This weekend was Todd's 20th (bah ha ha ha ha ha ha!) high school reunion in the booming metropolis of Yoakum, Texas.
We arrived in Y-town around noon on Friday and spent some time with Todd's parents while they cooed over the girls and played with Devin. It was nice to sit and let someone else entertain the shortest Pruetzes.
That night was the Yoakum Bulldogs vs. the Cureo Gobblers (no, I'm not kidding). We took Devin, got settled in our seats and watched kickoff. Yoakum scored a touchdown and extra point almost immediately, but whatever happened after that is a total mystery to us.
You see Devin, my sweet, precious three-year-old, does not have the world's longest attention span. In fact, he is in the running for the world's shortest attention span. And while he loves sports, he'd much rather be playing than watching. What's the fun in watching?
So while we got to watch a little bit of the game, our little Doodle found it to be much more exciting to jump from the steps of the stands down to the walkway below. Over and over and over again. He was fine for awhile, until he started doing it from the fourth and fifth steps. Then he was annoying the fire out of everyone around him, so we took him below the stands to let him run around.
True to form, he picked up a game of football with some kids while Todd caught up with a number of his former classmates. When it was time to try to get back to our seats, though, Devin would hear nothing of it. He kicked and made a fuss, telling us that he wanted to return to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
That's all we needed.
We loaded the boy into the car and drove clear across Yoakum (2.5 minutes, tops) and dropped him off with Todd's folks. Then we hopped back into the mini-van and returned to the game where we were able to watch the bands perform at halftime and spend too much time in line for nachos. We saw a number of Todd's friends, though, and had a good time laughing and having fun, sans children.
Yoakum lost, 33 to 7. Apparently, the touchdown we saw was the only highlight of the game.
We woke up on Saturday morning and Todd and I headed to the High School for a tour, given by the Yoakum High School Principal and Class of '86 graduate. A number of Todd's friends were there and we enjoyed talking with them in the auditorium, one of the only rooms in the school that remains almost exactly as it was when the school was built.
Wooden, folding seats, with initials (some suspiciously looking like T.O.P...) carved deeply into them. A cement floor and a balcony. It was like stepping onto the set of "Grease."
Pricipal Kvinta (that's pronounced "Kwinna" for those of you who do not have Czechoslovakian backgrounds) pointed out the two pencils that Todd had thrown and stuck into the ceiling so many years ago and then took us all throughout the building.
The first stop was the computer sciences room. Interestingly enough, this was the only other room in the school that has not been renovated. Yoakum High School opened for its first year in 1892 (no, you're not reading that wrong), so you can imagine what the architecture was like; hardwood floors, raised "stage" areas for the teachers' desks, and tall windows for cross-ventilation.
It was interesting to see rows and rows of computers sitting in a room that looked straight out of a page of a history book. A juxtoposition of cultures, if you will.
The rest of the school looked a lot like my alma mater of Kingwood, Texas. Typical classrooms with rows of desks, dry-erase boards and inspirational posters on the walls. Some of the rooms had old desks from the 1950s, though, which were also interesting.
The tour of the main building ended in the Principal's office, where Chris Kvinta took out the paddle from their high school days. Back in those days, anyone who got paddled got to sign their names to the piece of wood. Todd won with the most signatures: TEN.
We saw the rest of the school, with some new outter buildings and updates. It was a lot of fun and it wasn't hard for me to picture Todd running through the halls.
We returned to Todd's parents house and got ready to go to the reunion party that night. We arrived around 4:00 with all three kids in tow (including Devin who had been up until 11:00 the night before and who had not had a nap that day). Everyone gathered around the twins and marveled at how much Devin looks like Todd. We enjoyed showing them off and stayed until about 6:00, when Devin's steam wore out.
Again, we did the drop at Grandma and Grandpa's house and returned to the party. On the way, we picked up a bottle of wine and, for Todd's posterity's sake, a bottle of MD 20/20. You'll be happy to know that we did not even open the stuff.
We had a great time, laughing and recalling goofy Todd stories. I finally had a number of faces to put with names and was able to catch up with some people we hadn't seen in a long time. It was really fun.
If you haven't gathered by now, Todd was Yoakum High Class of '86's class clown. And being married to the class clown brings a lot of pressure. Everyone is wanting to see just who would marry such a character and what is that person like? I had to make sure I was at my goofiest, so not to let anyone down.
The goofiness included taking a decades-old Air Force photo of one of Todd's friends and taping it to the mirror in the women's bathroom with a note that read, "For a good time, call 1-800-AF-STUDS." His wife found it almost immediately and brought it out, laughing. So, I wrote another one and sent Todd into the men's room with it. This one read, "Trumpet Lessons. 1-800-AF-STUDS." It stayed up for hours, until Jimmy saw it and nearly peed his pants. My work was done.
And that was the long and short of the reunion. A hysterically fun time in Yoakum, Texas.
More Exciting Stuff
Last Thursday, we decided we would take a trip out to the new Bass Pro Shops here in San Antonio. I've been to the one in Dallas (Grapevine, actually), but Todd had never seen one and I knew Devin would love the fish and all of the animals and outdoorsy stuff.
So we loaded up the family truckster and headed out I-10. We were excited to get to do this on a Thursday because, really, how many people would be there during the work week?
A lot.
We couldn't get near the place. They tried to get us to park across the freeway at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and take a shuttle to the shop.
Um...no thanks. It's just not that important.
So we took a drive up I-10 and decided that Devin needed to see Natural Bridge Caverns. We were headed the absolute wrong direction to get there, but we took a detour and got to our destination in about 55 minutes (had we left from our home, it would have taken 20).
Once we got there, we made the executive decision to not actually tour the caves. With a stroller full of babies and a nearly 90-minute tour, we both agreed that it may not be a good time to go spelunking.
But there are plenty of other things to do, including mining for gemstones, which Devin did like a pro. He loved it.
After awhile, we went next door to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. This is one of these places where you stay in your car and drive through different zones, filled with animals from all over the world.
In our ride, we met up with some very fiesty ostriches (who pecked at my window for food and stuck their heads in Todd's window, looking for a bite to eat -- luckily he was holding the bag of feed) and some hungry zebras (Devin is a fan of the movie, "Madagascar," so he was thrilled to see so many Martys in one place).
We also encountered a number of different types of antelope and even some bison. There were deer and giraffe and dozens of other animals. Devin was in awe.
After our drive, we stopped at the petting zoo. It was going to be impossible to get the girls' stroller in and out of there, so I sat in the car while Devin and Todd explored. About 20 minutes later, they returned, with Devin covered in dirt from head to toe on his left side. Apparently, a goat was interested in his shirt and knocked him down. I'm proud to say he laughed at the whole situation!
Of course, since this whole thing was spur-of-the-moment, we did not have the camera. The digital camera we have is a professional-quality one that is too big to keep in my purse, so we have to remember to get it and all of its accoutrements every time we go on an outing. I'm hoping for a small, point-n-shoot for Christmas so that I can keep it with me at all times.
We have, however, gotten a few good photos of the kiddos lately. Enjoy!
E
An Update on Video Egg
I've been hoping to post video to this blog for awhile, now, but apparently, Video Egg is not compatible with Macs. Either that, or our DVD Cam is not compatible. Todd tried explaining it to me, but my eyes glazed over. So, until we can figure out how to make it work, we'll have to stick with stills.
1 comment:
Todd is not the only one in this family that was voted class clown, your cousin Carla holds that distinguished honor also. We'll have to get them together and have a run-off.
Aunt Shirley
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