MHS Ten Year Reunion....

So last weekend I celebrated my ten year reunion from Manteo High School. How on earth did ten years sneak up so fast? I'll just cut to the chase and come straight out and say it was awesome. Like ridiculously awesome! For those who missed it, you really missed out. For those who came, I'm not sure we can top that. It was so great that we are considering having a reunion every five years opposed to ten. We had about 100 people, which was less then we were expecting. 191 confirmed they were coming and we were really expecting about 150 people. 100 was still fantastic though! It was exactly the right group of people. We had people from all the different "clicks" and everyone interacted, got along, danced, drank and was merry! There were no fights, no drama....it was perfect! I have to give a little shout out to our class president Justin Bateman and all the ladies aka hens who put this party together. The food was awesome, the band was great and the venue turned out perfect as well. About three months ago we had to change the venue because the original venue was just not cutting it. We were worried this was going to cause a negative stir, but in the end I am at least so glad we changed it!!!! We had Johnny Waters and Company playing, I had heard how great of a band they were but kept missing them at places this past summer when I was home visiting. They were great, I highly suggest going and listening to them play if you ever have the chance or look for their stuff online. When the band took breaks they had a great playlist worked out for us, it was all "club music" from the early 2000's! All of the girls were dancing their hearts out and once some of the guys had enough liquid courage in them, they joined in;) I am still reading all over Facebook what a great time people had!

 

This is Nick and I...he was my Homecoming escort senior year:)

 

The day/night before our actual reunion they were having Homecoming at our high school. Some people went and watched the parade that afternoon and tailgated at the school. I didn't make it to those because I was having to pull Mommy duties and needed to pick and choose what I was partaking in. That 45 minute drive I used to have without traffic from my parents house to the high school was just as annoying as an adult as it was as a 16 year old. With a game starting after 7pm and my 4 year olds bed time at 8pm you can do the math;) Myself and a handful of others went to the game that night. Some of my girl friends and I were noticing the little groups of girls giggling and pointing out boys. We just had to laugh because that was us 10+ years ago. It was really neat to watch the Homecoming Court come out on the football field and crown the new King and Queen. I was on Homecoming Court my senior year and it was such a special time and such a special memory! We even had our King (Wade Tillet) and Queen (Porschia Selby) out on the field to partake in the ceremony. The Redskins took the win over Gates County and ended the night on a great note. After the game we all went to a local hot spot and enjoyed some drinks and great pizza, you know since we're all over 21 now;)

I know there are some people out there that wish they could erase high school from their pasts, but I really enjoyed high school for the most part. I mean yes there are a handful of things I would go back and change, but overall it was a good time period in my life. We grew up in such a beautiful and safe place. We didn't have any real bullies that I can remember, we didn't have Facebook to blow everything out of proportion yet (but we did have AOL instant messenger! haha). For the most part everyone got along pretty well. We were a small school, but we were a close class. Everyone knew everyone. Maybe you didn't know everyone's life story but you at least knew their face and which side of the Manteo bridge they lived on. My husband went to such a huge high school and didn't know everyone and his time there just wasn't the experience that I had, kind of makes me sad for him. I'm so proud of where I grew up, I mean not very many people can say they grew up on the Outer Banks and truly know the meaning of the Salt Life (yes it drives me bats when I see those stickers on cars with OK, OH, TN tags or other landlocked states...that's another post though). We really are fortunate to be from where we are from! I realize that even more living so far away from that place now.

Liam and I actually flew into town the weekend before my reunion so we had an entire week to hang out. Liam was having fall break from preschool most of that week so he only missed two days of school. Liam is either really good or really bad on planes. I think it's because of his ears and the pressure changes while flying. I am so thrilled to report he did great both ways on the plane and slept during the long flights coming and going. We got to partake in going to another pumpkin patch and a fall carnival with our friends Alex and Miller (we left our pumpkins at Mimi's house), Mom and I took Liam to the aquarium, I got to spend some quite evenings at friends houses watching our favorite shows together and my super sweet husband set up a girls afternoon/evening for me consisting of mani/pedis and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants back home - Ocean Blvd (we actually had dinner there the night he purposed to me). I got to hang out with my parents and help them out when I wasn't out socializing or helping tie final strings together for the reunion. I fully took advantage of having built in babysitters aka grandparents;)  It was a really great week!