Good Things Lately

It has been a very good long President's Day weekend. It started out last Wednesday when I picked Casey up from school for our New England college visit trip. She gets in the car and informs me that she was named National Merit Finalist and had the presentation and picture taking done that day. We had a feeling that she was a finalist but this made it official.

We drove all the way to Sarasota Springs, New York before we stopped for the night. After a nice relaxing dinner and walk around a mall we got a good night's sleep before heading to Middlebury College for an afternoon tour. Along the way we saw ice fisherman on the lake. That was an amazing site. We did the Middlebury tour and it was just okay, so on to Dartmouth the next day. We didn't have cell phone service at the hotel we were at so we headed into New Hampshire to have dinner and make calls. On the way there, Casey answered my phone and it was my brother Jim calling to inform me that Michelle had the baby that day - a little boy named Andrew James Gallant. We were so happy. I told Jim I would call him back when I stopped the car, but when I did he wasn't available. Anyways, we had dinner and called Larry and Greg but they weren't home. Back to the hotel to get some rest before heading to Dartmouth in the morning. The next morning, I asked Casey to call home and let them know that we were okay and about 15 minutes from Dartmouth. She is talking to Larry and then starts screaming. She had just found out that she was accepted at Dartmouth and the Dean of Admissions wrote her a letter to let her know that her application was exceptional and he could without a doubt tell her that she was being accepted into Dartmouth. Needless to say, the tour of Dartmouth was great and Casey truly felt that she could spend 4 years of school there. Getting accepted to Dartmouth, put Middlebury and Smith out of the picture.

From Hanover, we drove to Concord, MA for our tour of Harvard Saturday morning. Not too impressed with it and even if she is accepted, she will probably not go to Harvard. Casey, unfortunately, was not feeling well so we didn't go into the city on Saturday and headed home on Sunday, not visiting Brown. If she gets accepted to Brown, we will visit it then. She does have an interview with them.

So overall it was a great trip and nice to be back home with Larry and Greg and the critters. We enjoyed a very quite President's Day and now everyone is back to work and school (except me as I am still collecting unemployment).