first day of school!

Liesl in 10th grade! 

And Seb on his first day of classes at Gonzaga! Love that he took this pic for me!

Spokane

Steve and I enjoyed wandering around and exploring Gonzaga and Spokane. What a great college campus and terrific small city! I love the riverfront area -- so many trails and parks and bridges.

Seb's dorm, Catherine-Monica Hall.

A carousel, all lit up, and an enormous Radio Flyer slide. If we'd had any small children with us, we would have taken advantage of these fun things!

Love this high prairie sky on the drive home.

 

Jazzy was so happy to see us. 

Seb goes to Gonzaga

We left on Thursday afternoon to drive Seb up to Gonzaga University in Spokane for his first year. He's really excited; we think it's a great fit; he's absolutely ready for this next adventure. But still, change is hard, and it's the end of this stage. 

But first: Seb's birthday present to Steve, a Barcelona jersey. And the three of us at an afternoon Thorns game last weekend.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Seb and his roommate Asher (a fellow Portlander) decided to loft their beds as high as possible, so as to make room for a couch and tv/Xbox set up underneath. It's a little high and close to the ceiling, but they seem happy and their room is definitely a space to hang out. 

 

 

The final look, with new couch and rug, and LED lights.  

 

Noah Kahan

We did something crazy and fun -- we flew to Salt Lake City to see Liesl's favorite musician, Noah Kahan, in concert on Tuesday night. He's a folk/pop singer/songwriter from Vermont, and she listens to all of his music all of the time. We bought tickets as soon as they became available in February -- unfortunately, he didn't come to Portland, so our options were Salt Lake, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Seattle dates overlapped with Seb's college move-in, so SLC it was.

 

Tuesday morning flight! 

 

All dressed up for the show! Liesl is wearing my fabulous high-heeled red boots from early NYC days -- probably 25-30 years old. And she got her nails done by a friend, 10 different designs all referencing different songs.

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful night in Utah. 

 

 

 

 

We bought tshirts and a hoodie from the merch tent. Our seats were amazing, on the floor, right next to the walkway where Noah occasionally walked off the main stage and into the crowd.

 

The concert was amazing. The set design used both real and video elements to evoke a classic New England house, and played mini-movies of Vermont countryside in the background. We sang along, and danced, and flashed our wristband lights along with everyone else. Liesl was so, so happy.  

 

And then we had to slowly work our way out of the stadium, walk half a mile away to get clear of the traffic, wait for a Lyft, and crash into bed at midnight. Alarms went off at 7am so we could make an early flight, and I could be at work by noon for a work event. Phew!

the Raabs take LA

Steve flew down to LA to visit Tom for a week -- Tom is embarking on chemo for lung cancer, and so nearly the whole Raab fam went to hang out together. The visit days overlapped with Steve's birthday, so they got to celebrate his 50th, yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a lot of touring around LA, and eating.

 

 

The great matcha quest...