After we dropped the girls off, we drove around until we found somewhere we wanted to eat. We stopped at Texas Roadhouse--always a favorite!

Cora and I were messaging back and forth, and decided we would all meet up back at Cap in the Conservatory in the fishbowl!  She and Josh were SO kind to drive  up from Jackson to spend a little time with us while their girls were competing in a writing competition today.

OHHHH, it did my heart good to see and hug these guys!!!

Since our decision to get to Columbus was pretty last minute, and we knew we wouldn't even be around for 24 hours, Cora and Josh were the only people I contacted to see if they would be around.  It turned out, it had been a few years since they'd been on campus too.

We actually just stayed in the fishbowl (lobby) and just talked and talked for a couple hours!  Then we all went into watch the end of the choral workshop.

Afterwards, we walked across the street to Graeter's!

The world's best ice cream, and some of the world's best friends!

These guys were tired, but pretty happy about the ice cream!  

We sat and chatted for a couple more hours after we finished our ice cream, and I think it was about 6:30 when we finally said goodbye to Cora and Josh and headed out.  

Jeremy decided we would try to make it all the way back home tonight, rather than spend another $150 for a hotel room.  We reached Indiana just before 8:15.  It was still raining, as it had been all weekend.

About 10 minutes later, the rain turned to sleet, then snow!  Big snow flakes, falling fast!

It started sticking to the roads and everything else!  We started seeing cars, pickups, and even horse trailer that had gone off the interstate in the snow, and I started looking online for the closest hotel we could book!  

I booked a room in Greenfield, Indiana, about half an hour east yet of Indianapolis, but we still had half an hour to get there in the snow and mess that was accumulating!

Hello Country Inn and Suites.

We stopped at Culver's, basically across the road from the hotel for a quick late supper.  The storm was so bad, the power kept going off in the restaurant. Many times their generator kicked in while we tried to finish eating quickly!

We stopped at Walmart quickly so Jeremy could "run in" and get something, and his shoes got ruined in the snow and slush that covered the parking lot!  

We went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.  It was a bummer not to make it home, but we were grateful to be safe and off the road!!!

Young Choral Artists Workshop with Eric Whitacre

The thing that finally got us back to Columbus this weekend (after 15 years) was the fact that both Annah and Sylvia received invitations from Dr. Hasseler (Director of the Capital University Chapel Choir) to participate in this event...with Eric Whitacre!  Annah doesn't outright ask for a lot of things, so when she asked if she could go, her daddy wanted to make it happen!  And when Sylvia got an invitation too, we signed them both up!

We left them at the door of Mees Hall around noon, knowing they were going to have an AWESOME experience!

We came back just after 3:00 and caught a little bit of the Chapel Choir and Philomel performing for the rest of the workshop participants.

We watched as Eric Whitacre answered questions for the workshop participants, and offered great advice with a sense of humor and honesty.  

He was fascinating to listen to.

To end their time together, all of the workshop participants joined the Chapel Choir in a huge group circle as Eric Whitacre conducted them from the center and they sang his work Sleep.

I'm not sure where Annah was within the group at this point, but you can almost see Eric Whitacre's smiling profile to the right of the girl wearing the purple "Young Choral Artists" t-shirt.  Sylvia is toward the right with a burgundy top and gold flowered pants.

My recording is terrible, because I had to stifle a cough during the middle of the piece. As I was reaching for my bottle of water in my purse, Cora took my phone to rescue me.  So, it's bumpy!  But they sound amazing!

They took section photos with Eric Whitacre after.  

Annah is in the second row, second from the left.

Sopranos!

Altos!

Sylvia is in the front row, 3 from the right.

The girls had an absolutely wonderful time, and were so glad to have had the opportunity to sing with and learn from Dr. Hasseler and the Chapel Choir and Eric Whitacre!

A little tour of Cap

Breakfast at our hotel was lovely this morning.  We ate in shifts, since everyone was getting up and around at different times.  Jeremy and I were up early and had breakfast and ran to Walmart before the kids had really budged from bed.  

I went down to breakfast with Caeden so he didn't have to eat alone.  He made himself a waffle, and had FruitLoops too, since I never buy them.

Sylvia joined us soon.

And I went back down to breakfast again when Annah was ready.

As we'd gotten off the interstate at the exit to go to Capital, Jeremy and I were reminiscing about the Rally's (still there!) he and Seth used to eat at every day, and the kids asked to see where his apartment was.  We had some extra time, so Jeremy drove back around, and we found it.  

It was pretty scary when he lived there, but now it is obviously not being lived in.  It looks like they've started at the front of the complex and are renovating their way back a bit at a time. We were actually kind of glad to see no one was living in the building anymore.

We stopped at the very busy Starbucks in Bexley to get the girls some high calorie drinks to get them through their afternoon.  Then we headed to campus.  It was pretty emotional for me to see Cap again...mostly in a good way. 

Part of the seminary (which is now part of Capital again), as we drove by...

The gate "entrance" to Capital University--with the front of Mees Hall (Conservatory of Music) through the trees...

We parked in the lot across from Cotterman Hall, where I lived my freshman year.

The window outside Allison's and my freshman room on the corner!  I still remember when they put down mulch our first spring and it took us a few days to figure out what that weird smell was!  

We walked into Moores campus center, hoping the bookstore would be open, but it wasn't.  Annah, Caeden and I went down to the basement to see if the Cabaret Theater was open...It wasn't either, but we saw the wall of posters from the shows that have been performed there. I was in one show there--Children of Eden, which remains one of my very favorite theatre experiences ever!

We walked by Schroedinger-Setterlin Hall (SS) where I lived the other 3 years at Cap.  (We also passed Schaaf Hall, where Jeremy lived for a bit, but he didn't want a picture of that.)

After graduating, when I worked for Admission, our offices were still in Yochum Hall.  Now they are across the street in what used to be the Physical Plant, but no one was there today.

Mound Street was open to cars when we were last here, but now it is paved with bricks and features fountains.  

It's so nice!  I'm glad they finally closed it to traffic!

Jeremy, leading the kids across campus...

Kerns Religious Life Center and Kable Chapel 

Looking towards the classroom buildings in the quad

Heading into Blackmore Library

Don't step on the seal!

Inside the library...It's been updated a lot, but still smells exactly the same.  It was funny to me how all the places on campus still smell the same as they did 20 years ago.  Really triggers the memories!

School newspapers

The front of the beautiful Conservatory of Music and Mees Hall

We walked through the building with the kids, and saw classrooms (neat to see 2 of my classmates names on the doors as they're now professors!), practice rooms... 

...some of them still look exactly the same...

...and some have much nicer pianos!

Huntington Recital Hall still looks, feels, and sounds exactly the same.  I performed here so many times...such lovely experiences and good memories.