Indiana

On Sunday, after I watched my graduate student present our paper, we packed our things and headed to the "L" for our trip back to the airport.

It was not time to fly home yet, but to rent a car and head to Indiana.  First stop, lunch at Whole Foods! Eden was excited about the store, but more so that they had carts just for her ...

Once we landed in Lafayette, we went by to visit the Madsens and their baseball team of youngins.

Quite an impressive garden, Farmer Maren!

Definitely a cute bunch of kiddos. We just wish we could have visited longer {and played a game of Settlers of Catan}.

We arranged to stay with Bart and Melanie, two of the most wonderful people we know and had the priviledge of working for while we were graduate students. Eden was excited because they have two kids, which means new toys! She spent quite a bit of time with the collection of American Girl dolls and accessories. Thankfully, Eden did go to sleep on her own, so we were able to stay up late ... Ashley talking to Melanie about advice for taking over as Basic Course Directer, and me talking to Bart about stats and such.

On Monday, we woke up and drove to see the house we lived in when Eden was born ...

... and the hospital (which is not open anymore) where she was actually born.

Then it was time for a quick trip to Purdue's campus

... and got to walk in the underground tunnel from the parking garage to our old building.

and lunch with friends. Ashley had a mini Frinks reunion with her good friend Gina ...

... and we also met up with Andy and Abigail, grad students from our time at Purdue.

Needless to say, Eden was happy to see where she was born, and we were excited to vist again (albeit for less than 20 total hours ... which is my way of saying "sorry" to those of you reading and in Lafayette who we did not get to see).