Our Trip South- Part 2- JCHS Class of 1995

Why in the world would we plan a trip to HOT Oklahoma and Arkansas while the weather in Washington state is "perfect?" That's a good question. And believe you me there has to be a good answer for that. Otherwise, there is no way we would have planned to be gone from our little "paradise" in the Pacific Northwest.
The answer:
Junction City High School Class of 1995
We had a 15 year class reunion and it was planned for Labor Day Weekend.
A large part of our class has moved far away from good ole Junction City and the three day weekend worked out well for people to travel. It really was good to catch up with people that I haven't seen in years. Most of them I haven't seen at all since the night we graduated.
The crazy thing about that, we had known each other literally all of our lives. So many of us started out in kindergarten together and spent the next 13 years doing life together.
People like Stacy...

Seriously, we grew up together. Spent the night with each other countless times. Even went to each others grandparent's together. Made lots of sausage balls. Anytime there was a party at school the two of us wanted to get together and make sausage balls. Many hours at the lake together having tons of fun. Cheering together. Playing She-ra and barbies. You're getting the picture, right? And we had not seen each other in 15 years! Crazy! It was good to see Stacy.
It was good to see everyone else, too!
We had a two day reunion extravaganza. On Friday night we had a family get-together so that we could all see each other's kiddos and hang out. It was at one of our classmates house. Jason really outdid himself, too.
Here is everyone starting to gather round the food in the "shop"....

Smoked hog, bacon-ranch-cheese taters, baked beans, cheese bread, grilled corn...oh yummy!

Lots of meeting people had to happen at this shin-dig. Very few of us married someone we went to school with. That means that about half of the people there were not even JC people. It was cool meeting spouses and kiddos for the first time.
And my kiddos had a ball...

Hot dogs for the kiddos was a great idea.
But Kade would have to say that marshmallows were an even better idea...


Ryne just might agree with him.

Even more popular than the marshmallows though, was the dirt!



Until Ryne found the 4-wheeler, and then the dirt was not any fun.

My personal favorite "kid moment" of the night was a toss up between Kade looking at me with big bright eyes and saying "Mom, there are cowboys here! There are two cowboys here! Why are there cowboys here?" (obviously some of my classmates came sporting their cowboy hats) or it could have been when Kade came running up to me with these...

And begging me to let him take them home for his rock collection. I was certainly afraid that if I agreed then he'd be picking up rocks for the next week to take home and our luggage would never meet the weight requirements. So I told him I would just take a picture for him and we would take the picture home. So, here it is...I kept my promise.


Oh, and we did manage to convince Ryne to climb down from the 4-wheeler but it took a really big dump truck to get it done.

I'm not sure my boys have ever been dirtier than they were when they left Jason's place that night. Oh, and they left early. I called C.G. to come get them! Besides it was getting dark and nobody could see how cute they were anymore anyway. Not to mention it would have been really hard to find them hiding in the woods once it got dark. C.G. and Monk Monk to the rescue! They took them home, bathed them, and put them to bed. Kyle and I got to stay and hang out for a bit.

Saturday night was our "fancy" reunion night. And no kiddos!
Another classmate,Kim, really made this night happen. She put in a lot of work to get everything organized and people informed and it was a lot of fun.

And check out this cool cake that she had made for the occasion.
Not only did it look good, it tasted super yummy.

Here are a few of the pics I took of my classmates and their hubbies and wives...

T.J., Kendall, Keo and Paul with their sweet wives. Remember how I told you very few of us married someone from JC? Kendall's wife Jill is the only girl I knew at this table before the weekend. But they were all super sweet girls and I'm proud my friends found such good ladies.


Here we have a couple of JC girls with their non-JC hubbies. Jennifer on the left got the distance award because they drove in a car from San Diego. Boy am I thankful I didn't win that award...I'll take the two planes any day.


JC friend Holly with non-JC hubby Mark. They have a super cute new baby boy that I wish I had taken a picture of on Friday night to show you because he really is stinkin' cute.


JC friend Trisha with non-JC hubby Tim.


The party planner Kim! with yet another non-JC hubby Cole. They have the newest baby of the bunch of us but we didn't get to meet the little guy.


And here is the only couple who were both members of the JCHS class of 1995
Mark and Michelle.


This is Jason, who hosted our Friday night party and his wife...one of the few JC spouses (although not in our class) Brandi.

And my favorite couple of the night:

So thankful that my hubby was there with me so I could show all my friends just how blessed I've been to have such an amazing man in my life!

There was food, old pictures to look at, cool party favors, awards that made us laugh, music, 80's and 90's trivia, and lots more time to catch up with old friends. We had a great time and I am so glad that we went home for my class reunion.

We did have to leave before the party was over on Saturday night because Kyle and Daisy had a super early flight out Sunday morning. Yep, I said Daisy! Stay tuned and you can meet her in Our Trip South-Part 3!

Our Trip South- Part 1- Oklahoma

We took the red-eye!
I have to say I think we will do it again.
Although, when we came home from church and put the boys in bed on Sunday night and told them we would wake them up later and go to the airport, Kade just couldn't sleep. Kyle went by his room and noticed his light on. Went in to find Kade playing with his tools. He confessed that he was just too excited to sleep. I think he was being honest. Little guy didn't even go to sleep on the drive to the airport. It was about 1 am and we were on the plane in the air before he ever went to sleep. But at least he did sleep. They both did! And we had a layover in Minneapolis the next morning.

Kade colored some pictures. Kyle got us some breakfast.


And we tried to occupy them with movies no the ipod until our next flight. Didn't work out so bad. And they even slept on the next flight, too!
Then we finally arrived in Tulsa...


Paw and Granna were at the airport to pick us up and take us to Spiro.
And since we took the red-eye...we had the whole day with our family instead of being on planes and in airports for the whole day.

And before I go any further I have to tell you this. Tuesday morning Kade and Granna are chatting and she tells him that she wished he didn't live so far away. His response, "Granna, I don't live that far. I'm just two planes away." He is right....just two planes away. Maybe one day when he and Ryne are older we will make a road trip back south so that he can see just how much territory those two planes cover getting us back there. ha!

So, Oklahoma. It was hot. Thankfully I had prepped myself for hot. It would have been nice to be wrong about how hot it was going to be. Unfortunately, I was right. It was hot.
But at least hot weather meant that the boys got to do this:

Swimming!

Kade loved practicing going under water.

Ryne didn't practice, he just stuck his head right in.

Even Kyle joined the swimming party.

Brandon and Taylor were pros at hanging out in Granna's pool. But this was only the second time all summer that my boys had sported their swimming trunks. And if you recall the first time got cut short because Kade decided to put mud in Ryne's eyes.

My two favorite pictures from the swimming party:

Precious Taylor
and..

Silly Boy Ryne
(look at how that cow-lick is curling up)


Oh, and I had to get a shot showing the "life guards" on duty.
The pool was a big hit. Not just because it was a break from the heat but because my boys LOVE to splash some water. Seriously, I despise bath time with them just because they love to play in the water so much and they play just a little too splishy splashy for my liking. Here they could be just as slishy splashy as their little hearts desired!

Brandon and Taylor had a new swing set to play on...

I realize now looking at this picture that you can't actually see anyone playing on the swing set. I think Kade had just climbed the wall and is tucked away in the "house" there.
There was also a trampoline at Aunt Kim and Uncle B's house...

This was Kade's first time to try out a trampoline. And he really seemed to like it as long as Brandon didn't jump too big right beside him. HA!


Well, of course, Ryne tried it out, too. I don't think he cared how big anybody jumped!

Playing hard makes you work up a nice appetite...

And we all got to eat at Aunt Kim's big tall table.
Well, except for Ryne...

He borrowed Taylor's high chair and made this cute little face for me to get a picture.

Speaking of Taylor...we got to celebrate her 2nd birthday with her!

A Minnie Mouse Party!


Kade played the guitar while we all sang "Happy Birthday."


I think Taylor liked it!

Certainly there were presents...


She got this cute little vanity from Granna and Paw and I just LOVE this picture of her looking at herself in the mirror. Isn't it priceless?


She was so sweet she even took time to read her cards.
It was such a fun time getting to celebrate Taylor's birthday with her.

A not-quite-what-you'd-call-fun event that we always try to make happen is getting a picture of all four of the cousins when we get them together. It's usually only twice a year so you'd think they could cooperate just twice a year. Oh, yeah, we are talking about my boys being involved...we all remember how uncooperative they are when it comes to posing for pictures.
Oh, well, we tried anyway......here are our best two shots:


Not too bad, huh?

You can see we were having a big time in Oklahoma...but there are just a few more things that I have to share with you before I finish up to make you see just how fabulous our time really was. It includes a wrap up of some of my favorite things.

Favorite thing #1...having someone play with my hair

Taylor loves to play with her Aunt T's (that's me) hair. Seriously, she would want to come to me just so she could play with my hair. And I loved it!

Favorite thing #2....getting to see my old friends

This is Patti and her sweet boys G and Baby P. One of my bestest friends from college! Just so happened that she was passing through Spiro (where Kyle's family lives) on her way to see her Mom. I was super excited that our paths crossed because it made my day to get to see her and her sweet boys. The fact that she brought me a vanilla dr. pepper from sonic just goes to show you what a fabulous friend she really is. Thanks so much Patti for stopping to see us!!!

Favorite thing #3....Chic-fil-a

Of course, I was there for the scrumptious chicken sandwich but the boys were all about the playground. We will just let the pictures of them tell you how we felt that day getting to go to chic-fil-a. As you can see Ryne felt as if he had the whole world in his hands.

Kade had to go a step further...

He felt as if he were on top of the world!

As for me and Kyle...

Aren't those smiles evidence of a couple of happy tummies?
We keep begging chic-fil-a to come our way but Portland is as close as it gets for now.

Favorite thing #4....Market Place Grill

The boys were excited because it is the place they get to play checkers.


Ryne even got Kyle to pretend to play some checkers with him.


Taylor just spent her time looking pretty...even with her tongue stuck out.


Looks like the checker game got serious with Brandon and Kade and Paw had to oversee it a bit.
So the kiddos let me indulge in my favorite restaurant from "back home" because of the checkers. And the food was just as yummy as always. The bread that comes in a pool of butter. The Chickenberry salad with fresh strawberries and poppyseed dressing. The Chocolate Mess that comes heaped in...oh never mind, I don't really even know how to start to describe it and I didn't take a picture so just trust me it is amazing. All delicious.
This particular trip to Market Place was special because it came with another Favorite thing #2...seeing an old friend.

Billye!!!
And she brought a new friend for us to meet...

Jeremy!! And his two adorable boys Carter and Tagg!!
And as you can see, Jeremy was a hit with all the boys...or maybe it was the movie he was showing on his cool phone that was a hit??? Just kidding. Jeremy, Carter and Tagg are great and we are so glad that Bib brought them to meet us.
Our night at the Market Place was a fun wrap up to our time in Oklahoma.
We went home with full tummies and packed up to take off for Arkansas the next morning.
And we will pick up from there when Our Trip South continues with Part 2.

We're Back and I'm WAY Behind

But what's new, right?
I always am needing to catch up on posting about our adventure. This time it is serious.
And guess what...
I don't have time to catch up now!
Just wanted to give you a taste of what is to come....probably in quite a few separate posts.
*Red-eye flight to Oklahoma!
*Happy Birthday Taylor
*Man was it HOT-the boys got to swim for the first time this summer
*Chic-fil-a....YUMMO
*Lots of cousin time
*Meeting new friends
*Relocate to South Arkansas
*JCHS Class of 1995 Reunion
*DAISY!!!
*Man was it even HOTTER down there
*Pirates R' Us
*Seeing some people we really miss
Okay, so you getting the idea? Way behind. Now we are back in Washington and we brought Granna and Paw with us. Had a really fun baby shower today for our friend Dawn. Kade starts preschool this week. Wow~there's a lot going on around here, isn't there? Guess I better get to bed and try to get more than three hours of sleep tonight.