Good ol' Normal

Last Saturday we went to Normal, IL for an ISU roommate reunion.  We started off at the Children's Museum which is located in Uptown Normal.  A whole new "fancy" part of town that did not exist while I was attending ISU. 

I was trying to remember the name of the place that had really good bread, sandwiches and pizza while at ISU...AVANTI'S, thanks Henry!

 

Dr. Werth is trying to take care of Joe's teeth!

 

After lots of fun at the Children's Museum we walked to the Pub II (an old hangout) for lunch.  It didn't seem like their prices had changed much...still really cheap for all those poor college students.  We enjoyed reminiscing at lunch while eating fried cheese balls and pizza burgers.

 

After lunch we were hoping to freshen up some of our old ISU t-shirts, etc. with a stop at the Alamo II bookstore.  Sadly, it's summer hours on Saturday's are very short.  It closed 15 minutes before we arrived, 11 AM - 2 PM...nice, I want those hours!  Bummed, we continued our walk to the quad for some more trips down memory lane.

 

 

Here we all are, the ISU college alumni on the quad.  Josh and Laura, with kids Sadie (4) and Clara (almost 2), Jeremy and Jolene, with their kids Lucy (3) and Mary (9 months), Jalene and Henry (3 1/2) and Derek and Jennifer with Skyler (4 1/2).  Since Joe went to the University of Illinois, he was nice enough to take the picture of all of us.  All of my roommates met their husbands at ISU too.

 

 

My roommates and I in front of our old dorms Manchester (on the left) and Hewett. 

Laura, my roommate junior year; me; Jennifer, my roommate all four years (we were so lucky); and Jolene my roommate junior and senior year.  Jennifer and I lived in Hewett (an all girls dorm) our freshmen year and we lived in Manchester our sophomore year (a coed dorm).  On the way back to their car, Jennifer and Derek stopped in and checked out Manchester.  They said the lobby, dining center and hallways/common areas on the floors changed drastically.  Now, I wish we stopped in to check it out too.

 

After our campus wanderings we went to the hotel where Jolene and Laura were staying so the kids could play in the pool.

 

After all the fun in the pool we ordered pizza and continued to catch up and reminisce.

 

Henry conked out real fast in the car and slept the whole way home.  He was a bit crabby during the transfer from the car to bed but that's normal, he never transitions well.  Sunday morning, he woke up at 6:30 AM to go potty and then (thankfully) went back to bed until 9 AM.  Wow, we really did wear him out.  It was a fun day and it was great to see EVERYBODY this year.  We are already looking forward to next year's reunion.