Blacksburg...a little piece of heaven

A month ago, we loaded up and drove to Blacksburg, Virginia.  I've only been back once since I've graduated, so I figured it was time!  It also helped that my old roomie, Colleen, had planned to meet us there.  We were very excited to meet her little boy, Tyler, for the first time.  Virginia Tech has changed quite a bit since we were there 10 years ago, but we had lots of fun and it felt so good to be home! 

Our first stop (after the hotel), was the drillfield and Burruss Hall.  We had not seen the memorial dedicated to the victims of the shootings on April 16, 2007.  It was very sobering to see all of the Hokie stones representing the victims.  You can see both Burruss and part of the memorial in the background.

We went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Rodeo, for dinner that night.  Of course, Colleen and I felt really old being at our old stomping grounds with babies!

The next day started with a trip to the duck pond.  Braeden got a kick out of seeing all of the ducks, although some of them were a little aggressive.  It was so great to be back in a spot that has so many memories!

 

Here's another picture of the family on the drillfield in front of Burruss Hall.  I love Hokie stone!

Everywhere in Blacksburg, there are Hokie statues.  Our favorite one was right in front of the hotel.

We finished up Saturday by driving around and looking at all of the places we used to live and eating at Backstreet's and then heading back to the hotel.  My how times have changed, that we had to be back by 8 o'clock to get the little boys in bed!  The big boys headed to the lobby to watch the LSU/Alabama game while Colleen and I got the boys to bed.  Our plan was that once both boys fell asleep, we'd put both of them in the same room and hang out in the other.  We managed to get both of the boys to sleep, and then I rolled Braeden in his baby jail over to the other room.  We hooked up the monitors, headed back to my room and cracked open a bottle of wine.  We were very much looking forward to relaxing and catching up.  And that lasted for about 15 minutes before Tyler woke up crying.  Oh well, we tried!

The next morning, before leaving, we went walking on the Huckleberry Trail and went to see the stadium.  You can see the stadium in the background of the second picture. The views from the Huckleberry and around campus are gorgeous.  I really miss the mountains sometimes, but I'm still not sure how I survived 5 winters up there.

We had a little fun around the stadium, and I love the "new" sign up by the stadium..who knows how long it's been there!  Colleen and I are hoping we can retake this picture in about 18 years when the boys will be students there.

And my favorite picture...we're not banking on Braeden getting a football scholarship!  Poor guy!