alaska recap

Welp, I’ve been back from Alaska for about a week and half and am just now getting around to posting pictures and a recap of the trip.  One reason is because my parents actually came down here the same night I did so I’ve been a little busy doing stuff with them.  And another reason is just because I’ve been lazy and enjoying my days of having few responsibilities.  But things are changing today!  I’ve posted some pictures on facebook and now I’m writing this post.  Crossing stuff off the list.  So make yourself comfortable, I think this is going to be a long one.

The trip was great.  One of the best trips home in recent years.  I was able to see quite a few of my friends (sadly, for only quick visits with most of them), I got to spend quite a bit of time with my niece and nephew, I got to hang out quite a bit with one of my closest friends Carlie (and help out with her brother’s wedding), and I got to attend (and plan and set up) my 10 year high school reunion.  The weather was amazing.  As in pretty hot – it was in the mid 80’s for most of my trip.  I only remember it reaching those kind of temps maybe once or twice growing up.  I had of course packed completely inappropriately.  Luckily I’d brought quite a few tank tops for layering, so I just dropped the extra layers.  And I never once touched the fleece jacket that took up tons of space in my suitcase.  Oh well.

The first weekend I was there, my niece (A) and nephew (Z) stayed with us at my parents’ house.  A is 4 1/2 and Z is about 15 months.  They arrived on Saturday evening and we had them until Monday morning.  It was fun, it was exhausting, and it reminded me of just how amazing my sister in-law is to be able to keep up with them on a daily basis.  It took my dad, mom, and I all of our effort to keep just 2 kids in line.  Dad and I took A to the park where she ran around for 2 hours straight and someone thought my dad was either homeless or a creepy old man because he laid down in the shady part of one of the jungle gyms and was taking a snooze.  When another lady asked me about him I was confused at first and then realized that she was talking about him.  A little embarrassing to say the least.

That evening we took the kids to Kepler Park for a boat ride.  A decided that her life jacket was killing her after my mom tied together the top set of ties.  So, much of the ride was spent listening to her complain of choking and saying that her vest was “sooo heavy”.  Finally she perked up a bit when she got the chance to row the boat with Granny.  Then Z started fussing and we couldn’t figure out what his deal was.  Turns out he wanted to row too.  He’s very mechanically minded, which doesn’t surprise me a bit seeing as how my dad is a civil engineer, my brother is an areonautical engineer, and Z’s other grandpa owns his own construction company.  And while a bit small for actual rowing, he did seem to have a grasp on the concept and was as happy as a clam after that.

That night Z fell asleep in my arms while we watched Black Beauty (um, how sad is that movie?) and when I went to put him down on his makeshift bed of couch cushions, I couldn’t believe how much he actually looked like a little cherub.  It helped that he was just in a diaper and wrapped up in his champagne colored silky blanket.  His blonde hair didn’t hurt either.  I wish I had a picture of him at that moment.  So adorable.

I met up with lots of my friends for lunches during the week.  I went with one of them to this newer restaurant called the Red Beet.  They don’t have a full menu there.  Instead, they make one entree a day and that’s what you get.  It helps that the food is totally gourmet and delicious.  I can be a picky eater so I was nervous they’d be serving something I really didn’t like, but the food was fabulous.  I thought it really couldn’t get much better and then we ordered dessert!  I got this amazing almond cake with cream and I couldn’t believe how good it was.  I’ve been craving it ever since that day.  I can taste it right now it was so great!

My friend Carlie was up from Tennessee for her brother’s wedding and our high school reunion.  Her husband is originally from Florida and has only been up to Alaska once before.  It was actually when he proposed to her and it was a pretty short trip with disappointing weather, so he was excited about the chance to visit again.  I asked my dad if he would take the three of us up in his plane to fly over a nearby glacier.  The sky had gotten pretty hazy because of wildfires up by Denali, but the view was still amazing.  I think Tony had a great time and it turns out it was Carlie’s first time having a scenic flight like that (and she grew up in AK).

I spent my last Friday and Saturday there helping with the wedding.  Friday was pretty fun because Carlie and I got to zip around in my dad’s Miata going from place to place.  There was the normal wedding stress, but I had fun for the most part.  Saturday was a bit of a different story.  I had fun, but was a lot more stressed.  I’ve coined the day as “running a marathon in bad shoes”.  Seriously, one of the worst blisters I’ve ever had on my heel.  But it all worked in the end and the bride and groom are married (they were high school sweethearts!) and everyone survived!  (But I’ve only worn flip flops since then.)

Oh, and that Friday night we celebrated my brother’s 31st birthday.  I made him a spice cake because my sister in-law told me that whenever they eat spice cake somewhere he always says something to the effect of “why isn’t spice cake in our life more often?”  I got him the first season of Lost on dvd because a couple of months ago he called me on a Wednesday night about 10 minutes before it was on.  I told him I could only talk for that bit of time because Lost would be on and I couldn’t miss it.  And he had the audacity to ask me, “What’s Lost?”  AAAAHHHHH, are you kidding me?  I understand to some degree – they don’t have regular tv and basically just watch things through Netflix.  But Lost just seemed up his alley especially with all the conspiracy theory stuff.  So now I hope he does actually like it seeing as how I went ahead and just bought the season for him instead of telling him to get it on Netflix.

That night the kids ran around my parents’ yard for quite awhile.  I just sat down in the middle of it and started taking pictures.

Sunday was our reunion.  We had planned on having a potluck BBQ at one of the local parks.  I’d gotten kind of anxious about all the details of it (but not about seeing any of the people).  Luckily my friend Hailee really stepped up to the plate and got lots of decorations and nice things to make it feel more festive.  I spent the better part of the week worrying about parking, which of course turned out to be a non issue.  I’d say about 40 people from my class (out of 216) along with families came.  So a little dissappointing size wise, but it was so great to see the people who were there.  And everyone was so gracious about thanking me for putting it together.  I was really glad we did it, even if I had anxiety about it for a whole stinking year.  Everyone looked pretty much exactly the same and it was weird to see little miniature versions of them running around on the park’s jungle gym.   And their were quite a few little babies there.  So sweet.

That night I took the red eye flight back down to WA.  My parents were on another flight that was scheduled to take off at the exact same time (I’m pretty sure we were on 2 different runways).  Once we were in Seattle I took the shuttle bus and they had a layover and then a commuter flight up to B’ham.  And I beat them there by 5 minutes.

the toss

So there is a lot to catch blogland up with, but I don’t have the time or thought process to do it right now.  But I did feel like telling you about a brief little part of events that happened this weekend and hopefully I’ll follow up with more actual detail on everything that’s been going on.

Anyway, Saturday was my very good friend and old college roommate Naomi’s wedding.  I was a bridesmaid (and got to wear a very fun, cute dress!) and was really happy to be a part of the whole event.  But what I want to bring up is a very specific part of what typically happens at a wedding reception.  You know, they do the cake cutting and the first dance and the father/daughter dance and blah blah blah.  And then…they throw the bouquet.  Now is the time to tell you that I have had somewhat of a history with this wonderful wedding reception tradition.  :S  At my brother’s wedding, I caught the bouquet and my cousin (who had brought a guy on their first date to the wedding) actually jumped on my back trying to get it from me.  I just remember being shocked and leaning over with her still on top of me while I tried to elbow her off.  And come to think of it the guys were even worse – wrestling all around like crazy.  But in the end the groomsman (my brother’s freshman roommate in college) that I walked down the aisle with (of course I was a bridesmaid in that wedding too!) caught the garter.  Little did I know that my new sister-in-law subscribed to the tradition that the catcher of the garter had to then put the garter on the leg of the bouquet catcher.  Good times, good times.  My brother was quite the chaperone for that memorable moment.

Ok, so time goes on…I obviously don’t get married (not as the traditional wedding lore says is supposed to happen to a bouquet catcher).  Then my cousin’s wedding comes along (ya, so it looks like she didn’t need to attack me for that last bouquet – she actually married that first date guy from my brother’s wedding!), I am the maid of honor and it is time again for the toss.  This time I stood more near the back, I wasn’t too excited about the prospect of having a random guy put a garter on my leg again.  But still the bouquet makes a line drive right to me and I have no choice but to put of my hands to catch it or else its just going to hit me in the head (I love the SATC episode where that basically happens to Miranda – “Ok, now you’re done”).  Luckily my cousin did not prescribe to the same bouquet traditions – in fact I can’t even remember if there was a garter toss.

After these two memorable experiences you would think that perhaps I would be smart enough to just avoid the whole situation and not stand up when they call all of the single girls out to the dance floor.  But here is the problem.  People know that I am single and I’ve found that the bride at weddings seems to know who all of the single girls at their wedding are.  Like somehow they’ve memorized their guest list and I’m in the section with a specific heading like Girls Who Couldn’t Come Up With A Date or at the very least Bouquet Catchers. So they hunt you down and the DJ calls out your name over the mic and EVERYONE at the wedding has to swing their heads around to see who the crazy single girl is who won’t get up for the damn bouquet toss.  “Why won’t she get out there, she’s ruining the whole wedding!”  And if there is one thing you should know about me it is that I am a people pleaser.  I am not going to ruin the whole thing – I am going to give the bride what she wants and what she wants is to have a big group of girls who she can throw her bouquet to.  Plus I’m saving myself the embarrassment of being searched out and dragged up there.  So I think that I’ve caught a few more bouquets, although I don’t know for certain because none of them have been as memorable as the two I have already mentioned.

But on to the wedding at hand.  I do my typical thing of going up when we are called – and actually Naomi was cool enough to make all the single people go up for the bouquet toss, both men and women.  But I really don’t think one guy came up…I’m not positive but I’m pretty sure they all just stayed in their comfortable padded seats, leaned back and waited to see the spectacle unfold.  So again I stand to the back and actually our whole group was pretty far away from Naomi.  Far enough away that I thought for sure it would land on the ground in front of the group and some young, naive girl would dive for it.  But apparently Naomi has a strong arm.  It flew to the back of the group and I instinctively stuck my hand to the side because I knew it would fall on the ground otherwise.  And remember, I am a People Pleaser – bouquets cannot hit the ground at a wedding – it would “ruin everything!”.  Luckily, one of her younger cousins grabbed for it too, so I was able to just push it at her and she “got” it.  I thought I was safe.  But suddenly this cousin’s older sister thrusts it back into my hands and declares “She’s still in high school, she cannot have this!”  So I have caught the bouquet yet again.  And come to find out from my mom who was a guest at the wedding – Naomi looked over her shoulder for me and my current roommate who was also a bridesmaid right before she threw it.  Mom is convinced that she wanted one of us to have it.  Thanks Na, thanks.

Obviously it hasn’t really helped me in the past in terms of being the next girl to get married and I pretty much doubt its going to help here in the near future.  Maybe for me it is some sort of reverse work at hand – the more bouquets I catch the longer I will be single.  Or not.  Whatever.  I just find it interesting that I’ve got such a good reflex for catching flowers.  This is not the case with any type of balls in sports.  No, I let those just fly past me or hit me in the head (yes, this has happened!) or I cringe, squat down and let someone else jump and get it for me.  But I guess there’s something about flowers that call out to me.  I’m starting to rethink the getting up at receptions – if I time it right maybe I can figure out to be in the restroom at that moment – but, oh how embarrassing if they called you out and everyone waited for you to come from the bathroom!