Day 62: Old Friends

Posted by: Cris

Today I took my girls on a long(ish) road trip to meet some old friends. So, we hit the road early this morning and headed toward Cincinnati.

I was anxious to see if there were any remnants still of Touchdown Jesus which sat in front of Solid Rock church on I-75 north of Cincinnati until it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground last spring. (If you aren't familiar with this icon/eyesore, google it).

As you can see, there is no evidence left of Touchdown Jesus or his charred remains. However, word is that they are planning to rebuild him so it is possible he will actually Rise Again. Before I decided that the best move I could make was to propose to Emilie and let her drag me to Hawaii, I spent a wonderful 6 years at Northern Kentucky University. This is where I started my career fresh out of grad school as an assistant Athletic Trainer then as the Head Athletic Trainer.

Since I left in 2005, the University has continued to grow and in the meantime, built the beautiful Bank of Kentucky Center which I had not yet seen. It is very awesome.

I got to see lots of old friends - coaches I worked closely with, my former team physician, other people who were part of the Athletic Department administrative staff with me and the current Head Athletic Trainer who not only was my #1 assistant and right hand when I was in charge but also one of my closest friends, Molly. She became the Heat Athletic Trainer when I left and I am so proud of her for the job she has done continuing and expanding to awesome new levels the stuff that she and I started when we were at NKU together. Molly had never met my girls in person but has followed them from day one on this blog so I was anxious for them to finally meet her.

After attending the basketball game and spending some time with the NKU gang, we headed to the north end of town to see another old set of friends, Jeremy and Kyla. Jeremy was one of my first Athletic Training students at NKU when I was first out of school and we ended up becoming very good friends along the way. Jeremy and Kyla actually made the trip to Hawaii in 2005 and Jeremy was the only person not in Emilie or my family who was in our wedding. So, we go way back but yet, I had never met his 2 boys and he had never met my girls.

We met up at a Cincinnati "shopping play" to let the kids get some energy out.

We all know that Nova loooooves babies so playing with 7 month old Caleb was a big hit.

Juneau is 4 months younger than Jonah so they ended hitting it off.

Jonah is a little more cautious of new crazy kids than Juneau with her "every person I meet is my best friend in 2 minutes" attitude so it took awhile of playing before they really got into it.

Nova, Caleb and Jonah

By the time we were ready to go get something to eat, the kids were having too much fun and weren't ready to leave.

You know you are "in" with Nova when she wants to hold your hand while walking out of the mall.

So, we left the mall and headed out to go see one of my other old friends:

Yes, feel free to make fun of me like my very own wife does - I'll admit it, I love CiCi's and Nova wholeheartedly agrees.

The four kids were as cute as could be at dinner.

Jeremy and Caleb:

After eating, Jonah and Juneau hit the game room and were having the time of their life playing on this driving game. They sat there forever giggling and playing some sort of game they had formulated.

When it was time to go, Nova was full of hugs...Jonah wasn't so sure. He has signs of being quite the ladies man, just like his dad.

By the time we hit the car for the drive to Grandma & Grandpa's, Juneau and Nova were both hopped up on sugar from cinnamon rolls and were goofy for the whole ride - untile we got about 5 minutes away at which point they both crashed and fell asleep...0f course.

It was such a great day getting to see so many old friends and reminisce about so many great times and let my girls meet all these folks who have been so important in my life.