Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

I thought maybe Josh would post about this, but he hasn’t so I’ll go ahead and do it. Last weekend was his 10-year high school reunion in Muscatine. The format was typical: Friday night informal at the bar downtown, Saturday overpriced dinner and “dance” and Sunday family potluck picnic. Well, the bar has NEVER been Josh’s scene, so we spent Fiday night reuniting with the Wheelers and Dypak! Saturday night we nervously made our way down to Pearl City Station for our overpriced dinner and scrutiny of our former peers. Right off the bat I will say that it was lame. Lame and from what I heard from most people there had been a much better turn out at the bar the night before. Still, I think Josh was most dissappointed in who didn’t turn out at all. It was nice to see Dan and Erak again, and Josh visited with a few former friends/acquaintances while I stood awkwardly with my sister-in-law Jenny. I thought my own sister was going to come down for a bit, but she pooped out. I really tried to be positive and have fun. I knew going into it that most of the people that I knew and liked from Josh’s class wouldn’t be there (Dan and Erak originally weren’t going either, so it was a nice surprise that they came). So, I knew that it could suck, but I had completely forgotten that there would also be other people from my grade and that there would be people I really didn’t want to see at all. Luckily, the night had a highlight. Andy and Becky Anderson! We had a great time visiting with them–just like old times! But it wasn’t until we got home that I realized just how “old” those times were! See, we used to hang out with Andy and Becky when we lived in Ames–the first time we lived in Ames! When Jacob was just a baby and they didn’t have any children yet. It’s been almost 8 years!!! And although we’ve kept somewhat in touch and have seen each other a few times here and there when we both happen to be passing through Muscatine at the same time, we haven’t really hung out since Ames. But on that mild, child-free Muscatine Saturday night by the riverfront, it felt like no time had passed at all. We talked easily and laughed heartily. We even shared mediocre desserts at the Country Kitchen after ditching the reunion and Josh made Becky choke on her chocolate milk with laughter. Good times, good times. We’re glad that the Andersons have finally moved somewhat closer and we look forward to hanging out with them again, hopefully soon. And I promised Becky I’d post more recent pictures of the kiddos, and since we didn’t take any pictures at the reunion I’ll post here instead the pictures that my family took on Sunday. Instead of going to the family potluck picnic, we had lunch with my family and then had family pictures taken in honor of my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary. Here’s one.