Cupcakes and Coronas
Andrea threw an amazing shower for me with all my friends and family from New Jersey. It was wonderful and so much fun. She thought of absolutely everything. We started off the party with peach and mango bellinis for everyone. It was such a pretty looking drink that totally added to the festivities. She had huge hurricane vases filled with lemons and limes, pyramids of oranges, and silver buckets filled with Coronitas all over the deck.
Bellini Anyone?
Duff adn the coronitas
She and mom created quite a spread. Mango and avocado salad, shrimp on the Barbie, prosciutto wrapped asparagus and many other tasty treats. After everyone helped themselves to the feast we sat out on the deck and played a few games. The first game was a “How well do you know Bonnie” game. Where guests gave themselves a point if I had babysat their kids, danced with them in recitals, or attended Virginia Tech games with them. For the next game everyone received a sheet of paper with pictures of me at all different ages and everyone had to guess the month and year of each picture.
YUMMY!
Then we went inside to grab some dessert. Andrea and Mom and made a table full of “mini’s”. There were mini chocolate French Silk Pies, mini key lime pies in a glass, and mini heart shaped lemon squares – everything was cute and delicious. With dessert in hand we headed into the living room to open presents.
Mini Desserts
Everyone was so generous with their gifts – thank you so much! It was so much fun opening pieces of china, luxurious towels, and so many other wonderful gifts. Then the last present made its way to me and when I opened it up I was speechless – tears just started falling. Everyone from both the Virginia and New Jersey showers and other family members had sent recipes and pictures that Andrea had complied into two volumes of recipes! The Williams-DeMay Recipe book will be something I treasure forever.
Filled with fun size snickers and peppermint patties
DeMay Williams Cookbook
Then as everyone left the shower, they received two tasty orange and yellow cupcakes topped with a lollypop and mint leaf to take with them. Duff had made them and boxed them up with cute little lemon ribbon. What a wonderful day, thank you so much to everyone!
Cupcakes and Coronas!
Kris, Jen, Bonnie, Mom and Christie
Showered with Love
Being the bride is wonderful! My girlfriends threw me a shower this weekend and it was absolutely perfect. I arrived at Sandra’s house with Andrea, Erin, Duff and Mom at 1 o’clock. I couldn’t believe how many people had come from so far away to celebrate with me – Indiana, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Utah! Being surrounded by all my girlfriends and family and showered with gifts, it was one of the happiest days of my life. The girls had coordinated a beach theme for the shower, filling vases with sand and shells, blue candles, sand dollars, a picture of Chris and me snorkeling for everyone to sign, and best of all a gorgeous “Amanda” cake decorated with pineapple flowers and sea shells. There was so much food to enjoy including my favorite chicken salad imported from Wake Forest, NC.
Sandra and Bonnie
Amanda, Bonnie, Sara, & Pam
Mom, Bonnie, Andrea
Lemon cake and pinapple flowers
Gift from Jenn
Love the wrapping
Abbie and Bonnie with the Bow-quet
When the shower came to an end we ventured down to the basement which had earlier been marked with “caution bachelorette party”. The girls had hung a huge picture of me getting ready to pour drinks at one of the clubs in Vegas. The next thing I spotted was a hamper that had a little tag hanging out the side that said “pull here”. As it turns out, the string was actually a clothes line filled with fun stuff to wear on the honeymoon. The girls made me guess who each piece was from – I think I only got one or two right! Andrea poured everyone a blue bikini martini – and we practiced some new dance moves in the basement.
Blue Bikini Martini Anyone?
Then came the next big surprise – a party bus – to take us down to DC. We threw on our party clothes and headed out for a night one the town. The bus was perfect; we even had our own bathroom! We toasted with champagne, played some trivia questions about Chris, and danced on the bus all the way into the city. I drank my beer out of a pink “bride to be” kosi with hot pink feathers on it. Sara handed out a scavenger hunt to everyone with tasks like find a guy named Chris and dance with the oldest guy in the bar. Our first stop was at Sequoia’s in Georgetown, followed by Madhatter, and then lastly – McFaddens where the DJ announced “is that a bachelorette party in the house!” and we all ran down the stairs cheering. It truly was a top night and wonderful weekend.
Bonnie and Erin
Party Time
Off to Sequoia
Snowpocalypse 2010: The Snow Pile at 2603BOW
(My first post as a contributor on Bonnie’s blog… how exciting!)
In case you didn’t notice, it snowed quite a bit this past week. I don’t have exact numbers, but the latest statistic I heard was 55″ of snow during the two storms… and that the area between Baltimore and DC (aka “where I live”) got hit the hardest. Work was canceled for the first four days this week — No word yet whether we’ll have work tomorrow.
Living in a neighborhood where garage-less townhouses and their parking spots line both sides of the street, there aren’t many places for 55″ of street- and car snow to go. The plows came, but not frequently enough, and much of the plowing left us with higher piles behind our cars. Some neighbors sacrificed one of their two parking spots as a snow depository… some sacrificed car access by piling all the snow behind one car. With three roommates and two visitors, we didn’t have spots or cars to spare. As a result, we — and most of our neighbors — needed to relocate the snow to our front yards… and our front yards aren’t that big. When you have to pile street- and car snow onto a 15′ x 15′ yard and keep it off the sidewalk/pathways, the pile gets very tall very quickly.
One of our neighbors was extremely industrious and seemingly shoveled more than he slept. Since our car spots are not directly in front of our houses, as he cleaned of his cars, the snow ended up on our lawn. I was happy for his snow to end up there because he often cleared the sidewalk in front of our house, too. Those occupying 2603BOW (short for 2603 Barred Owl Way) for the weekend all cleaned off their cars and also contributed to the pile. By the end of Sunday night, the pile was probably 10 feet high. However, you couldn’t easily walk on it because the snow was soft and you’d fall right through.
At this point, I set two goals:
1) I will have a pile I can stand on.
2) I will have the tallest pile in my subdivision.
The goals were somewhat contradictory — in order to have a pile I could stand on, I’d need to compact the snow, making the pile smaller. In order to make the pile bigger, I’d need to add more uncompacted snow. I love a good challenge.
After two days of work, the pile was complete, and it was both the tallest and the sturdiest in the community. I stood at the top, proud. With my short attention span, that only lasted for a few moments before I started coming up with loftier goals: I wanted this pile to be functional… and I wanted something to do during the week when work would inevitably be canceled. The result was goal number three:
3) I will build a snow slide.
Over the week, with the additional 18″ of snow we received on Tuesday night, and over four snow days, I had the time and materials to achieve this goal with flying colors.
The snow slide ended up be about 10 feet tall (fully compacted) — and the slide is more than 15 feet long. I “iced” the stairs and slide a few times to make them sturdier. (“Icing” consisted of pouring water on the snow and compacting it more — allowing it to freeze again, sturdier than before.) The slide includes a bank/turn that returns you to the sidewalk rather than the road. There are snow stairs that are sturdy enough for me to climb repeatedly. Tomorrow, if work gets canceled again, I plan on completing the second set of stairs (from the other side) and “icing” the slide one more time.
Here’s are five videos of of the slide… they’ll play one right after the other.
Anyone want to make bets about when this monster will finally melt? I’m thinking it might make it to next winter.. 🙂
In case of emergency – adminster shots
To ring in 2010, Chris and I decided to head out to Utah to visit our friends Sara and Eric. They ended up with a full house of friends, a perfect way to celebrate the new year. Chris and I were the first to book our flights so that scored us first pics of the rooms and of course we picked the “suite” with the mini bar stocked with our favorite beer. Sandra, Shaun, and Meredith all had the other rooms in the basement and Chathen and Zoya had the upstairs room.
Unfortunately, the trip started out a little bumpy as we missed baggage check in for our flight by 4 minutes. But we managed to get on another flight and headed out to the wild west. Eric picked us up at the airport and we headed up the mountain to their house to kick off a night of games. The night kicked off with a game of Operation, how funny that this became the theme of the week…
Not the funny bone!
The next morning we headed out to Park City. Chris and I had signed up for a “Never Ever” snowboarding lesson. Originally, I thought this meant you’d never ever been on a snowboard before, but after our day on the slopes it’s taken on a whole new meaning. We geared up and headed out to the slopes to meet our instructor. We learned the basics and then hopped onto the ski lift for a short ride to the top of the bunny slope. And down the mountain we all went. Chris was doing really well, he seemed to be a natural; I on the other hand was a wobbly mess. But we both made it down the mountain slowly.
Taking a break on the slope
We went up for our second run of the day. This time we were going to learn how to turn. When it came time for me to try it I did great then lost my balance and fell down the mountain and that’s when I heard it. “Crunch.” and I thought to myself “oh no”. Unable to move my hand I called over to the instructor and he told me to walk down the mountain to the ER. Not only was I in pain, but I was totally mortified that I had to walk down the bunny slope.
Inside the ER, I was overwhelmed by what was going on. There was a man on a gurney who was getting ready to be airlifted out. He was in bad condition, with tubes and bags and his shirt cut off. As it turns out it was Olympic snowboard contender Kevin Pearce. It definitely put my injury in perspective seeing someone in such critical condition. As it turns out I had broken my wrist, which was not a surprise to the doctors. They said they treat about 800 broken wrists a year from snowboarders. As I was being treated I kept trying to point out the t-shirt I had worn that morning to the doctors which said, “In case of emergency, administer shots.” One of the doctor said, “sorry that’s not the type of shot you’re going to be getting today”
Broken wrist 😦
Doing the Robot
No more snowboarding today
The next few days were a bit of a blur for me, but I’m thankful for such wonderful friends and fiance who took care of me blow drying my hair, feeding me, and pinching my really blue fingers. Luckily everyone else got to participate in some fun winter activities, new years eve party, snowshoeing, and hitting the bars in Park City. Then after another group was returning from some more skiing and snowboarding, we hear Eric yell out “we’ve got another one” and we couldn’t believe it when we saw him with his dislocated shoulder!
Eric and Bonnie
And wouldn’t you know, Chris came down with a terrible case of altitude sickness the last few days of the trip too. What a crazy week. But we did manage to end the trip on the bright side with Sunday Brunch at Sundance. Yummy!
Bonnie, Sara, Meredith, Sandra
So this year I’m toasting to a do-over! Although maybe our next trip out there should be in the summer…
What’s in your stocking?
In NJ, Santa has taken to filling our stockings with a theme in mind, and when you are talking about a Williams Christmas it’s no surprise that at least one of these themes would focus on food. But I think everyone was shocked to see Pete’s stocking filled with Crab Legs.
Someone must have been really good this year!
I seemed to have forgotten to take any other pictures this year, probably because none would be as good as this one!
Engagement Party
Our friends Sandra, Sara and Amanda threw us an engagement party. It was perfect timing since so many of our friends who live out of state were planning to be in town for the holidays. We had so much fun, eating delicious food and tasty wine. I even had a special glass to drink from with diamond rings painted all over it. Things got a little crazy and we ended up playing a few rounds of vikings, also known as do-doole-do! We received a book telling the story of how we met and some of our adventures and Amanda made some awesome cookies in the shape of wedding dresses and cakes!
Our Hostesses - Sandra, Amanda, & Sara
Bonnie, Lauren, Ryan
Chris' Family
Enjoying the food
Yummy cookies
The Vikings
Somehow I didn’t get a picture with my Fiance, better not forget to do that on our Wedding Day!
It’s a “White House” Christmas
This year we were invited to take a tour of the White House. We didn’t have any sightings of the first family but enjoyed touring all the rooms which were truly beautiful. Here’s a sneak peek of how the Obamas decorated for the holidays.
The China Room
The Green Room
Chris & Bonnie
What a view!
This year's "ginger bread house" was made of chocolate.
The Red Room
The minute men were singing carols as we left the white house.
Early Christmas
We celebrated Christmas with Chris’ mom and his sisters and brothers. A quick snap shot of the family digging in to our pre-Christmas dinner.
We're hungry!
Blizzard of December 09
Plans to head up to NJ for the weekend were foiled, but it sure is pretty… (especially when your neighbor has a snowblower and clears out your driveway!)
Back Deck
Snowed In
Vegas Baby!
We kicked off December with a trip out to Vegas. What a blast – so much good food, shows, and fun. I actually gambled this time and ended up being the big loser which worked out in my favor since my first bet of the weekend was into a pot that would go to the biggest looser of the weekend.
Elvis Lives!
Chris also took me on a flight over the Grand Canyon, it was a gorgeous breath-taking view. Unfortunately the flight was a little bumpy and I realized why the pilot pointed out where to find the barf bags at the beginning of the trip.
Flight to Grand Canyon
Great view of Grand Canyon
BonsterTheMonster 