This past week we dropped Krypto off at Liberty University for his freshman year.
It was an incredibly exciting time for all of us and we had a bunch of fun experiencing all that LU has to offer.
The kids, in the car and all packed up for the drive north.
The Liberty Parents group on Facebook had a Tetris Challenge about packing our cars to take the kids to college....here is the back of our 2002 Chrysler Town and Country...it's still hanging in there after 225K+ miles. She's a real trooper.
And, we used the car top carrier. Indy and Gwangi shared the red suitcase for the week. Sissi and I shared the purple one. The blue one is Krypto's that he uses as an airline carryon and then one of his new duffle bags that he'll use to move himself each year. The glory of the duffle bag, as opposed to the plastic bins we usually use on airlines, is that they can fold down and don't take up much space during the school year. Since we won't be here next year to move him out and then back in again in the fall, bringing plastic bins wasn't a good idea and he can keep the duffle bags with him in his room at school.
We took a day to do a bit of sight seeing in the area. We went to the Caverns at Natural Bridge.
They have an extensive network of underground caves that were really neat to walk through.
My family, about 300 ft. underground.
Going on the tour and hearing about the history of these caves, discovered in the late 1800's.
My new LU freshman.
My Gwangi.
Indy and I, photo credit to Sissi.
Then, we enjoyed our picnic lunch and headed over to the Natural Bridge State Park.
It's a lovely area that was surveyed by George Washington and then later owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Family selfie.
And then a wonderful family asked us to take their photo and they took ours in return...much better.
The Natural Bridge. They still have Virginia Highway 11 that runs across the top of the rock formation.
Taking a break on the hike.
Lovely flowers along the way.
Lace Falls. We couldn't get any closer, but it was really pretty and the water running over the rocks did look like a lace pattern. Too bad the photo can't show that motion that we can see with our eyes.
A surveying emblem from George Washington.
A "Love" sign out in front of Natural Bridge State Park Visitor's Center.
Then, we drove up to Lexington for the night and enjoyed some time wandering around VMI and Washington and Lee and the downtown area. We met a cool bookstore owner of "The Historian's Books" and ate at a local place that was excellent called Macado's.
Here we are, at Macado's, and they are advertising for Washington and Lee...a school that Sissi is now interested in attending.
The next day was move-in!
We drove up amidst so many other cars, but with these red bins, they had us unloaded and moving toward the elevators in a matter of minutes.
After 2 hours, this was what we accomplished.
And this...just hoping his closet stays this neat and organized. I kind of have a thing about closets ;)!
Meeting the roommate's family and talking about shared interests and experiences.
Krypto's roommate grew up in Russia, so that is super cool.
Krypto's bookshelf that he purchased with some of his graduation money.
Krypto's roommate's sister and Sissi are the same age, so they got to spend some time getting to know each other.
Krypto with his roommate, Aidan.
The boys' room.
Another photo of the two guys.
The sink area in their room, which is across from their closets.
Their bathroom. Nice, huh...they have their own bathroom.
All clean and organized and ready for the year.
After walking around campus to pick up textbooks and find all of Krypto's classrooms, we attended the Air Force ROTC in-processing briefing.
The parents walked out for a bit, for a Q&A session, and the candidates (students) started their training and then we were able to rejoin them for pizza. At that point, Krypto had already connected with his wingmen and they were making plans for how to get to the PT field the next morning at 0530.
Last photo with the family before we left Krypto on Wednesday night.
The rain was moving in, for sure.
At the hotel....do you think this ice cream sandwich helped me to feel a bit better when I felt the tears welling up in my eyes?!
The next morning we had a coffee meeting with a local pastor, so we spent some time looking around the off campus amenities, ie. Walmart. They had quite the LU Spirit Gear section.
And then there were four of us.
I started a new family WhatsApp chat so we wouldn't spam Krypto with our conversations...it's called the Fab Four, lol!
Super neat local coffee shop where we met the pastor. Hoping that Krypto will make some amazing connections there and we'll be back in a month to visit.
Coming home, I got some special cards from a friend who runs an Etsy shop, 5 Sparrows Studio.
We sent Krypto his first mail at LU.
And, we put a Liberty Flames license plate holder on the car from Indy's mom that will eventually be with Krypto up at school.
On Saturday we took a day trip up to Liberty, so we could see our newly graduated CADET (no longer a candidate with AFROTC) and meet up with our long time friends, the Weltons, who were also moving their girls back into Liberty.
Family photo. Might not be by the famous doors in Wittenberg this time, but we love this family bunches!
Walk through the bookstore while waiting for Krypto to pick up one final textbook that came in separately from his other books.
A sign on the wall in the bookstore.
Next up to get his book.
This line....ahhhh!
And walking back to the dorm, we had to take pictures by the LU sign.
With each kid...
#3, too.
And then all three together!
This year is the 50th Anniversary of Liberty University.
Yes, it was founded in 1971.
These signs are all over the university.
Each of the buildings has one as well.
And, they have the return of the LU rock that people can write on and paint.
This is Krypto's dorm. He lives in Commons 2, on the 2nd floor which is the Honors floor. Should be nice and quiet and academic since they are all honors students, right?!
Another view of his dorm.
The elevators inside his dorm.
Sitting on his floor, playing a game of Unmatched before we head on out.
Gwangi got to connect with Aidan about computer stuff.
They both have a shared love of all things computers.
