Entries Tagged as 'bon fire'

Holiday Weekend at the Lake House

July 5th, 2010 · 1 Comment

A few of our friends own a lake house together on Cross Lake in WI. It’s about an hour outside of Chicago and technically their house is in WI, but the reason that the lake is called Cross Lake is because the state line crosses through it. One side of the lake is in WI and the other is in IL.

Dallas went with a bunch of the guys on the Thursday before Fourth of July and then the girls and more people joined them on Friday. We probably had 10 – 12 people coming in and out.. and about 6 dogs, who got along surprisingly well. Mostly we sat on the dock, rode the Sea-Doo, talked, drank, played bags, and ate. Nice and relaxing!

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Christina & Geoff’s Wedding Shower

May 18th, 2010 · No Comments

Last week was Christina & Geoff’s wedding shower. Christina’s Aunt Chris and Uncle Bob hosted the party up in Northfield, a suburb of Chicago. The plan was for about 15 of us to meet at Union Station at 5:30 p.m. and take the train up to Northfield. Unfortunately, someone decided to commit suicide by getting hit by a train on our train line so it delayed everything. What should have been a 36-minute train ride ended up taking a couple hours.

Luckily Geoff had planned ahead and bought about a case of beer.

We’d been out the night before and Dallas was pretty tired so he spent the Metra delay and ride resting. And holding our gift.

Good thing Dallas had that nap, because then he perked right up when we got to the party and was good to go!

When we finally arrived at the station, Christina’s brother and Uncle Bob picked us up in cars and took us to the house.

It was a big surprise for Geoff & Christina that Christina’s mom and brother flew in from Florida and California for the party. It was nice to meet Christina’s family – aunt, uncle, cousin, mom, brother – after having known her for so many years. Dallas knows Christina from back when they both used to live in Boston and worked for the same company. Christina’s maid of honor is Caitlyn, another friend from Boston, and she and her sister Sarah flew in to Chicago from Boston so it was good to see them too.

Out on the back patio, Christina’s Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris had a bar set up. Some people might have done some shots of Patron tequila. Not us! Christina and Geoff are getting married in Mexico in June so the party had a Mexican theme. Bob’s bar had Mexican beer, sangria, tequila and margaritas. I stuck with the margaritas.

Others? More shots!

Christina’s Aunt Chris had a bunch of appetizers that she was walking around. We had beef skewers with a pesto (?) sauce, goat cheese quesadillas with a mango relish, and ceviche. So delicious.

For dinner we had a citrus cabbage salad, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, and Mexican rice. Wow, the dinner was so good. The enchiladas were as good as in any restaurant. And the chiles rellenos were outstanding. Dallas always orders chiles rellenos when we go out and he thought they were fantastic.. he even got seconds on them.

After dinner we hung out around a bon fire. By then it was at least 10 p.m. and everyone had a lot of drinks in them.

Uncle Bob had a bunch of cigars and some people partook in smoking them.

I’d noticed earlier that there were sombreros hanging around the house and yard and I just thought they were decorations. Well, of course by now we were all wearing them.

I had to take a few breaks and drink water. I swear I only had 3 margaritas, but they must have been SO strong. They didn’t taste like tequila though.. just like delicoiusness. I don’t know what was in there, but it was good. Here’s a photo of me with my two best friends that night:

(sombrero and margarita)

Oh, and my third best friend, bon fire:

At about 11:30 or 12:00, I don’t even know any more, a bus came to the house and picked us up to go back to the city. There was more drinking on the bus, but Dallas and I were DONE. Some were still going strong, some were passing out on the bus. I think people may have gone out more when we got to Chicago, but I’m not sure because we got off the bus, said our goodbyes and grabbed a cab home.

What a fun party. Thanks to Christina and Geoff for inviting us and to Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris for hosting everyone. We’re disappointed because we’re not going to be able to go to Mexico for the wedding, but it was fun to at least spend the night with Christina and Geoff and their family and friends. If it weren’t for a conflicting family wedding here in Chicago we’d totally be in Mexico!

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Chris & Tandy’s Wedding Reception

July 19th, 2005 · No Comments


Pupus


A nice little keepsake


They also gave away little rice bowls


Dinner Salad


Dancers


Dinner – you could have selected chicken or steak.


Mac Salad


Special Hawaii Bud


Kathy Squared (Dallas’s mom & aunt are both named Kathy)


Dessert


Throwing the bouquet


Throwing the bouquet – Caroline & Rachelle


Getting the garter


Throwing the garter


Rachelle, Dallas, Tandy, Chris


George, Kathy, Caroline, Dallas


Rachelle & Dallas

Following Chris & Tandy’s wedding ceremony was a cocktail hour with pupus and then lunch. Luckily lunch was inside an air conditioned ballroom. A Hawaiian band played while we were eating and some hula and tahitian dancers came out and did their thing. It was very luauish. Remember last year when Dallas was chosen to learn how to do the hula? They did the same thing at the wedding, but with some haole boys from Iowa who couldn’t hula to save their life. It was fun(ny).

After lunch the band and dancers left and there were many speeches and stories told by the wedding party about Chris and Tandy. I found it really interesting since I don’t know Chris and Tandy that well. .. it helped me learn more about them, how they met, and their 8-year long relationship. There were people at the wedding from all over the world, Hawaii, the mainland, Japan, to name a few places, so I’m sure that this was fun for them too.. to hear stories from all different aspects of Tandy & Chris’s lives.

Each of the tables where the guests sat was named for something in Chris & Tandy’s lives. One was the Wiamea table, one the Iowa table, one table was called “8″ representing how many years they’ve been together. Our table was “Food Network vs. ESPN”. Apparently they fight over the remote! After talking story for quite some time, Marissa, Tandy’s sister introduced everyone who’d travelled to attend the wedding. Quite a lot of people.. and like I said, from all over the world. Next Tandy made up a story using the terms represented on each of the tables. It was kind of like Mad Libs and when she pointed to your table you had to shout out the name of your table to finish the sentence and continue on the story. Kind of hard to explain but it worked out really well.

Next, the bride and groom did the traditional bouquet/garter toss. The wedding was small enough that they had a list of the single people and if you were single and didn’t participate your name got shouted out over the microphone and you were peer pressure forced to participate!

Finally, everyone mingled around with drinks in hand. It was a fun, laid back kind of wedding. It was great to feel the love in the room, the friendship between the people attending and how much they loved and respected Chris and Tandy and how they all traveled so far to be there and show their support. Definitely not one of those weddings you attend and feel like you don’t know anyone or like you’re not sure what’s going on with the couple.

In addition to the kukui nut leis, Chris and Tandy gave out personalized chopsticks and small rice bowls.

ยป Dancers (.mov, 19 sec, 528k)

Later on that night Chris and Tandy had a really informal party at Kekaha Beach. A few people went swimming, but mostly we sat around for sunset and the evening, eating pupus and drinking beer and talking. A bonfire was built and some people also caught some crabs on the beach. A nice way to unwind after a long, stressful day for a some people, I’m sure.


Dallas loves this canned beef. You can’t get it on the mainland. This is when we stopped at Big Save in Waimea to get beer for the beach party.


Bon fire at the beach party.

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Dinner, Drinks & a Bonfire

August 18th, 2003 · 3 Comments


Jeff & Joanne at Ray’s Boathouse


Kelly, Jeff & Joanne outside Ray’s Boathouse


Kelly, Jeff & Joanne outside Ray’s Boathouse


Ray’s Boathouse


Outside Ray’s Boathouse


Outside Ray’s Boathouse


Marc cutting the pie at Joanne’s


Someone having a Christmas tree burning ritual at Golden Gardens Park


Someone having a Christmas tree burning ritual at Golden Gardens Park


Someone having a Christmas tree burning ritual at Golden Gardens Park


Someone having a Christmas tree burning ritual at Golden Gardens Park


Joanne & Kelly


Jeff & Rachelle


Rachelle & Marc, Marc totally bogarting the only wine glass


Larry, Joanne & Buckey


Buckey & Rachelle


Kelly & Jeff


Our bonfire


A fire twirler







Buckey & Marc are all tired out

After getting back to Seattle from Orcas Island, Joanne took us to Ray’s Boathouse for dinner. The seafood was excellent and so was the view. Then we met up with Marc, Larry, and Buckey at Joanne’s to have a little housewarming party. Joanne just moved into her studio in the Queene Anne neighborhood of Seattle a few weeks ago. Marc & Larry are Joanne’s friends and Buckey is their 14-year-old Golden Retriever. Buckey is bilingual. He also goes by the name of Tito. He grew up on a sugarcane farm in Puerto Rico and mostly only obeys commands in Spanish. “Tito, aqui”, for “Buckey, here!” Later on we went to Golden Gardens Park where we drank a bit more wine and sat around a bon fire on the beach.

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