good friends, good cake

guess what?! i'm still alive! i may not have any readers left sticking around after such a long post drought, but i'm finally back. its been a hectic week or two, and there's lots to share. it will be at least a month before we get any of the professional photos back, but there's plenty of other stuff in the meantime. (and if anyone out there reading this has pictures from the wedding, send them to me!!)

the saturday before the wedding, some of my good friends threw a bridal shower for me. since my family is scattered so far across the country, and because it was only one short week before the wedding, most of my relatives were unable to make it. i did have a handful of good friends that came, and even got a surprise visit from an old friend and my future mother and sister in law.

they drove all the way from upstate ny, just for the day!!

sarilyn!

the always amazing jenny made a BEAUTIFUL wedding gown cake. it got rave reviews from all shower attendees. (check out her blog, there's a great picture of me preparing to cut the cake)

lemon cake with lemon curd and blueberry... mmmm

some shots of some of the lovely ladies in attendance. unfortunately i didn't get one of everybody, but i tried.

too cute :)

can't wait for baby pictures!

is she disgustingly lovely or what??

a huge thank you to ashley for hosting, and to jenny, sonja, and sara for helping out. and to everyone who came or who sent something for the scrapbook!

and they call the thing rodeo...

welcome to installment #2 of our fair adventures. this installment stars the dashing Mr. VanBavel and his charming wife Sonja. And me. Oh, and this guy.

that's right. i can now cross one more thing off my list of things to do before i die (or i can add something to the list, then immediately cross it off. but lets not split hairs, hmm?) last friday i had my first experience riding the mechanical bull. i was not the only one.



Jay clearly wins for having the most convincing facial expressions while riding.



Sonja managed to stay on the full time. I'm convinced this is because she's tiny and cute. The carnival worker that was running the bull would probably have felt like a jerk for throwing her off. He had no such qualms about me.


Though he let me stay on far longer than my bull riding skills warranted, he threw in one last vicious spin that i was unable to survive. He was actually fairly non-creepy considering that he was, in fact, a carnie (carny?). And he was quite good at gaging just how violently to maneuver the bull so that you had to work hard to stay on, but not so much that you flew off immediately.

p.s. i forgot to mention... for only spending maybe three minutes clinging to the back of that thing, i was sore for an awfully long time. you wouldn't believe how wobbly one is after dismounting.