Re-union-i-ted (and it feels so good)

Pictured: 

Front: Stacy, Lori, Lani, Mike, Travis, Christy;

Middle:  Brian, Todd, Darren, LaNay, Bob, Leslie, Crystal, Shelli

Back:  Don, Paul, Darren, Matt, Christina, Kaisha, me, Heidi

Missing:  Karen, Michelle

I'll admit - I'm not very good at staying in touch with old friends.  Facebook has helped.  This weekend reminded me why it's so important as I got to meet up with friends from high school, Ricks, and BYU. 

I won't mention the number of years since I graduated, but it's a lot.  Strangely, I was nervous.  I was a different person in many ways in high school.  I was a lot more shy, probably a little more judgmental, and definitely had more hair (okay, we all had more hair - it was the eighties, after all!) and less around the middle.  Sometimes, I'll fall back into that seventeen year old when I meet with old acquaintances.  I still tend to think of someone as "too popular to talk to" or "may not share my values".  It's dumb thinking - there is likely more in common than different and no one measures popularity after you "crash through the double doors" (thanks John Meyer).  I said a little prayer in the car that I could be more like I am versus how I was.

Night one - I picked up one of my best friends from high school, Lezlie.  Lezlie and I usually end up being each other's "date" for the reunions because her husband usually has to work.  Truthfully, it makes it easier.  Her family wasn't able to make it so it worked out for me to have someone to go with.  It was fun to go to her house.  I spend a lot of fun times at her house.  Lezlie basically had the basement to herself growing up so we used to spend a lot of time there.  It was fun to see her parents.  Her youngest brother, I found out, works at Melaleuca.  Small world.  She is as bubbly as ever.  She lives in Alaska, but we keep in contact. 

We had a get-together at Papa Tom's.  Surprisingly, the pizza was better than I remembered - and all of the people were too!  When we arrived, we were the first ones there.  We then saw LaNay.  She was telling us about the lack of turnout - less than 10% of our graduating class.  I saw some people that I knew, but didn't know well so I was a little nervous about the evening.  However, Lezlie and I had talked earlier that we weren't planning on staying long - boy, we didn't need a backup plan because everyone was gracious and fun to visit with.

Then some of my old friends came in the door - Charlene and Tricia.  I don't think I have seen Charlene since the summer after graduation.  However, she looks and acts very much the same - in a good way.  Tricia lives here in town and I NEVER see her.  She's not much for Facebook so it's hard to stay in touch.  Others joined in.

As much as I wanted to branch out and mingle, I didn't do as well as I wanted.  Some left early and my feet just froze to move to a different table.  But I talked to Travis and his wife - Travis is a pastor in the Bay area.  He's someone that I thought was anti-religion in high school.  His wife is from Singapore so it was fun to have that Singapore a connection with Melaleuca.  He is inspiring to be around.

I probably talked to ten different people, but I spent most of my time with Tricia & Lezlie.  In high school, the three of us, along with Wendy spent a significant amount of time together.  A lot of it was spent singing.  One of the guys we used to sing with - Mike - was also there.  Mike is the life of the party.  I wished the other three - Korry, Todd & Jeremy would have been there.  It would have been fun to sing an octet - although my voice is not even close to what it used to be.

Surprisingly, we closed the place.  I ended up finding so much more in common with people than I imagined - Sean, Bryan, and Gary, it was great to visit with each of you.

Saturday, we had a picnic.  The turnout was even less.  But, I know a lot of people were balancing the reunion and family responsibilities, so I understood.  I was excited to see my old classmate who was also my roommate at Ricks - Donna. 

She lives in Utah and has a one-year-old.  I help take care of my one-year-old niece and I can't imagine at my age carrying and be responsible for one.  I admire that.  She is a lot the same - kind and sweet.  We talked about getting our college roommates together next summer.  We just need to do it.

 

On my way out, I got a text that my roommate from BYU - Gina - was having lunch and could I join her and her family?  Gina was as kind and funny as ever.  She introduced me to stand-up comedy - Johnny B's in Provo got a lot of my parent's hard earned money.  She lives in California and has two BEAUTIFUL boys.  Her husband could not have been a nicer guy.  It was fun to catch up.  Miss you Jenice, Patrice, Ginger & Kristen!

Saturday night, we went to Mountain River Ranch for our final event of the Class Reunion.  I haven't been to the Ranch since we moved the Melaleuca picnic.  There were some new faces - which was nice to introduce into the mix.  One of the first people was Brian - he looks great.  Last reunion - no one recognized him.  This year, two other guys - Bob and Don - got that honor.  Neither one I recognized.  I've kept in touch with Bob so we were able to have things to talk about.

Many of the spouses were great to get to know.  I was impressed with how outgoing some people are.  I want to be more like that! 

There was a shootout by the Ranch folks.  Cute show.  Then out to dinner and the show on wagons.  We had the "class clown" of the Ranch on our wagon - Frank.  He wanted us to sing the Jitterbug song from the Wizard of Oz.  It's actually a legit song that was cut from the movie.  We got there and got seated - our table was pretty empty.  Dinner was really good - steak, potato salad, roll, corn on the cob, baked beans and huckleberry ice cream!

The show started with a lot of "Ol' West" kind of songs.  Then Frank came on the stage and stole the show.  He was really funny.  A little later on, they pulled some "volunteers" from the audience for a song.  It's the old Hee Haw song about "You found another and Pffft you were gone".  One of the girls was Stacy.  Stacy has always been a firecracker so they chose right.  When Frank was singing to her, he did the Pfft (raspberry) to her.  She jokingly acted offended and spit right back.  Unfortunately, the gum in her mouth came out and got stuck in the fake beard.  CLASSIC moment.  The staff at the Ranch were in stitches!  They even posted on their FB site that we were the best crowd of the year!  If this link works:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g43QfSeWH0&feature=youtu.be (go to 3:10 to see the spit take)!

When it was done, we all stayed to take a few pics and I got to talk to a few people I had missed the night before - Lani, Stacy.  And Todd arrived late so I got to see him.  Todd has built a very successful business and is well known.  We also went to grade school together, but ran in different circles.  I wasn't sure how it would go to see him, but he was great - very down to earth!

Taking a class picture was comical - especially Matt.  He is a crack-up.  Then we headed back to the parking lot.  Again, Lezlie and I were some of the last to leave.  It was really fun to catch up with some of the people.  I had someone say to me that she was surprised that I didn't have kids - she thought I'd have six of them because I would be a great mom.  I was super flattered by that statement.  We weren't that close in high school so for her to say that with knowing me so little, it made me feel good.

We extended the reunion a bit to meet with one other classmate - Jennie.  Jennie, LaNay, Lezlie & I met on Tuesday since Jennie didn't make the reunion.  Jennie didn't get married or have kids either so we are a little bit outside the norm - especially with the Mormons.  It was fun to be a little unfiltered with a group of girls.  Honestly, although it's been years and we live very different lives, we talk like time hasn't passed.

I was very glad I went and got to get reacquainted and maybe even just acquainted with my classmates.  It was a great experience that I'll think about for a long time.

In closing, my brother made the comment that with Facebook and other social media, class reunions were probably a thing of the past because people can stay in contact with who they want to.  I hope that's not true.  I have learned from this experience that while in many ways we are the people who we were, we are all much more different than we used to be.  You can't get to know people from a couple of posts.  The goal of a reunion is to reflect on the past, see how much we've changed and how much more we are alike than different. 

If my classmates are reading this and didn't attend, I hope you'll be there in five years  (LaNay already set the date and it's just before the 4th of July festivities so you can make a long weekend out of it!).  Save the date (June 30th & July 1st) and save your money!!!

We talked a lot about you and wondered how your lives were going.  Hopefully, we are more tolerant and kinder than before - at least I hope so.  It doesn't really matter if you have less or more hair, short or tall, fat or thin, gay or straight, single or married, enjoy a cold brewski or a cold water, if you have met your life's dreams or if you are struggling.  We just miss our friends and want to see you! 

And Here We Have (Northern) Idaho

Now, for those of you from the Gem State, you know that the state is pretty much divided up into three section - the western half with Boise & Sun Valley; the Northern side with Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint and the eastern side of Pocatello and Idaho Falls.  For most people I know, eastern Idahoans don't spend a lot of time in either of the other two.  Salt Lake is closer than the western side of the state.  There isn't any straight roads to Northern Idaho because the middle of the state is mountains so it's almost faster to drive to St. George.

My parents have wanted us to go to Coeur d'Alene for a while.  Since this is likely my dad's last chance to go there for a dental conference, we decided to go - even though it's been a crazy summer with the baptism just a week earlier.

I started by going to Salt Lake the night before.  I figured out that it's probably the first time I've been in a hotel room for a while (that's about to change...).  I actually love hotels so it was nice to hang out at Little America, get a milkshake, take a bath, and sleep in a little.  I flew from Salt Lake to Spokane (way too expensive from IF).  Unlike my last trip - the flight was uneventful.

I met up with my sister-in-law, nieces 1-3, and nephew #3.  They, on the other hand, had to run through the Denver airport to make the flight.  After renting a car, we drove to our vacation home for the week.  It was beautifully green on the highway.

The vacation house was pretty awesome.  From the outside, it looked okay, but inside, a dream.  It was just over a block away from the public beach.  It was very English style, but with lots of modern features (central air, .  Five bedrooms, two and a half baths, an outdoor sunroom.  The living room was awesome with a ton of built-ins.  Every corner seemed to be decorated with a purpose.  To be honest, we were a little concerned to have seven kids in this nice of a house.  Fortunately, no problems.

The house behind us was phenomenol.  It had a million rooms, a poolhouse, an apartment over the garage and a pool.  We probably enjoyed watching that house as much as anything. 

My sister and her family arrived later.  We decided to spend time at the beach.  The weather was great and the kids had fun.  I found some seaglass which was cool. 

The next day, we just hung out and enjoyd the house and the family.  We decided to head out to the public beach later in the afternoon.  The kids had a really good time.  The beach seems to remind me that it's okay to take off the watch, turn off the phone and just let time go. 

Wednesday, we headed to Silverwood Theme Park.  Seriously, I had never even heard of this park, but it was FANTASTIC.  Think of Lagoon, only way more modern and clean.  We decided to spend the first half of the day at the water park and the second half at the amusement park.  However, there was too much to do to make that happen.  The water park has a great section for kids, two wave pools, a cool lazy river, and a ton of slides.  It was hot, so it was a great day to go.  With two babies and two six-year-olds, we had to switch places a lot so I didn't get through much of the park.

I did ride the Avalanche Mountain with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, two nieces and a nephew.  It's a pretty scary, but thrilling ride.  There were three adults and three kids in a large intertube.  There are a lot of twists and turns so you are nearly flipping over! (Pic from Silverwood's website)



The six-year-olds were ready to go, so I took them and niece #3 to the amusement park.  We rode the train.  It took an awful long time before we went and not something I'd probably do again.  But it was a good relaxing ride.  About half way, the train stops to show a silver mine.  The tour guide gets off to check it out and is hit over the head by two bad guys.  The bad guys board the train and start taking money from the passengers.  They were pretty convincing so I was a little worried about the kids.  Then, of course, the hero saves the day.  But, the money goes to charity - kind of cool.

The kids rode the carousel and we finally heard from everyone else - they maximized the time to go through the rest of the park.  As we headed into the amusement park, Nephew #2 was determined to get to the wooden roller coaster.  When we wanted to stop, we heard "NO - we are going to the wooden roller coaster!"  My sister and I were hoping to tag team the kids with the baby, but Niece #3 wasn't having any of it.

The roller coaster is called Tremors.  Here is how Silverwood's site describes it:  As you leave the loading station, you slowly climb up the first hill until you're 100 feet in the air. Turning, you make the first drop of 103 feet into a tunnel that goes directly through the Tremors Gift Shop (the first of four underground tunnels). You will continue through additional twists, turns, drops and tunnels with plenty of theming along the way, for those who are brave enough to keep their eyes open, before finally returning to the station. 

Okay - did you catch the fact that you go UNDER GROUND!?!?!?  I was freaked out.  The first one scared me, but the second one terrified me!  When it slowed a little, I looked at Nephew #2 - he was sinking in the chair.  When we got done, I asked how he was doing.  The response:  "oooo-oooo-kkk-aaa-yyyy...."  But, when he got off and saw his mom, he was saying "OH MY GOSH!!!"  Super proud of himself. 

We went back so that Niece #3 could ride something she wanted to ride.  We finally met up with the rest of the group.  While they did the spinny rides, I watched the babies.  Then Niece #3 wanted to ride the Antique Cars.  There should be a rule that amusement parks have to put signs up to show how many minutes until you reach the front.  That was deceiving!  I'm thinking 10 minutes tops and 40 minutes later, we finally get on to ride for 100 second.  Not a thrilling 100 seconds - a flat ride in a car.

Now, you know that I love my niece because she wanted to go again.  Another 40 minutes in line.  25 rides in the park and I got to ride the Antique Cars twice!!!!  There is a roller coaster there that was ranked in the top 10 of the US for vertical up and down.  We basically closed the park.  If you ever go, plan on a couple of days - there is no way to do both justice.

When we got back, my mom and dad plus my aunt Laurie and cousin Carrie.  Everyone was pretty beat, so off to bed.  The next day, the girls had a ball with "Aunt Carrie" doing their hair and nails.  We decided to go over to Grandma & Grandpa's Hotel (The Coeur d'Alene) and let the kids go swimming while the girls went shopping.  I don't like shopping as much as I used to, but the first store we went into was pretty cool.  I ended up buying a purse - very inexpensive and very cute.  I also bought a couple of bracelets.  My sister-in-law is a shopper and bought a lot of items.  I'm glad she was able to find things she liked though.

We met up with everyone and went to dinner.  Nephew #1 had swallowed so much pool water that he had to go to the bathroom like five times.  The food was good.  We headed back to the house.  I talked to Carrie until midnight.  It's fun to visit with her.  She is at that fun age when you are single, hanging with friends, not much care in the world!

The next morning, Laurie & Carrie had to leave so we got them off with the kids blowing bubbles in the front yard.  I went on a hike with my sister-in-law and her girls.  It was muggy, but it was a pretty hike.  It would be tempting to live there just to have that nearby with the beauty of the lake so near.  Lunch was a BBQ - steak, fish, and corn on the cob.

We had talked about going back to the beach, but thankfully, the kids decided to go swimming again because it started POURING.  The pool was fun - they had kickboards so I showed the kids how to float on your knees.  They thought it was easy until they tried it!  We grabbed some desserts and headed back to the house.  The desserts were really, really good!  We did laundry and started packing.

The next morning, we packed up the car, cleaned up the house and met Grandma and Grandpa for breakfast.  (After telling the girls that they needed to "get loaded" :-) )  I had French Toast coated with Frosted Flakes - YUM!!!  The sisters and sister-in-law went to one more store.  We took Niece #1 with us.  She found a ring she liked so I bought it for her.

We got to the airport with little incident.  We had a little lunch and then we headed to the gate.  The girls were grabbing a treat, when suddenly, their flight got called.  And it was like 15 seconds between zones so it was still a rush at the end - pretty common for our family to rush at the airport!

I was waiting for my flight when this group started talking to "Batman".  I thought it was someone's boyfriend so I didn't pay it much attention.  He was giving Batman stuff away to the kids.  Suddenly other people were taking his picture.  I finally found out after researching the internet that he is a business man that routinely goes to Children's hospitals and has a replica of the Batmobile. 

On the flight, someone was sitting in my seat.  I didn't make a big deal about it and sat in another chair.  Then that person came (and was a jerk about it) and I tried to move again, but someone else came - I got pushed all the way to the back of the plane.  When everyone was seated, I finally was able to find a seat in the front.  I saw Sen. Hatch at the airport - two celeb sitings in one day!  I had to drive back from SLC and didn't get home until almost 11 - it would have been faster to drive from Coeur d'Alene! 

Great vacation - loved the Northern part of my state!  We will likely be back soon!