College Reunion

This weekend was one that I had been looking forward to for a long time. It was the one weekend a year that I get to spend with my dear friends from Grove City College. Last February (2007) the girls all got together for a spa weekend to celebrate our 30th birthdays. It was on that weekend that we decided that maybe we'd continue to get together just as women and make the whole family gatherings every other year.

It had been two years since we had had one of these large gatherings - Ella was two and a half and Catherine was maybe 10 months. It was definitely different, i.e., easier, to be there with four and half year old and an almost three year old.

As is expected, we were up way too late both nights. Isn't that the whole point of it? Lots of laughing and silliness - as Karen said, it was pretty much like we were back in college again. It's always so nice to catch up with these dear friends and as always, although we haven't seen each other in over a year, it's as if not a day has passed since we were last together.

On Saturday we all went to a lake and played in the sand and water. Some of us went out in paddleboats, canoes or kayaks. We took the girls in their first boat ride. It wasn't super exciting because, I know this may be surprising, paddleboats are pretty slow. I watched the canoes gliding gracefully by us and was a bit envious. But I imagine we would have ended up tipping it and the girls would have freaked out. As it was, Catherine freaked out a little bit when Matt faked a fall overboard. When the girls saw he was alright, she jumped in and joined him! (with a life jacket on, of course). After our lake play time and picnic we headed back to get the younger kids down for their naps and then the ladies all took a trip to the pool for some more sun, swimming and catching up.

That night after a yummy dinner and dessert (Happy Birthday Karen and Kate!), we played games and laughed some more over our lack of drawing abilities (mine at least - I got the point across in the most rudimentary way possible) through a few rounds of Who What Where. Then it was on to the Wii - tennis and boxing. True confessions - my arms were sore on Monday after three rounds of boxing. My advice to you should you ever Wii box is wisdom passed along by my friend Kate "don't laugh, it takes too much energy."

This weekend takes a lot of planning and then seems to go by way too fast and leave us all looking forward to the next one. I love how easily our kids all got along and enjoyed playing with each other. I hope we are laying the groundwork for connections that last for a long time (future Grovers perhaps??)

In order from l. to r. Owen and Carter Lee, Catherine deMontaigne, Nathan (on the ground) and Derek Sears, Will Britton, Cade and Jack Milinovich, Nadia Waclawski, Ella deMontaigne and Sarah Sears.

Many many fun and memorable moments over the course of the weekend, but some of my fave's are:

Playing Who What Where Saturday night. It's such a fun game - definitely recommend it if you enjoy games. I had some insane guesses (submarine, being hit by a car) when I got a bit overconfident and decided I didn't need to actually look at the picture too carefully (but, hey I still tied for first place - when I'm on, I'm on and vice versa).

All the little girls getting their nails painted by Kate (of course the color I had with me was RED) and the boys coming out and wanting in on the fun as well. If you could have seen the look on their dad's face...anyway Kate quickly scrambled and came up with painting three (or two?) nails and having them be special Spiderman fingers used for shooting webs. The next day Jack walked by me and I heard him say something about going to get his toes painted now - lucky for him I think that Greg was alright with that - hey, it's only paint, right! :)

As always, reminiscing about the stupid silly things we did in college. None of us were drinkers, but we often wonder what crazy things we might have done if we were. It's almost scary to think we could have been more bizarre!

Watching the guys hang out. As much as us girls make this happen and tend to communicate more, all the guys really enjoy being together and I think this weekend is something they look forward to as well.

Finally to the Devitis family - your absence was felt and we hope someday you'll be able to join us, but you're always there in spirit!

Now it's time to start planning our girls' spa weekend - way too much fun just thinking about it!