10 Years Ago...

10 years ago...I had little responsibility and a whole lot of questions as to what the future had in store for me. Yes, 10 years ago, I had just graduated from high school and was venturing out into an unknown world. If you look closely at the cake picture, you can see me laying across the bench in our class photo, front and center! Who...me? Center of attention?? :)

A few weeks ago, Blaine and I flew to Texas to partake in my 10 year reunion and my hometown's annual celebration...the one and only Elgin Western Days festival! For our reunion, I consulted several old friends and we came up with a plan and started contacting people. After so many years, it can be difficult to find everyone, but Facebook was a huge help! Now, you all know that I don't use Facebook, but that didn't stop me from hacking into my sister's and my friend, Whitney M's, Facebook pages to find the email addresses needed to spread the word! We held the reunion at a local venue, Krystal Falls, owned by the family of one of our classmates, Krystal S. We had our reunion catered by Southside Market and BBQ, also owned by the family of one of our classmates, Brittney W. In a small town like Elgin, everyone knows everyone! We had a good turnout of about 50 people (out of a class of 119) and had a great time catching up. The location was beautiful, the food was yummy (ahh, good ol' Texas BBQ), and flipping through the old yearbook was a blast!

The next morning, as tradition holds, we rode on a float in the Elgin Western Days parade! Whitney M's family lent us a trailer and we pulled it behind my dad's truck. We didn't have a driver, so Blaine graciously offered to drive for us. Little did I know that this was Blaine's first parade to ride in, let alone drive in!! He was great and did an awesome job following the horses in front of us. :) Since we had to wait for two hours in line before the parade started, we decided to decorate the float during that time. Now, we showed up with an empty trailer, some streamers, balloons, a couple of signs, and a bunch of lawn chairs! Would you believe we ACTUALLY WON 1ST PLACE in the local division!? I think the judges may have taken pity on us, although our float was pretty awesome! Notice Aleshia H holding our 1st place ribbon at the back of the float! Way to go EHS Class of 1999!!

Another fun fact about Elgin is that everyone has their class reunions on Western Days weekend. My mom also had her 35 year class reunion and she, too, rode in the parade! She's the one with the sunglasses next to the really enthusiastic guy!

We spent our last day in Texas doing one of the things I miss most about home...tubing the river! It was a beautiful day and the river was packed. We took our time on the river, enjoying the company of my sister, Andie; cousin, Jason; and friends, Tammy D and Danny D. We had a great, although too short, visit with family and friends!