Kappa Delta Reunion 2009

Every October, Kappa Deltas across the nation celebrate our founding on October 23, 1897. My years in KD were some of the best of my life, and the friendships I made are still strong. So of course, every October, a group of us get together and hang out like old times.

Me, Mary, and Lysh kick off the weekend's festivities in SLC. Don't let the smiles fool you. We were freaking cold.


Bevs and Bedazzlement. Enough said.

Saturday was the actual luncheon in Logan. We had a great time catching up with current members, as well as members from the 70s and 80s even! Afterwards, we toured the house and were able to see all the upgrades they've done since we've been gone. (How did we live there in the summer with no AC?!)

Mary, Lysh, me, Carly, Erica, and Bethany in front of the KD house.

After reading the KD Journal from our years in KD to the current members, and almost peeing our pants, (seriously, I was laughing so hard-my face was on fire and I was sweating) we headed to the unfinished room. It's COVERED with KD names spray painted on every inch of the walls and ceiling. I'm pretty sure that my name is in that room a hundred times, but since I couldn't find it...I figured that it was time for an update.

High on spray paint fumes.

What trip to Logan would be complete without a tour of the old campus? Here we are, on top of the "A." This is where people kiss each other on a full moon at midnight to become True Aggies. Now, I've been known to love me some kissing...but I totally boycotted this tradition in college. And I turned out just fine...so there.

Yes. This picture was staged. Yes. We are ridiculous. And yes. We are fabulous. Don't find us. We'll find you.

Dinner at Hamilton's before hitting the town. We will always remember Brad...our waiter. I think he thought we were cougars, so we made sure we told him that we were only a few years older than him and very fun.

No explanation necessary.

I had so much fun! I can't wait for next year...but I think it's okay. Logan needs that long to recover from AOMFT 2009...no...no? :)

serious.as.a.heart.attack.

i went camping this weekend. enough said.

I heart NYC

Last weekend, we went to NYC. We didn't get many pics, but I don't really think anyone reads my blog anymore (dang Face Book...you little Vixen), but I will post them anyway. We had a lot of fun...we saw The Lion King, 9-5 with Alison Janney (love her) and ate some fabulous food. I also sweat my face off in the humidity. But...I still heart NY and always will. Don't forget--Working Girl is my all-time favorite movie.

Here is me at Katz Deli, eating their famous pastrami on rye with mustard:

Here are how many times it takes Larren to get a picture of me...he doesn't get just how to get that perfect blog picture. Instead, he just shoots and then laughs his head off at the result.

This one, the second, is his favorite. He slapped the table. He does that when he laughs really hard.

I'm assuming there are others husbands out there like mine--that don't speak 'blog.'

Larren-outside Katz Deli.

Canal Street, where I bought...a few things...look, I can stop anytime I want to. Really, it's under control.

And last...this is for my brother-in-law, Jodie. He calls Scooter "Prince" and says that we baby him and his paws don't touch the ground. Scooter gets anxiety anytime I get out my red suitcase because he KNOWS we're going somewhere, and he isn't going with us. He is on my heels and just wants me to pick him up so badly. It drives me nuts and I end up getting really mad at him.

To everyone who thought I wouldn't get use out of that baby sling I made last summer...it works for dogs, too.

Sandy Eggo

We just returned from sunny San Diego with Aimie, Jodie and the girls. We had a blast. We obviously hit the beach a few of the days, where Larren and the girls showed off their boogie board skills, while I worked on my tan. Do you know I hate sand? If anyone has ever seen "Untamed Heart" there is a quote by Rosie Perez that is awesome: "You are like wet sand...in my underwear." You have to say it in her Brooklyn accent but it's fab for any ocassion where something is annoying...but I digress. Here we are...beach ready.

Aimie, Jodie, Avery Jo, Zoey and Addi.

Day one of our adventure we had dinner with my sister from another mister, Tiffany. She also works at Omniture but in the San Diego office. We managed to find a spot clear of homeless people setting up tents (I'm not kidding) to snap a photo in downtown SD after dinner.

One of the days we rented Harleys and drove down the PCH with Aimie and Jodie, and their friends Mishawn and Sheldon. Jodie used to have a motorcycle, and both Sheldon and Larren currently own their own...so what could go wrong for these experienced bikers? Here we are--about to embark on our journey.

And then...

....an impromptu stop along the way once Jodie's key remote vibrated off the motorcycle and fell to the ground, somewhere along the journey. Once he turned off the motorcycle, the weird keyless system wouldn't allow him to start the motorcycle up again without the remote. Here we are waiting for bike shop Will to make the 30 minute journey down to meet us with a new remote. Jodie (far left) is giddy with excitement as we count down Will's arrival.

NEXT...Larren was feeling left out and felt like he needed some attention, so he decided to leave his ignition on and ended up with a dead battery. After unsuccessful attempts to push-start the bike and 30ish minutes later, they found some nice young woman who gave them a jump. Note: do not ask a policeman for help when your battery is dead. They don't care and their response to you will include the word 'dude.' (This is California, of course.) Also, when you are being push started, maybe you should keep your legs on the bike, rather than flailing them around like an octopus. It's not helping the pusher. And lastly--have the girls hide while you search for someone-female-to help you with a jump. Flash your best smile and appear single...and BINGO. Vroom, vroom.

Of course we had to pose. And of COURSE both our helmets were pink. We.were.so.dang.excited.


One of the days while Aimie and Jodie took the girls to Legoland, and had a celebrity sighting of Napolean Dynamite, I might add, Larren and I drove up to LA and saw Skyler. I just love that kid. We have never had a chance to see him play, and having our own private mini concert at his house was awesome...even if Larren couldn't hear me above the ringing in his ears for the next 3 days.

What is SD without Sea World? Here I am...petting a sting ray. I think I posed for 10 minutes before Larren got this picture. The sting ray is probably long gone.

Me, Aim, Zoe Bug and Avery Jo, waiting for Shamu Rocks to begin. Avery isn't crying--she is probably just beside herself because Shamu is about to come out. She is a total Shamu groupie, I bet. Like those fans you see crying when they're at a concert. Zoey and I are smiling despite the fact that Larren had informed us of what we now call the "Shamu Conspiracy." Did you know there's more than one Shamu??? How I didn't know this and lived in ignorance the past 20 years, I have no idea. I also coined my new phrase to keep Zoey in line: "Don't make me go killer whale on you." Lots of fun had by all!

Velcro

Who is Scooter, Mocha, and Avery Jo's favorite person? HINT: Not Larren.

Little Red Riding Hood 2009

Random: I'm walking through the streets of Rome last October with my family (hey, I'm setting the scene for you, not trying to show off) and I looked at Aimie (my older sister) and said, "You know what? We should really get into road biking next summer. Wouldn't that be SOOO fun? We could be active and get really skinny." That is how Barb and Betty Biker were born...


Okay, so we're not your typical bikers. Getting started, we were more concerned about the 'cuteness' of our bikes, rather than function. We more more concerned about jerseys that were cool and spandex shorts that made our butts look good (I'm still looking), rather than worrying about the amount of padding they had in the seat to make our long rides comfortable. And that's okay. Just because we are more on the girly side, and still might look for the 'cute' in the sport, doesn't mean we don't love it and really enjoy getting out and going on a ride...

Our goal when we started this was to take part in our first ride, Little Red Riding Hood. It take place each year in Logan, Utah. It's one of only TWO all-female rides in the whole United States, and each year, it sells out. Over 2,600 women participated this year, and we were two of them. They have distances for EVERYONE...from 15 to 100. Aimie and I decided to give 67 miles a go...and we did it!

Here we are right before the ride started...all smiles and full of energy. This picture is deceiving...we had a little pre-ride drama in the morning. We got to the ride in plenty of time, but had some unexpected malfunctions. We're not sure what happened but one of my brakes was completely jacked up and we couldn't get my tire on without loosening the whole thing, which made it pretty loose once it was on; I had to pull full-force to get that brake to work, and by the time we got it 'working' all our 67 miler peeps had already left and they were announcing that no more 67 milers could go. I was so stressed...it sounds funny but I was almost in tears. I was so annoyed that I had been getting ready for this the past few months and had made it a goal to do it, and a random problem was going to make it so that we weren't going to get to ride in our group and have to ride in a shorter distance. To top it all off, my odometer decided that IT didn't want to work either--leaving me with NO clue how fast we were going, how long we'd been riding, or how far. But...I still had one good brake, and the other one did technically still work with a little extra pressure, so we wolfed down a bagel and banana and took off anyway.


This is me, about to cross the finish line...

I love this pic...this is Aimie, about to cross the finish line. Look at that enthusiasm!

The finish line! This ride is really cool because part of the proceeds go towards women's cancer research, so there is a pretty strong pink theme going on and they make it SOOO fun for all the women.

Yea! We did it. They had a huge celebration at the end...tons of tents up with yummy food--chocolate fountain, HELLO!--cute gear for sale, music, raffles, massages, etc. It was cool seeing all the people there, supporting their moms/sisters/wives/friends, etc. and really cheering everyone on and having a great time afterwards, celebrating. We will definitley do this next year; I've already let Aimie know we're in for the 100!

DC

Yea! We finally made it out to DC and can cross that off our list of places to see. We had so much fun! We stayed with one of my BFs from my sorority in college, THE Mary McMullen (future mayor of San Diego, don't worry about it.)

Our first night we headed to Baltimore with Mary and 20 of her closest friends to see an Orioles vs Yankees game.

Me and Larren outside the stadium on Eutaw street...get it?

I will admit that the majority of the game, either Mary and I were talking, or making signs, hoping to get on the jumbotron. This one says "The KDs love the Os." Yeah, we lied. We were rooting for the Yankees, but when you're in a crowd that loves the Os, you'll do whatever for your 15 seconds of fame. Alas, no jumbotron. Whatev.

Here is Mary drawing a very detailed and easy to read mad of DC to help us on our journey. I am not worried.

We saw Mt. Vernon, Washington's estate. It was huuuge and so pretty. We saw where the slaves lived, where he was buried, etc. I'm very into history so it was pretty fascinating.

Larren and G dub.

He had his own dock...very impressive.

Mary McMullen Moonlight Monument Tour. Amberly: "Hey, my inlaws tell me there is a way cool tour at night called the Moonlight Monument Tour. We have to do that." Mary: "Save your money. I'll take you on your own private Moonlight Tour and tell you way more crap than the tour guide would."

Lincoln's was awesome, so impressive. Our all-knowing tour guide also pointed out the back of Lincoln's head was the profile of Robert E. Lee, watching over Arlington.

This was my fave-the Jefferson.

This was cool. I am kissing Einstein because Mary just showed us the coolest thing. If you stand on a certain point in front of him and talk to him, your voice is magnified as if you're speaking into a microphone, but only you can hear it.

We also had a capitol tour given to us by Joe, who is one of Mary's friends, but more importantly, strongly resembles a giant little boy. I apologize that I don't have pictures of Joe to back this claim up. It's also more important to note that he does not agree with my observation.

The dome inside the capitol. I've noticed that I have a thing for ceilings, as this is not the only 'ceiling pic' I took on this trip.

I also have 2 other sorority sisters that live in the area, Dethrow and Courtney. They came over for dinner and it was so fun to catch up! They haven't changed a bit and it was fun reminiscing about the old days. Okay, let's be honest (LBH in KD-lingo)....reminisce is not the word. Gossip fest? :) They did point out that I still say 'shiz' and thought that 5 years might clear that up...nope.

Me, Mare, Dethrow, and Courtney.

This is after I said "Okay....one more chocolate covered pretzel." Translation: "Seventeen more...I mean, they'll just go to waste, right?"

What trip would be complete without running into a median and completely tearing a hole in the side of your tire? Good thing we had Larren...and the nice man in slacks and a tie that stopped to help us! Note: Larren and his black hands tried to shake the man's hand at the end...but he politely just gave him 'rocks.' We laughed.

Outside the Archives. This was really cool--we saw the Declaration, the Constitution, etc.

I'm sorry--but I absolutely hate art museums. That might sound really ignorant but I just canNOT get into them...but the American History and Natural History were awesome.

I've never seen my closet nerd so happy.

All of you who KNOW me know that if I were an animal...I'd be a panda. The resemblance is eery. Sadly, we were unable to find any possums for Mary or yellow care bears for Larren.

The White House. My goal was not to see the president, but his very fab and stylish wife, Michelle. I call her Mishi. (She's fine with it.) PS: I didn't have to vote for Obama to love his wife...Republican friends, please calm down.



We also saw the DC Temple. This pose was for one purpose, and one purpose only: Mary's response. "SICK!" She said. Mission accomplished.

We had such a great time. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and the sights were amazing. Larren did point out that our last few vacations are not the relaxing kind and asked when our beach vacation is. We will have to plan that...except I have a small fear of the ocean...and I hate sand. But other than that...I'm in! :)