Thursday, May 28, 2009

I'm Alive!

I have just been a busy bee since school let out for the semester! My Aunt Cathy and Grandmere came in for the Derby and I have been going non stop ever since. I just got done taking a 2 week class and getting my CPR certification. I'm done with the class but have been getting things ready for the 2 upcoming weddings. I blogged about them here. Emilys wedding is just over a week away! I can't believe it is already here.
One tradition that Emily, Maria and myself started a few years back is "Woman's Weekend." We pretty much hole up in my house for 2 days straight and venture out for a few select activities. One year we went and attempted completed a corn maze! It was a lot of fun, but a lot harder than we expected. Here is a picture of us in the midst of the maze! 
When planning for another Woman's Weekend, we decided it would be fun to go to the lake for a day. After doing some research, we learned that our budget would not allow for such a day. However, we are a resourceful group of girls! While a pontoon boat was out of our price range, the ever so classy Jon boat fit right into our budget. At a $40 day rental fee, it meant a day of fun for under $15 each, brilliant! So off we went to Laurel Lake to rent our fishing boat. Most people rent these boats with fishing rods and tackle boxes in tow, we came with wine, sunscreen, rafts and a cooler of food! We had the absolute best time. I could take up a whole blog post detailing that day. It wasn't even sunny outside, but we made the best of it and had such a good day! We did have one little glitch in our day though. We thought it would be a nice idea to "dock" our boat on the shore and get out and use our rafts for a bit. So we turned the motor off, not thinking, and enjoyed some time floating. When it came time to load back up, we quickly realized we had a major problem. We could not get that dang motor to start. Turns out, it isn't so easy to pull the engine cord fast enough to get the motor started. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I swore we were stranded. But the plot thickens...we remembered that they had put an oars in our boat when we left the marina. Yes! We could row to safety. So we started looking for our oars and realized that we ONLY HAD ONE OAR! Now why in the world would you only need one oar??? So Emily and myself just pretended we were on a romantic gondolier ride and let Maria row us to safety. Lucky for you, we have this on video. Enjoy! 

Just so you know, we did end up finding another boater that came aboard and helped us out. And no, we did not turn off our boat for the rest of the day. And just in case you were curious, this is a picture of the "S.S. Paradise" (our loving name for our vessel). Isn't she a beauty? We have since all agreed that that was one of the best days of our lives. 

So the reason I just told you that rather long story is to let you know that this magical day is going to be recreated on Sunday! We are going back to visit the SS Paradise in all her glory. It will be our final woman's weekend before we marry Emily off, so it will be bittersweet to say the least. This time we plan on getting 2 oars and a tutorial on how to start the boat once you turn it off :) I will hopefully get some pictures to share. 

I will also be traveling to South Carolina in June for Jon's wedding, but thats a whole other post ;) Stay tuned!