A taste of Greality

Roger and I went up to Greeley for homecoming this last weekend. It was our fall break mini-vacation, I guess.

First, we drove to Ft. Collins to settle in at Roger's sister's home...which she graciously opened to us again this year. We met up with Tyler and Nicole after school for a quick treasure hunt and then we were off to Greeley.

In Greeley, we stopped off at rehearsal for the Pride of the Rockies--UNC's marching band. Roger and I are both Pride Alumni, but Roger marched for 5 years...2 as Outstanding Band Member, so he is obviously more well known...also, I was in the Color Guard, so we weren't always noticed despite our big flags waving in the breeze. Going to the Pride reunion last year was fun, but I didn't really know anyone, so I figured I'd mainly be watching the kids. Surprise number 1--I ran into an old friend from growing up--Kevin Kurtz! It was great to see him and hear that he and his family are moving back to Denver. Unfortunately, he didn't come for the reunion, but just showed up at practice on a whim. Very nice!

After some crazy antics climbing the fence to get out of the locked practice field, we drove around a bit and headed to Old Chicago. We figured we would be the first ones there...and yeah, we were right. But Surprise number 2--I ran into a friend from church during my Greeley years--Ryan Mayeda. Ryan was a student in the youth group while I was a leader, but he really isn't that much younger than me...we were seniors the same year. Now Ryan's a Chiropractor in town and married...although his bride was away for the weekend. It was great to hear what he is up to and about his connections with our former mentors and friends the Wootens.

Well, dinner was not well attended...only 2 other Alum showed up. So we felt silly sitting in the big room with just us, and 4 other people. Oh well! Then we headed back to Ft. Fun. We got the kids settled in and then watched the Rockies play with Renee and Tim.

Morning meant yummy pancakes and bacon for breakfast...thanks again to Renee. Then Roger and I left the kids to play and headed back to Greality. Of course, we had to hit a couple of geocaches on the way. We ended up missing the alumni tailgate and got to the stadium to find that only 2 folks had brought their instruments. Rog was bummed. We ended up watching the pregame and then Roger played in the stands with the band. The home team did not perform all that well...seems the move to Division I hasn't been especially positive at this point.

Strangely, the visiting team brought their band...only problem with that really was that it was homecoming. We ended up having to leave the game a couple of minutes early, so that was a bummer...but we had places to go and kids to pick up.

After our adventure, we dropped the kids off at Roger's folks' and went to a get together with friends from our Sunday School class. We had food and games...it was fun to spend time together.

I enjoyed the weekend. Now, we'll see what we can do to aid the alumni association with putting together a more successful band reunion next year.