Eric was invited to give a presentation at his medical school, The University of Illinois, at their annual retreat. We decided that we would all go along and show the boys that there was more to college than just sports!
Eric had a dinner to attend on Friday night that didn't include us, so we spent the evening at the student union bowling, eating pizza, playing pin ball and video games. While the kids bowled, a friend from our days of living in Champaign came to visit and catch up with us, which I really enjoyed!
I'm not so sure our plan of teaching the kids about the academic side of college is working out so well. They tell me their favorite part of the weekend was playing free pinball in the union!
It happened to be move in weekend for all of the students at U of I. The union was packed with students and activities until late into the night. We did our best to fit in with our pretzels and smoothies.
When Eric returned from his dinner, Ben and he went to party a little more with the students. Nick and Sam were content back in our quiet hotel room!
Saturday morning we explored the quad, checking out some of the buildings where Eric had classes as an undergrad and graduate student.
There were a ton of squirrels on the campus and Ben really had fun chasing them literally up the trees!
Eric and I began dating the summer before his senior year. At that same time he worked in a lab at Burrill Hall. He continued to work here during graduate school completing his research for his PhD. During those early years of dating I would go hang out him when he had a late night experiment to do on an unfortunate rat!
The Alma Mater.
We met in an "establishment" on this corner, 25 years ago! It's now a fast food restaurant!
After a quick trip to the book store to purchase more orange and blue apparel, we went out to Allerton Park in Monticello, IL where the conference was held.
Allerton Park is huge expanding over 1500 acres with trails, prairies, formal gardens, a pond, and a conference center for the University of Illinois. It was built as a mansion in 1900 by Robert Allerton. Allerton was an art collector and replicas of his favorite sculptures are displayed throughout the park. Many of the originals are on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1946 he gave the land to the University. It is used by U of I for retreats, education and research as well. The grounds are open to the public.
While Eric attended the conference and boys and I explored the grounds. I have fond memories of coming out to Allerton Park with Eric while we lived in the area. It was fun to share those memories with our 3 boys, although, they weren't as excited about it all as I was! They did have fun running, tackling and later on feeding the fish in the pond. It was pretty warm that afternoon.
We caught up with Eric in-between meetings for a little frisbee time.
After our day in the park we cleaned up and went to the cocktail hour and dinner with the other conference attendees. Then it was time for Eric to speak. They boys sat quietly throughout his one hour talk and were so well behaved and polite throughout the entire night making us very proud!
3 sleepy boys.
I never get tired of seeing these 3 sleeping peacefully together!
They aren't going to fit into one bed for much longer!
