Bachelorette party numero uno!

I've gotta do this all before I forget :)  For my first bachelorette party, I was accompanied by three lovely ladies to Virginia Beach!  Though the weather was rough--rained and was pretty chilly the entire time... We made the best of it. We were there to drink anyway, eh?  We drove down on Friday night, and went to CP Shuckers for dinner. We all ordered the same first drink, a special--the Trophy Wife... I mean, really, could it be a more perfect drink to start the weekend with??

 Next up, Harpoon Larry's. We asked the bartender what drink everyone orders at his bar--He told us the Rum Runner... So that's what we started with... and I ended with! I think I had at least four of them. The biggest mistake the whole weekend!!  It's tough to tell in the pic below, but he's "loaded" the straws with rum... The pic below the next shows it a bit better

Here you can see the rum filled straw!  after the first rum runner, I figured it out... Pull the straw up and mix the rum right back into the drink. This didn't help my hangover on Saturday though... The sugaer did me in

the walk home was fun! The Neptune statue!

I didn't get out of bed until 1pm. Thanks rum runner. While I slept, the girls were on the balcony, bundled up, drinking wine from penis straws :)

this is what it looked like... no sun. all rain... super chilly! 

 I finally rolled out of bed at 1pm and got dressed, it was time to rally. We headed out to dinner, I had a little something something to drink... then an after dinner drink at Murphy's... I had a Jameson and Coke.. that was my magic potion that got me right back in shape and ready to party!  We started at the hotel bar-Shots a flowing--thankfully easy shooter shots, but shots nonetheless.

we played a fun game, along the way pulling random things we needed to do... One was to find someone named Dan. And well, we did. Kinda. We renamed our bartender Dan. and he went along with it! He was a super awesome bartender for us at Waterman's! 

Bartender Dan told us where we had to go next. which was a bar that I'd actually been to before with my parents... we went during the day, but we were there!! Calypso Bar and Grill

we met these fellas playing our little game, they joined in like troopers! Funny story, one of the things that was pulled by the guy on the right (you know with the peen poking him in the face) was "find someone else from Minnesota"  He looked at his buddy and laughed and said how am I supposed to do this? I asked what it was, he said "find someone from MN" I said "I'm from minnesota!" he said "ME TOO!" guy was from Apple Valley. So random.

After a long night of drinking we were ready to crash. but not until we had some pizza in us...

We were all sleeping soundly when suddenly we hear pounding on the wall... Lauren was yelling that her sister wouldn't get out of the bathroom... what a funny way to wake up :)

we couldn't leave the beach until we got some beach pics. though we were no where near the ocean, we got some pics anyway.

what a great weekend with some wonderful ladies. I had so much fun and I'm so lucky to call you all friends :)

and can I just say blogger's editing features really suck? moving pics sucks. centering sucks. and moving things after it moves it for you sucks. sorry if the format is redonk!

Bridal Shower...a few months early!

My Auntie Patti decided she'd throw my party the last time I went back to MN before the wedding.  I was so very excited to have my very own shower! After years of being invited to others, I got to be the one the shower was for. I was so excited to get the beautiful invite in the mail.  Had a great time seeing everyone, the food was wonderful, and I had so much fun! Everyone brought a recipe to fill up a recipe box. I'll keep you updated as we go thru those recipes!  Here are some pics from my special day.

My delish cake (cake wreck--said Congratulations 

Christy and Dad--they had to do a quick fix on that one!)

 two (of three) of the boys on my side of the wedding party

Almost all of the peeps standing up on my side (kelly, me, stef, jen and nikki)

 My sister and matron of honor

 our ring bearer and flower girl

 My sweet momma, mother of the bride

 Some of my good ol days friends! cassie and mindy

 Kelly and Lisa

 Jenny and me

 My super Aunties

 Are we related?

and my cousin nikki!

our wedding...and some other things from OCTOBER...

So I said that I'd update this more often while I geared up for my our wedding. And then promptly didn't do any updates. So here I go again. I have been home twice in the last two months, and I'll go ahead and update y'all on both... I'll start with my trip home in October.
The first thing I got to do was to take my nephews one year photos (I'll upload those soon)... I also got to surprise my niece at school, went up at lunchtime and brought her some Jimmy Johns..She had no idea, and was so surprised!

After my surprise lunch with Haley, I was able to meet up with my cousin to meet her sweet little baby twins!  They were such good lil babies when I was there to visit. So darn cute!

The first night I was in town we had an appointment to pick up my wedding dress, followed up by an appointment to check out some bridesmaids dresses... We found one that I LOVE and they will be eggplant in color... here is a hint, it's one of these... don't let the colors fool you because none of these are eggplant :)

Mom and I went up to the wedding site to do some taste testing. Overall it went well--I was really excited for the Cajun chicken pasta dish... It was alas too hot--almost too hot for me (and I can handle the heat, let me tell you!).  So I was bummed about that. I did decide on the parm crusted pork... I was invited to come back in Dec to try another dish since the pasta was too hot. After the food mom and I checked out the wedding location, it was close to sunset, and looked beautiful!

The first pic shows the isle I'll be walking down come May :)  we will be married under the trellis  at the front, and our guests will be on the grass. Cross your fingers for a nice warm winter so we have a beautiful May!

Saturday was my nephew RJ's 1st bday party! It was a wonderful day of hanging out with my family, here are a couple pics from his bday:

Sunday we hung out at mom and pops house for my sista's bday! Not only did we celebrate that, we were also celebrating Haley losing her first tooth, and RJs first steps (that he would only do for gramma!)

I had such a wonderful time being home, getting wedding things done, and spending time with my awesome family.  Here are a couple of my good bye pics with my niece and nephew:

FINISHED

I've finished my photos for Nicole and Doug's wedding. Here are a few of my faves!