the best compliment ever and one fun bachelorette party

after a half dozen loads of laundry and one giant shopping trip to the commissary for some groceries, i am finally back to the blog. bozeman and i are so happy to be back with LH, but i think that bozeman is definitely missing the company of my parents and their dog... and their giant, fenced-in back yard.

during my time at my parents' house, my mom and i made a trip to visit my brother at school. i got to check out his teeny, tiny dorm room with the horrible fluorescent lighting, i saw his fraternity house and i even checked out the girls' bathrooms in his dorm. hey, i had to go really bad, and i couldn't resist seeing if they were clean or not. i had totally forgotten what it was like to go to the bathroom with dozens of flyers plastered on the walls around you. kind of distracting, if you ask me. although i did get kinda grossed out by the reminder to "flush it down whether it was yellow, red or brown." i guess college-aged girls still need reminders like that? i don't know...

while we were there, my mom and i took my brother out for dinner. at one point, our mom got up to use the "facilities" and i started telling my bro some of the weird things about being pregnant and how much my body was already changing even though i'm only 13 weeks. my mom caught the tale end of the conversation and said, "isn't it weird hearing your sister talk about stuff like that?" this was the highlight of my day: without even thinking twice, my brother said, "i've never thought that anything [LW] said was weird!" i told him it was because i brainwashed him when he was little and he had to throw in a smart remark about me throwing him off of the tractor when he was two. oops.

the next morning, i headed out to my friend's bachelorette party. would you believe that we went white water rafting and then tubing? i was planning on playing it safe and skipping the white water part, but once i realized that it was a part of the river that i had been down three times before and that our guide was not only a fellow bridesmaid from the wedding, but had also been guiding the river for 11 years and was an EMT, my comfort level rose considerably. she convinced me to go with them by promising to keep me and the baby safe, and she delivered on her promise. we had SO much fun. the bachelorette had a special helmet complete with a veil and a tiny bride and groom on top with a sign that said, "kiss me while you still can". her paddle even had her name and "bachelorette" written on it. suffice it to say, she received plenty of attention the entire trip down the river. i can't even count how many times people took her picture!

once we finished rafting, we headed back to the cabin so i could stuff my face and then we loaded up the cars again to go tubing down the "lazy" river, complete with a floating cooler filled with alcoholic drinks for them and non-alcoholic drinks for me. i laughed so hard during most of that trip, because a few certain people, who will remain unnamed, kept getting stuck in trees and on rocks because they couldn't paddle well enough. back at the cabin, i fell asleep while playing some of the typical bachelorette party games. they were kind enough to wake me up when the bachelorette was opening the lingerie present that i bought for her and then to send me to bed.

we all left feeling like it was one of the most fun weekends that we had had in a really long time, and promised to get together next year to do it again. i'll just have to get LH to agree to watch the baby... =)