Jackson Goes to College

Doug and I took Jackson to Western Washington University on Sept 19! It's crazy we have a kid in college, and it's weird to just have 3 kids at home now. But it's also nice that he's only a couple hours away. He wasn't able to get a parking pass so when he wants to come visit he has to take the train or bus.

Saying goodbye to his siblings:

This is home for this school year! His roommate, Nick, arrived the day after he got there. Nick is a friend of Alli's, but Jackson didn't know him very well. Alli told us he the kind of person that is friends with everyone and is very outgoing. 

This was on their doors.

After moving his stuff in (it took us 2 trips to get it all so it was really quick!) we walked around the campus. It's pretty small so it didn't take long.

There's so many trees around! When we were driving to his dorm, it felt like we were driving to a campsite since were surrounded by trees.

We walked back to his dorm and helped him unpack a bit. He didn't bring a lot (if you look at his room at home, you'd think he didn't bring anything because it's sill full! He even left a bunch of clothes he doesn't want anymore:)) so it didn't take long, especially after we realized we didn't have any scissors to open up the hangers. 

This is about all he brought besides clothes, a fridge, laundry stuff and shower stuff. 

This is the view from his bed. Looks like he's camping right?

Next we went to Fred Meyer to get the few things he needed: scissors, tennis balls, wireless headphones. Then we picked up Papa Johns and went back to our hotel to watch the Thursday night football game. We dropped him back off at his dorm afterwards. The next morning we went back to his dorm. He wanted to figure out how the bus system works, so we helped him look it up, and then he rode the bus to a park and ride and we met him there. It went well and he realized it wasn't too hard. He was coming home on Sunday for Kenzie's birthday and to go to a Green Day concert (Thanks to Grandma's graduation present!) with Mason so he didn't have a lot of time to get used to the bus. Then we went to a park on the Puget Sound and walked around for a bit. 

Then ate some McDonald's before dropping him off one last time. The McDonald's had plastic, reusable containers for their food!

We were sad to leave him! It's bittersweet having your kids grow up and move away. He wasn't super excited about it since he doesn't really know anyone there, but when we saw him on Sunday he seemed happier and a little more excited. And since then, he seems to be having a great time. He joined the tennis club and made friends with a guy he convinced the join the tennis club too. That guy (I think his name might be Jake...) want wants to play tennis all the time, which Jackson loves! His classes have been going well and are so far easy for him. We miss him so much, but are happy he's happy :)