A Purdue reunion weekend!

It's become a tradition that each year, my dearest friend, Dawn and I have a Purdue football reunion. This was a weekend that I have been looking forward to for months!!!! After agonizing over which game to go to, we passed up the amazing win over OSU and chose to go to the UofI game this past weekend...however, we quickly got over our regret of not going to the OSU game when we still pulled off a great game & win against UofI.

Cory was so sweet to watch Owen all day while Dawn and I headed to campus for a day full of fun. We did some shopping first, as Owen needed his first Purdue gear :) It was hard to not go overboard and buy him one of everything, ha! Then we headed to our beloved Harry's and were lucky enough to land a booth! While the bartenders and students have changed, the overall feel of Harry's remains just as it was back when we were the students. I learned that I cannot stomach the same adult beverages that I used to be able to (ha!) when I was student...and that lemondrops, midori sours and diet coke & amaretto never change :) Believe it or not, we did see some people we knew at Harry's.....and had some familiar drinks followed by the best popcorn ever :)

Here's Dawn with her early AM screwdriver:

Julie & Dawn '09:

We had the most FANTASTIC seats ever....row #1 on the 25 yard line!

The famous student section Purdue "P's":

Play action right in front of us!

Final score! Hammer down, Boiler up!

It was seriously FREEZING at the game...and you know for me to be cold it must be freezing! Thankfully, we brought a blanket with us :)

Owen sporting one of his new Purdue onesies :) My little future Boilermaker <3

This was just before we had to drive Dawn back to the airport....Owen sporting his Purdue pride and Dawn supporting our most favorite QB of all time Drew Brees!

Each year we go back to Purdue it gets harder and harder to believe that we spent 4 years of our lives there....that was our home away from home. Part of me misses it greatly, but I know that my time at Purdue helped to shape me into the person I am today. I'm grateful that I'm able to give back, in a sort of way, by teaching for the school of nursing. Hopefully helping to inspire future generations of nurses just like my professors did for me. I'm so proud to see how much our campus has grown & changed, but at the same time it's also sad....it's not the same Purdue that I remember, which makes me feel old, ha!

I don't think we ever get enough time with Dawn when she is here. It was so hard to watch her leave...she truly is like a sister to me. I feel so blessed to have such a dear friend who, despite the distance between our home states will travel to see us and be part of ours & Owen's life. We don't know when we'll be getting together again, but it can't be soon enough....we LOVE you Dawn :)