Mommy's 10 Year College Reunion: Boy She's Old!

Last weekend the three of us flew to Chicago for my 10-year college reunion. It was an exhausting but wonderful and fun weekend.

The flight there was the best flight with Katie so far -- there was an empty row of seats so she got her own seat in between us. Then we fed her some donut pieces at the beginning of the flight and she spent almost the entire flight bouncing in her seat and waving to everyone around us. When she started to crash after her sugar high, she fell asleep in my arms in minutes. Amazing. Thank God!

Once we landed, we decided to do a little sightseeing before my friends arrived. With our new GPS (thank you, Grammy and JayPa!), we were able to make several spontaneous detours without getting too lost. First up: Superdawg, a 1940s-style drive-in hot dog joint. John loved his burger, and the shake was so good we went back for a super sundae.


Next we drove over to Lakefront Drive to enjoy the views of Lake Michigan. We stopped long enough for John to hop out at Soldier Field and enjoy the spectacular architecture of the Chicago Bears' stadium.

That evening my three college roommates arrived, and spending time with Ruth, Karin, and Kelly (some of my best friends ever) was definitely the highlight of our trip. Here the roomies visit the suite where we first lived together our sophomore year (though we'd been inseparable since September of our freshman year):

We also lived together in an apartment our junior and senior years. Our senior year, we lived next door to an apartment that included Kelly's future husband, Jeff, as well as three other guys (Dan, Josh, and Jason) who became close friends. In this photo, that other apartment is represented by Rachel on the left, who was dating Dan that year and is now married to him with two kids; Josh making a muscle in the background; and Kelly on the right (my roommate and Jeff's wife) with one of their two children, Riley.

And here are the roomies with our unforgettable friend Duane.

While roommate time was wonderful, I also enjoyed my time reconnecting with friends I don't have as much contact with. Friday afternoon we met up with the professor I used to TA for who just got married for the first time at the age of 74! Then we met up with Emily and Morgan, a friend from home and her five year old daughter. And Sunday, just before we left to go home, we had lunch with one of my prayer partners from college, Amy, and her family (husband Kris, children Elena, Ian, and Anneliese). Here are photos from that fun afternoon:

Katie's highlights of the trip were playing with all the children she met -- Amy's three children, Kelly's daughter Riley, and Emily's daughter Morgan. She learned the word "baby" that weekend as well, and got to practice it on Anneliese. Unfortunately, a college campus isn't very babyproofed, and Katie has been sporting "war wounds" on her face this week from the four faceplants she did while in Illinois.