Taylor's Homecoming

It's been a few weeks, but I had these pictures from our time at Taylor's Homecoming that I wanted to post. We combined a day at Homecoming with a family photography session with the very talented Traci Falder. Back in the day when we lived in Upland, Traci was just getting started with her photography business so she used us as "guinea pigs" and took some engagement photos for us. I knew she would only get better and I told her when we moved away that whenever we had kids we would come back and have her take our photos again. Liam's first birthday seemed like a good time to fulfill that promise. I probably could have taken him somewhere close by for one-year photos, but I knew Traci would do a great job capturing our whole family at this season of our lives. Although it was a very windy and chilly morning, we had a great time with the photo shoot. Liam was a ham at first, but then he fell down and scraped his chin and got cold so things went downhill fast. However, I am SO pleased with how the photos turned out and we are in the process of ordering some for our walls.

Per her instructions I can't post the whole gallery she sent us, but you can see most of the photos on her blog. (We're the fourth post down). If you live anywhere in the Upland area, I highly recommend her!

After our photo shoot, we met up with Rob's sisters - Kayla at Taylor and Lauren at Indiana Wesleyan - had lunch and ice cream at Ivanhoe's (obvious choice there) and briefly stopped by Kayla's boyfriend Chris' lacrosse game. It was too cold to stay long.

Cold and windy, windy game with the favorite aunties!

After visiting with some more friends, Rob headed off to take a tour of Taylor's new science building while Liam napped at my friend Miriam's house. Miriam and I have been friends for years and it was so good to spend some quality time catching up with her while our babies slept.

Rob looks good in a hard hat as he tours the science center

One major highlight of the day was going back to my old dorm, English Hall. I was with three other English girls and yes, we were the weird alums who come back and get all nostalgic to the girls who live there now. I even stood in the doorway of the room I lived in my freshman and sophomore year and took a photo (while the girls inside tried to look natural and not give me the evil eye for interrupting their Saturday) to send to my roommate, Ashley. I have so many good memories from that room and dorm that I couldn't resist. But wow, it feels so small and dark in there! I suppose when you are in college you just don't care, but it's amazing we didn't all go crazy. Or maybe we did and just choose not remember those times...

Back on my old wing, 2nd South!

English girls!

We also took a detour down to the converted health center, affectionately called "The Haak" where three of us lived. That was even more weird because it still smells exactly the same four years later! How is that possible? I only lived there for one semester of my senior year when Rob was in Spain and Ashley was getting married in March. There are some very, very good memories from that semester.

Oh the Haak. Katie and Kerrie made those days much sweeter.

We ended the day with this obvious picture and more ice cream from Ivanhoe's with the one and only Ben Taylor.

It was great to be back to Taylor for a day because we do have such a soft spot for the windblown place. It's where we fell in love and learned and grew in part to be the people we are today. There are days I do miss college, but that feeling gets smaller and smaller as I get older and love the season we are in now. Next year is my five year reunion already so I'm sure we will be back again.