Hocking Hills and Athens Birthday!

28. That's two years until 30. Eek.

We spent the morning and afternoon of my birthday in Hocking Hills and went to Athens for dinner. I love me some Athens. Life is good when you are at OU. But as much as I love my happy place, it was different this time. Toscanos was no longer. Kris and I had our first date at Toscanos. We ate there for our first four anniversaries. Kris proposed to me at that restaurant on our three year anniversary. We walked by in hopes that the news we heard was wrong. It wasn't. I was looking forward to getting a yummy decaf coffee drink from Perks, but it was no longer called Perks so I didn't feel right going in it. I also had plans to go to Coldstone but it was now a new ice cream shop. We planned to eat at Stephens that night but it also was no longer Stephens. The new place still looked like a nice restaurant, but they had a water main break that day so they were closed. We ended up having an absolutely amazing meal at Lui Lui though! Seafood, duck...yum yum! While many of the restaurants had changed, the most important thing, the bars, were the same for the most part, filled with versions of ourselves from six years ago.

We no longer felt like we owned this wonderful town. We had passed down the crazy nights out with our friends to "kids" who we hope appreciate college life as much as we did for it's such a special, memorable time. As Kris and I talked about how Athens changed, we realized that we actually changed more. We grew up. We're married. With real jobs. And a mortgage. And a baby. Life was wonderful while in college. And it's wonderful now. We're sad that Athens isn't the same, but cherish our memories and can't wait for more time there with Parker!

Parker loves moving her arms around like crazy when she is excited. It's safe to say that she loved Athens! And I loved being on College Green with her!