Ole Miss Reunion Weekend

We took our first trip as a family of four this past weekend to Oxford, Mississippi. We rented a minivan  (or "money-van"as Tate called it) for the occasion and drove 1200 miles with a 3-year-old and 6-week-old. Amazingly, we lived to tell about it...

We were there for the 100th Anniversary of The Daily Mississippian, the student paper of Ole Miss. Rob, his father, and I all served as editor of The DM when we were students. Rob's mother was managing editor. The family distinction was referenced several times during the weekend.

Charles Overby recognizes Jimmy, Rob and me at one of the events.
(Why did I even bother straightening my hair in Mississippi??) 

Several of our colleagues/dearest friends from The DM also came back for the reunion and we had a fun night out with them remembering some of the crazier moments from our newspaper days. It had been 13 years since we had all been together but it felt like nothing had changed.

Emily Boling Giffen, me, Natashia Gregoire

Rob, Chris Shaw, John Scanlon

One thing that DID change was that we were all up early at breakfast together after a night out...not because we had stayed out all night, but because we all have toddlers:

In addition to the DM Reunion being a family affair for us, it was a grandparents affair for Tate and Lily Jane. My parents graciously came to Oxford to be our "traveling nannies" so we could enjoy the events without worrying about finding a babysitter out of town. This meant that Tate and LJ got to spend time with all THREE sets of grandparents in the same town at one time. We don't think that will happen again until graduations or weddings...and we can't take any more visits like that anyway because of how supremely spoiled they were the whole weekend!

There was Big Guy and Mia (not pictured) taking them for a walk around campus:

There was Poppy and Linda (not pictured) giving zerberts:

And there was Nanny-sippi offering ice cream:

It was also the first time Nanny-sippi had seen Lily Jane:

Tate was soaking up the attention (and presents) while Lily Jane just chilled most of the weekend...

And after a weekend of celebrating the fact we worked for the paper, we actually made it in the paper via news story and not via byline:

Such a great weekend of family, friends and college memories!