Megan and Kait's birthdays were earlier this month and we decided to celebrate them with a joint garden party at Lyndee's and my house this past Monday night. Ever since the tulips started coming up earlier this spring, I've been looking forward to entertaining formally in our back yard. The lilies and the phlox and the sage have all been blooming lately, but the hydrangeas steal the show. The blossom heads are as big as my head and are blue, pink, lilac and all the hues in between. Bekah, bless her, took charge of arranging the layout and decorating with hydrangeas. The effect was graceful and elegant. (Another sigh)
Kait arrived first and faked a "surprise" face because she thought we were joking by pretending she was Megan, the real birthday girl. It was only after we showed her the signs saying "Happy Birthday, Kait!" in size 1000 font that she believed us. David and Cindy did an excellent job throwing her off the scent: it makes perfect sense to fix the car in a white polo, David!
After Megan arrived and we all ate the fancy food with our pinkies raised (Brad even tried and liked egg salad!!), it was time for the evening's activity: painting aprons! Perhaps we weren't thinking when we planned to have a party in nice clothes and also paint, but miraculously, there were no major disasters. It was so cool to see how everyone chose to design their aprons. There wasn't one that didn't perfectly match the personality of its designer. Makes me reflective on how perfectly we, too, match the personality of our Designer.
Painting aprons continued until it was dark (and a bit after!). We lit and blew out birthday candles, ate cake and pie, and took group pictures with all of our apron-creations. Scroll through the pictures below to see how lovely our garden party turned out to be!
No, my math skills are not that bad. On June 18th - 19th, 2008, five of us ladies stayed in the parking lot of Chick-fil-A for 24 hours to win 52 coupons for free chicken sandwiches. Crazy, you say? Perhaps, but when else could you have a corn-hole tournament less than 500 feet from Nicholasville Road?
We pitched our tent first thing; it was nick-named the EpCottage by the parking lot socialite, Joe. Though embarrassing, the supplies heaped below were "the necessities" to get us through 24 hours. It's really embarrassing, actually.
We spent the day playing lots of games, consuming lots of chicken and sweet tea, and meeting lots of new people. Grace and Lyndee both spent quite of bit of time in the King Square, and Megan and I played the longest game of corn-hole ever with two of the guys from across the parking lot. We also played some board games when the sun got too hot, improvising with a hairbrush so all five of us could play Racko.
Every so often, the Chick-fil-A people would yell "Roll Call!" and we'd have to stand on our chalk numbers in front of our tent. This was how they made sure you were still on the property and could keep your registered number. The five of us were numbers 30 through 34 and we weren't about to move! Usually, when the people called "Roll Call!" they also handed out food. We ate so much fried chicken on Wednesday that the 52 coupons for more chicken didn't sound quite as good as they did before we started. But that didn't stop us from eating everything they handed out. Mm, Mm good!
The group that day consisted of Ben, Grace, Brad, Eric, Lyndee and me. I was obviously the novice kayaker of the group:) But after a crash course on using oars and several hours on the Dix, I was really getting the hang of it all!
Our first stop of the day was for lunch at the only waterfall on the Dix. Before eating, we climbed the waterfall and took group pictures:
We also had the grand idea to all straddle a fallen log and act like we were ridding it down the waterfall. Unfortunately the log decided to move while we were all straddling it and we had to bail before the picture was taken. There was also a casualty: Lyndee's knee was pinned between the moldy log and a rock and she suffered quite the wounding. The picture below was taken later Saturday night but you should have seen the colors that bruise turned during the next week!
After making sure Lyndee wouldn't die and eating our PB&J sandwiches, we got back on the river and continued paddling. There was jumping out of trees:
And Grace even dared Eric to jump with her into the freezing cold lake water. (Halfway down the Dix, the warm water from the Kentucky river turns into the cold water from Lake Herrington, which twice a year is emptied from the bottom of the lake and feeds the Dix. Being "bottom of the lake" water, it was FREEZING!!!) Eric took her dare and the two of them shimmied up a tree and after like five minutes of trying to get enough courage, they jumped. Upon surfacing, furious splashing and screams abounded. Eric was inches from tipping the canoe (with Brad still in it!) by trying to get in too fast and Grace brought in about a half foot of water when climbing into her kayak. For those us us sitting on top of the cold water, it was hilarious.
Soon after this, we came to a dried up waterfall that we decided to climb. At first, I was more than a little 
So what else happened on the river? Well, there were some rapids. And yes, I went through them solo in my little kayak. Unfortunately, the rapids amounted to little more than ripples in the water, but hey, no one needs to know that; the picture looks cool.
This one is for the logically-minded readers. If you added people with oars to abundant water, what do you think will result? Exactly. There was a lot of that, too. And it did not help out the half foot of water in Grace's kayak:)
After spending six or so hours on the river, we returned to Wilmore for Ales, ice cream (with homemade cookie dough!), Yatzee, Frisbee and a movie. How we still had enough energy to do all of this is beyond me. I just know I had the absolute best time kayaking and I really hope I get to go along again soon!
