Our recent trip was interesting because it wasn’t exclusively for the purposes of visiting family - We actually had other business there. Berta’s 15-year class reunion was the event of the day.
We stayed with Mary Ann and Ryan over the weekend, which was nice. I like staying at places other than Berta’s mom & dad’s because there’s less traffic. It seems we usually want to hang out with Berta’s sisters anyway, so that saves us a step in getting together with at least one of them.
Abby had a lot of fun chasing Mary Ann’s cats around the house and throwing things at them.
The reunion itslef was different. It was a picnic sort of thing. We met some of Berta’s classmates (maybe 20 out of a class of 120) at a park in Westmont. They all seemed like nice people, and most of them had kids Abby’s age. There were actually a lot of kids Abby’s age.
Abby enjoyed playing the games they set up for the kids. There were a few events to participate in - Throwing balls into a box cut out o look like a monster with a big mouth, putting shaped blocks into slots cut into the top of old coffee cans, knocking down bottles of colored water by kicking a soccer ball, dropping clothes pins into a small hole in the top of another coffee can, etc. All of the events were pretty crafty in their construction.
There were prizes for the kids to take away in the paper bags that they gave them to decorate. Pretty decent stuff, too. Abby got a ball, and some religious board book, and a thing of toothpaste and a toothbrush. These were pretty standard for all the kids.
Abby had a blash dancing to the music they were playing in the meeting building there. The CD they played was pretty neat. It was basically a woman singing with a guitar, some classics and many songs I’ve never heard before, but with pretty fun activities to go along with it.
She also had a pretty good time playing on the playground stuff; a swingset and slide.
They served chicken and pasta with some grapes and potato salad, and hot dogs for the kids.
Berta got to talk with a few of her high school friends, but apparently not everyone who was supposed to be there actually showed up. I suppose that 15 is an odd year, but Berta had certain assurances that certain of her friends were going to be there, and they weren’t. It still wasn’t bad hanging out with some of the people she did know, and I wonder what kind of dynamic she had with these folks back in the day. It was also surprising how many of them mentioned church while we were there, which probably shouldn’t be so surprising considering that Berta went to Catholic school.
We were very late leaving the reunion for Therese’s birthday party, but that’s ok. Nobody there was really in a rush, and the only thing we missed was a little cake. When we arrived, we immediately left for dinner at Red Lobster. It seems like every time we go out to Johnstown we eat dinner at Red Lobster, yet we don’t usually eat at Red Lobster any other time so it all balances out.
I had this crab meal which is supposed to be just a pound of crabs, but they gave me an extra half pound for free. I’m not sure why, but it was cheaper off of the Atkins menu, and I still got a side and salad just like everyone else. Weird.
We were going to watch a movie after dinner, but Therese and Jason were too tired to come along, so we stopped at their place for some cake. I felt a bit guilty since Jason had decorated the whole place up with balloons and stuff, so I at least wanted to hang out there for a little while before we went on to Mary Ann and Ryan’s for the movie. Needless to say, it got late quickly, and by the time we got back to Mary Ann’s place, we wasted too much time deciding whether and what we were going to watch to actually do any movie watching. Oh well.
Sunday was uneventful. We had supper at Berta’s parents’ place, and Abby played with balloons. We spent more of the day driving that doing anything besides sleeping.
Now I’m hungry for Mexican food.
