Rollin' On the River

Lane has been Danny's best friend for about 14 years.  They met at church and bonded over motorcycles.  Danny's seen Lane through the birth of his youngest two sons and a couple of life-changing decisions.  Lane has seen Danny for dinner--A LOT!  So, Lane was a natural choice as best man, which put him in charge of the bachelor party.

I'm pretty sure one of Lane's philosophies in life is "Go big or go home."  And go big he did!  A very big houseboat on which to party!

That's not actually them on the boat.  This is a photo taken from the Internet.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) no photos remain from the actual bachelor party.

I had asked them not to have the bachelor party the night before the wedding since that was going to be a busy time and I didn't want everyone tired the day of the wedding, so they threw it the week before.  The guys all got together Saturday and Lane used his boat to shuttle everyone from the dock to the little island where they had anchored the boat.  The rest of the groomsmen were made up of Danny's four brothers, Nick, Dave, Luke, and Jeff (who wasn't in from Hawaii yet, but came the next day), and my brother, Josh.  Plus Mark, a friend of Lane's, came as the cook.  And Doug, Danny's dad joined in the partying too.

They spent the day fishing and climbing on rocks and other guy stuff.  Then they took Lane's pontoon boat up and down the river doing other guy stuff.  When they came back to the boat they did more guy stuff.  (I'm sure you can tell how much I know about what happens when women are not around! :) )

Sunday morning was Mother's Day and all the kids and wives were invited to come aboard and spend the day.  We had brunch, laid out on the upper deck while the kids went in the hot tub and off the slide in the back.  It was a fun day that I had set aside from wedding craziness, but all too soon it was time to dive back in for the last week of the countdown...but that's another story.

Oh, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Time for the Bachelorette Party.  I told the girls this was not necessary...but they wanted to throw me one...and a surprise one at that!  I knew the date and time to show up at Erin's, so I picked out a cute outfit, put on my new MAC make-up that I had got for the wedding and drove to Redmond.  A funny thing happened when I walked in though.  No one else had any make-up on.  Strange for a group of girls getting ready to party. 

We loaded into cars and drove to beautiful Tumalo with farmland all around.  We pulled up at a gorgeous ranch and were buzzed through the gate.  We made our way to an apartment over the stables where a couple of tables and chairs were set up...and a counter lined with make-up awaited.  It was starting to make sense.  We had met a make-up artist at the wedding expo and had come to have Terri show us how to do our make-up before heading into the rest of the party.

She showed us how to do various things, and then she had us pick the colors we wanted to use.  She did everyone's eyes herself while the rest of us watched and nibbled on snacks Erin had brought.

From there we headed to dinner at Flatbread in the Old Mill.  We ate and chatted and chatted and chatted and then headed back to Erin's and Sarah's.  When we got there Tiffany was already setting up the chocolate fountain.  Michelle and Kelsey had made some yummy adult beverages.  Sarah had made "better than sex cake."  And everyone had pitched in to put some very pretty and unmentionable things in a honeymoon basket for me.

We stayed way to late as the married women shared advice and the rest of us just talked.  It was such a fun night with some of my closest friends.  Of course Danny would say that his bachelor party was a lot more fun...but that's another story.