Steve's 20th Santa Paula High School Reunion

by Steve


Our "Prom" picture - 2008


Hard to believe, but this year is the 20th anniversary of my High School graduation. I attended Santa Paula Union High School in Southern CA and have only been back home a few times in the last 20 years. I was too busy with Grad school and a pregnant wife for my 10 year reunion and decided the 20 year might be worth a special trip. We had some great folks putting it together and the confirmed attendee list was looking good. So we left the kids at Grandma Cannon's house and flew home for a quick and very fun weekend.

This is what Melissa said about the trip, "I had a wonderful time. It was so much fun finally meeting some of these people or meeting them again that Steve has talked about so much. I truly enjoyed hearing all the sweet comments about Steve and his family and how much fun everyone had going to the Church youth dances with him. I am so glad that he had such a great group of friends growing up. "


This is Melissa and me with my good friend Gunn Hege Hansen, who came all the way from Norway to attend our reunion. She was an exchange student my senior year and has kept in touch with my family ever since (we were not the host family). She brought her oldest son Magnus with her and it was great to meet him - a very nice and well mannered young man.

My good Friend Elise Peterson made it down from Oregon and we all met up at my folks' house to drive over to the venue together.
Here are a just a few other pictures from that evening. Most of my class stayed in California, so I hadn't seen many of these folks since graduation.

One of my Childhood friends, Duane Gardner

Me and Brenna Jue - flashing our home town sign.

Me and Elizabeth Soriano

Elise, Gunn, Todd and Irene Bonds. Todd was one of my good friends in HS that I've known since Jr High. Irene was a freshman our senior year.

My good friend Ron Carey - I haven't seen Ron in years; long enough for he and his wife to have 3 boys!

David Kasso and David Magdaleno - I hung out a ton with these guys in Jr High. Great Guys.

My good friends Jason Cavender and Glenn Higbee. Glenn married a LDS woman (Jennifer) and joined the church about a year ago.

The Cavenders, Spendloves and Higbees - it was great to meet some of my buddies' wives after all of these years - very nice ladies.

Glenn, Jason Barrett and Jason Cavender. There were 3 blonde Jasons in my circle of friends. We missed seeing Jason Powell that night. Jason Barrett made it all the way from Michigan.

Ummm.... there was some "dancing" later that evening.

The main reunion event was a ton of fun and I saw many good friends that I hadn't seen in years. A few of us went out for breakfast afterwards at 1:00 am at a Carrows on Seaward Avenue in Ventura. Twenty years later and breakfast at 1:00 am just isn't the same as it was when I was 18... go figure. But we had fun anyway. Around the table, starting from the left is Jason Barrett, Ron and Joyce Carey, Gunn Hege, Elise Peterson, Irene and Todd Bonds.

Ron, Todd, Jason and me.

The following afternoon, Tim Koester hosted a family picnic at his home in upper Ojai. This is Ron Carey, Glenn Higbee and me enjoying a little shade.


Jason Cavender with his new son, Tim Koester, our host, Todd Bonds and myself.

It was really a great reunion - I'm glad we made the effort to attend. I was blessed to have a great group of friends in HS. It was very nice to catch up with most of them and see that they are happy and successful on many different levels in their lives.

[One final note: there are 3 times as many active LDS folks in my graduating class now than in 1988. As in 1 (yours truly) plus two who later converted.]