A great trip with Janey, but missing her brothers!

On Saturday, we headed out to upstate New York to take Freddy to college.  He is going to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.  I must say that overall, in terms of Janey, it was a hugely successful trip.  She is a great traveler!  We kept looking for wood to knock on over and over, as we commented on how well she was doing.  I think if we took every minute of screaming and tantruming from the whole over 2 day trip, it wouldn't add up to more than half an hour---which is incredibly good.

Of course, the trip was hard on me anyway!  I had a hard time saying goodbye to Freddy.  He's an incredible kid, and it will feel very strange not having either him or his equally incredible brother William at home.  For now, it's just the three of us---Tony, Janey and me.  But as I said to Tony at one point, I'm feeling a little more optimistic about the future after seeing how well Janey did on the road.

Janey digging in at the Chinese buffet

Part of what made it work is that we kept things very low key.  Janey loves just being in the car, driving around, and Tony and I do too.  We rented a big SUV for the trip, which we loved!  Our car is an old Saturn with almost no modern features, not even automatic windows or a consistently working car radio, but the Ford Explorer we rented had everything.  We kept joking it was like we were suddenly in the world of the future.  I especially loved the Sirius Radio.  I wanted to explore all the stations, but Janey has a routine of listening to certain music in the car, mix disks that Tony has compiled, and to keep her happy, when she asked for "Disk?  Disk, please!  Disk"  we put one of hers on.  We also didn't try to do anything touristy besides driving around and looking at things.  We didn't try eating out except for quick places like fast food or a Chinese buffet on the way home, and we didn't visit local landmarks, except by driving by them.

The fancy lobby of the hotel.  The rooms were NOT as fancy!

I was very worried about the hotel.  It's racing season in Saratoga Springs, so all the hotels there were either fully booked or exceedingly expensive, so we stayed in a neighboring town in the hotel that made my Priceline offer.  It turned out to be a very old, once grand but no longer hotel.  I read reviews of it that mentioned the thin walls and the complaints about noise, and I could picture Janey's screaming getting us kicked out.  However, even with internet that didn't work at all the first night, Janey didn't scream!  When she got a little loud, I said in an exaggerated whisper "We have to be very quiet at hotel houses.  Shhhhh!"  Janey found that hysterical and started walking around imitating me, but in a whisper, which worked well for keeping her voice down!

One of the best parts of the trip was swimming.  The hotel had a lovely pool, and we used it mid-day, and had the whole pool completely to ourselves for over an hour.  Janey loved being in the water!  We also went into the hot tub next to the pool with her for a little bit, and that was amazing.  For the 10 or so minutes we were in there, she was completely quiet and calm.  We all three just sat there, enjoying the heat.  I can't remember, ever ever ever, having a time like that with the three of us.  Tony and I kept looking at each other in wonder.

Tony waving goodbye to Janey on her first day of 5th grade

We got back Monday night, and Tuesday morning early (6:30!) Janey got on the bus for the first day of school.  Evidently, things went well.  The bus was an hour late getting home, due to first day glitches and the hot weather, but Janey took it in stride and seemed perfectly happy getting off.

So now, we start the next phase of our lives, what will probably be the phase until we are gone, the three person family.  Of course, the boys will be home for vacations and summers, and I can't wait.  But it's never going to be quite the same.  I was surprised by the depth of my emotions at having both boys gone.  I kept thinking about how it seems only a few days ago they were toddlers, and I would think "Can't they ever go a second without needing me?"  Now they are adults.  It goes far too fast.  Even with Janey, where time sometimes seems to stand still.  She is almost as tall as I am.  None of the clothes I had set aside for the first day of 5th grade fit her.  We share shoes.  She is growing up too.  The future comes rushing at us relentlessly.  Best of luck, my college junior and my college freshman and my 5th grader.  I love you three.