Let's party

In my early to mid-twenties (not that long ago!), the majority of my friends were getting married. Chris and I traveled far and wide to attend their glorious weddings. I love weddings, well....let me be frank:  I actually love the receptions. When we got married, I felt like I was always arguing: "Yeah, I get the ceremony is important and all that, but the reception! Now that's where we want to spend the most money!"

 I think the ceremony part of a wedding is an intimate moment between the two people standing together at the alter. It makes me itchy to think of all the people staring as you say such sacred words to your beloved, and on top of that, watching you kiss the first kiss as a married couple! But it's all worth it because after that comes the absolute best part: the reception. It means you get to hang out with your friends, drink cocktails, dance and eat some form of cake. It seems that as I get older the wedding invitations became more and more sparse. So when I had a chance to fly to South Dakota last weekend to celebrate at just a wedding reception,  I jumped at the chance. 

Bill and Kyle have been together for about five years, and eloped in Iowa back in May. 

They had their reception in their hometown, Mitchell, South Dakota. It was perfect:

First of all, I should mention that Mitchell is home to the "Corn Palace". 

I insisted we take a picture on the way to our destination: 

 Ta-da!

The entire outside of this building is covered in corn husks making an amazing corn mosaic!

The reception was near a lake. The weather cooperated wonderfully, and shade from the trees and breeze off the lake, instantly had us relaxed:

Friends gathered to talk, 

and eat:

  

The bruschetta was so delicious that at one point we sent someone back inside to get "community bruschetta" 

A plate almost over flowing with tomato goodness and piled high with bread. 

Of course large amounts of wine were consumed:

But we managed to stay classy, and represent Missouri with pride.

Work it!

 By the way, Lesley, every article of clothing you buy, from this moment forward, needs to be 

that fantastic shade of hot pink. Love it. 

Speeches were given, toasting the couple: 

Hi Ryan, lovely speech!

 I loved the simple elegance of these wild flowers in mason jars, the flowers covered the hillsides of South Dakota, making it look like a fake picture:

   Cork screws were the party favors. I loved mine, but quickly realized I didn't want to be tackled by a TSA agent for trying to carry it onto a plane, and begrudgingly had to leave it behind.

Billy, Kyle, and Me. 

I should add that Chris and I left our house Saturday morning at 4:30 AM to catch my 7:05 flight. Then the very next day, Sunday, I caught a 1:10 PM flight home with a 4 hour lay-over in the Minneapolis, Minnesota airport. If you would like to know the best places to get a quick bite, sneak in a nap or buy some starbucks in the Minneapolis airport, I'm your girl. I did manage to land safely back in Tulsa Sunday night, but exhausted.

However, I shouldn't complain too much because if I hadn't been on the exact flight I was on (heading to my four hour layover in Minnesota),  I would have never got to see this beauty of a hair-style:

You stay classy South Dakota!

Ten best ways to have a great 4th of July:

1. Load the boat with flotation devices and people: 

2. Head out on the boat to find a nice sunny spot in a secluded cove. If you are like Christian and have been up since 3 am, working, you are probably exhausted and may want to find a shady spot on the boat and take a quick cat nap:

3. After finding the perfect spot,  you float.....

and float.....

and float...

Proper beverages are must, naturally.

4. Noodle placement for optimum floating is not optional: 

Yeah, he knows what this looks like, he just doesn't care because great floating has been achieved!

5. Don't forget to get a fantastic group picture!

6. and remember to come prepared with stories to share:

"And then I says to this wise guy, I says: Yo! I've had it up to here with yo' bull shiz..."
I think Chris'  sweet aviators and fu man chu makes me think of him with a 70's New York accent. 

7. If you brought furry friends, they may need a piggy back ride, even if they are wearing their own $35 doggy life jacket: 

8. After a full day of floating, talking, laughing head home for the main event: 

Forget the tickets to the gun show, this is what you should want to see! 

9. Let your dad take a picture of you looking REALLY excited to be holding a sparkler:

There is no better way to express your love for American then to blow stuff up.....

10. Finally, make sure your furry friends are dressed to represent their love for their country: 

and it doesn't hurt if you are wearing your favorite patriotic outfit either: 

HAPPY FRIDAY! I HOPE YOUR 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION CONTINUES WELL INTO THE WEEKEND! 

LOVE,

This girl

Time is relative....

Lately, it has been pointed out to me by numerous people that I am being neglectful of my blogging. To be honest, I think my brain may still be stuck in the summer of 2005....How did I get here? When did I get married? What the hell is a Justin Beiber!?

I have much to catch you up on. Remember in this post how I was lamenting the fact my baby brother was graduating this year? Well that jerk did it, he went and graduated. I've come to terms with the fact that he is leaving me to go to college in a little over two months but I'm only ok with that because I've informed him I will be visiting him every weekend.

The way our High School does graduation is kind of neat. The have a 'senior assembly' the morning of the graduation where the seniors get to say good-bye to all the underclassmen and celebrate their accomplishments, just as a school. My mom and I didn't want to miss ONE second of our smooshy face's big moment and went to the assembly.

The kids who didn't do their homework the night before and are super grateful to get out of class, shuffle in the gym, find their friends and have a seat on the bleachers:

My mom found her place with the other moms who were equally trying not to lose it:

I saw many graduates that I have known since they were sweet kids in kindergarten to tweens in Junior High and now know-it-all High School students:

Hi Marcus!!

Kali was in the middle of explaining the 'night before' graduation ritual where seniors try their best to stay up all night and not get into trouble....

I started to get a little panicky because I couldn't see Andrew anywhere in the sea of red caps and gowns....

Who are you people?!

Finally, after scanning the crowd numerous times, I spotted him between two girls. I was so excited to see him in his cap and gown that I left my seat, rushed over to him and yelled: "HEY ANDREW!" and raised my camera to get a perfect candid shot.

He whipped his head around to see who called his name, smacking his face with his hat tassels in the process: 

Doesn't it look like he is happily surprised to see me? 

If you said no, you are absolutely correct. 

However, I severely misjudged his facial expression. 

It was not one of love and joy at seeing his big sister coming to support him at 8 in the morning. 

 How do I know this? Because the next words out of his mouth were: 

"Oh my God! Are you serious? What are you doing!? Get away from me!!" 

I kid you not, he literally said that to me...TO ME! 

At this point I was so crushed by his rudeness I said the only thing I could think of:

 "UH! Yes I'm serious and now I don't even care if you graduate!" and then I ran away.  

What I should of said was: 

 Check back with me tomorrow and I'll have proof that he actually DID graduate, and his mood didn't improve much.....

I'm still recovering....

Every once in awhile something special happens in the United States: a 3-day weekend . When we are blessed with a 3-day weekend it's usually something to celebrate, this time it was MEMORIAL DAY.

I always think it's interesting when people don't live near an ocean they find any body of water they can play in, whether it's a river...lake....pond...stream..pool...canal....moat...you get the idea. My family? We go to the lake. We've been going to Grand Lake in Oklahoma for so long, we consider it OUR lake. I just say: We're going to the THE lake and expect people to know which lake I'm talking about (duh). So last weekend, in addition to remembering and honoring our veterans, we invited our friends to THE LAKE and had ourselves a damn good time.

Since we had SO many people spending their weekend with us, we had to bust out the air mattresses. Lesley and Blake graciously agreed to "air-mattress-sleep" the first night. Ten points to Gryffindor if you can spot Betty....hint: she looks like an alien that about to shoot lasers out of her eyes.

The next morning, breakfast was made. In my opinion, as a master chef, the easier the better. Chris wanted to have an omelet bar, waffles, eggs benedict, pancakes and mimosas- although that would have been amazing-I said no. We made homemade McMuffins, and they were much appreciated:

You are going to start noticing a pattern: Every picture I take of my two closest friends,  Lesley is masterfully posed and Jana is... posed in her own special way--she was obviously REALLY excited about homemade McMuffins!

Chris ate his the fastest because he really wanted to be here and breakfast was just getting in the way:

This is the new boat my hard working dad just bought. We haven't named it yet. My brother Christian wants to name it 'The Duke' but I think she looks more like a girl, don't you? Wouldn't Sandy the Suncruiser be a PERFECT boat name (say yes so I can win the boat naming war).

When everyone was done stuffing their faces with breakfast, we loaded the boat and were ready for our voyage.....

These two lovebirds could have cared LESS if we were loading or unloading for a great adventure on THE lake...they were just happy to be together.

My dad is an expert at loading the boat into the water, no big deal:

ANNNND WE'RE OFF!

Jana promoted herself to honorary first-mate.

After driving to "our spot" on "our lake" we dropped anchor, rode the jet skis, 

and floated to our heart's content. 

What does that mean?

PARTY TIME

 

Who knows which boy I'm bossing around here....dad is just glad it's not him.

I would just like to point out that a lot of beverages were consumed, and there was not ONE time anyone asked to be taken back to the house for a bathroom break....

After hours of relaxing and floating, it was time to head back to the house for dinner. 

Christian beat us there and was really ready to eat.

"Ummm could you guys PLEASE hurry up? I'm needing some bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos right about now!"

I think we could have all just hung out on the boat all evening...

but we knew there were S'mores waiting for us that night:

The bonfire was so hot Jana had to go to extreme measures to roast her marshmallows, but she is fearless and showed all the boys how to do it properly. 

Lesley is saying: I'm not sure why there is no S'more in my hand!

There was even a 'meeting of the minds' on the back porch with deep philosophical questions being asked, like: "What will it take for Kobe to win a championship next year?"

After we solved the world's problems and made ourselves sick with S'mores, it was time for bed. 

The next morning we all woke up...

....and argued over who had the best time and who was most tired.

 But I think Jana may have demonstrated how we all felt the best: