets of rain.  And it was cold.  Not the most fun part of the trip.  They had lunch in Evanston after the tour and then came back to the hotel for the opening sessions of the conference.  That night, they went out for pizza at Lou Malnati's and Emily raved about her first Chicago pizza experience.  Fast forward a bit, I ordered her a couple of them from Goldbelly and when she came home we had more Chicago deep dish pizza at home.

   

Saturday was the big conference day so they spent most of the day in sessions, but Saturday night ,they went out for dinner and then hit up The Ribbon for some ice skating!  Emily was very excited for that. Then they headed back to the hotel for the night.  Sunday morning, they had a few more sessions and then flew home.  Overall this was a great trip and she is already excited for next year - in Washington D.C.!

   

   

   

Ski Trip & Univ of Utah College Visit

January 18-25, 2025

Emily and Daddy were off on their ski trip this week with a tour of University of Utah in the mix too!  We started to worry a little about this trip.  The kids had snow days for an entire week right after Christmas break and it impacted finals week.  But, luckily, they condensed the schedule a bit and Emily was able to take two exams early so she wrapped everything up on Friday, the 17th before they hit the road on Saturday morning.

The first stop on their adventure was Salt Lake City where they skied at Snow Basin.  They skied there for a couple of days before heading into Ogden to see the University.

   

   

   

The University tour was on Tuesday, but they went into town on Monday to check things out.  It is a really pretty campus.  One downside is that they do not have a skating club.  There is a big rink in Park City, but it would be a bit of a haul and it is not clear how many other college kids there would be there. But, I think she liked the campus and they do have a great computer science program so for now, it stays on the list.

 

   

   

   

Then after the tour, they hopped on a plane and headed to Big Sky, Montana for the rest of the week.  This is one of their happy places.  They both love it there and it looked like they had some great conditions.

   

   

January Canaan

January 10-11, 2025

Happy New Year!  What better way to kick off the new year than with a trip to Canaan - in the snow!  The kids were supposed to go back to school on January 6, but we got a ton of snow (8+ inches) on the 5th and they have been out of school ever since.  The snow made this trip extra fun.  We started off with our usual Friday night show and even though it was quite cold, there wasn't much wind so it was actually pretty nice.  We even had some special visitors!

   

   

   

Then on Saturday morning, we got everyone tubing tickets and the kids hit the slopes. We haven't done this in years and it was really fun.  Unfortunately, it began to snow quite a bit and the wind really picked up.  Emily didn't really wear quite the right clothes (given the weather) so I only went down once and then I passed off my gear to her. After that, it was smooth sailing down the hills for her.

   

   

   

   

Proof I was there!

   

After tubing, the kids went into the lodge to grab a quick lunch and then they were off to the 2pm show.  Emily skated her new short (slightly modified) for the shows this time - a rendition of Moonlight Sonata by the Piano Guys.  I really like it and it seems to suit her.  The only problem was - the weather.  It was not good.  Very cold, lots of snow and a tremendous amount of wind.  It was kind of amazing they could even skate.  I kept thinking on every camel spin that someone might take flight.

   

   

After a very cold skate, we braved the snow and made our way into Thomas for hot cocoa and treats at Tip Top and a little bit of shopping.

   

   

Then it was time for the evening show.  The wind did die down just a bit and it was still snowing a little, but not as bad.  The best part was that we had a great audience this evening for the show!  Even bigger than Friday night (which was also quite good).  We had our usual dinner at Mama Mia and that pretty much closed out this trip.  Definitely a fun, snowy winter adventure.  See you next month Canaan!