Summer 2004 |
| When 2004 began I had one thing planned for the summer, and that was going to Alaska with Dan the last week of May. I had no idea the summer was going to become so action-packed. I expected that after I came home from Alaska, I'd have a low-key summer that included grilling and going to the pool when the weather was nice, and maybe going to the beach one weekend. As you can see, a lot more happened than just grilling and going to the pool/beach. Check out my adventures, and feel free to comment on any of the pictures or adventures. |
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Opa's 80th Birthday Party Weekend (Englewood, FL, June 12)
My grandmother threw a big party for my grandfather's 80th birthday, which doubled as a Walker family reunion. No, this picture is not of anyone I know, but of people that walked by us while we were on the beach in front of Oma and Opa's house. Someone needs to introduce this woman to full coverage bikini bottoms. | |
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Heidi is such a ham in front of the camera. |
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Oma and I having a little champagne to celebrate all of the June birthdays. Notice the snazzy wine glass covers? |
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EVERYONE |
Oma and Opa with the grandkids. |
The Walkers |
Brit and me |
Brit, Dahlia, and me |
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Kathy's Birthday (Madonna Concert, MCI Center, June 14)
For Kathy's birthday, she, her two sisters, Jesi and Jill, and I went to see Madonna in concert. |
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We had floor seats, and the show was AWESOME. No one can perform like Madonna (or charge as much for seats and merchandise and make it worth every penny). |
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Taking the escalator down to the Metro. It seems there is something in the Mahan genes that prevents all of them from keeping their eyes open in pictures. This was the ONLY picture I had where both Jesi and Kathy's eyes were open. Come on girls, it isn't that hard! | |
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Christie and Bryan's Wedding (The Hamptons, June 26)
Christie and Bryan have been together for nine years, and finally got married in the Hamptons. The church where they were married is the same church where Matt Lauer got married a few years ago. | |
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I had never been to the Hamptons, and Michelle had never been to New York City, so on our ride up there, we (Hans, Dan, Michelle, and I) stopped in Manhattan to do a little shopping at the Times Square Toys "R" Us and the Swiss Army store in SoHo. Here's Christie and Bryan leaving the church as husband and wife. |
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Dad and Mom |
Hans and Dad |
Hans and Michelle |
Dan and me |
Hans and me |
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| Parents take note: I wouldn't complain if my wedding reception looked something like this. And considering I thought of this as my birthday party as well, it was a damn nice birthday party. |
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Hans and I noticed a guy that looked like Tech from Real World Hawaii, so I thought I'd get a picture with him. |
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It's funny to see a picture of the four of us now, since there are a ton of pictures of the four of us growing up. Brooke and Christie are my godsiblings so we've known each other forever. |
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Here's Dan, me, and Alan, my godfather. Oh, in the background is Esteé Lauder's house. All in all, a beautiful day, wedding, reception, and birthday. |
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Virginia Job's Daughters' Grand Session (Ferrum, VA, July 8-11)
There are tons of pictures from this weekend (which you can see here), but here are just a few. Here's me and Trisha before the Formal Opening on Thursday night. | |
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Um, I love this dress, and even more I love that it only cost $27. You can bet I'll be wearing this to lots of Eastern Star meeting (all of the officers in Eastern Star are supposed to wear white). |
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As a girl, I never got into the Door Decorating contest. This year, however, I came up with a great idea for Jen's and my door (we stay in dorm rooms at Session). I won't use this space to say what morons the judges were to award me third place for our floor (behind inferior doors), but to explain the Friends theme: notice the picture frames (that match the one that was on Monica's door), all the different girls (each representing a different activity in Jobies) on the orange couch with the fountain in the background (from the opening credits), and the title, which says (in the Friends font) that Jobies is all about Friends, which is very true. Anyway... |
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Saturday night was Bethel 52's night to shine because Dad Kern was installed as Associate Grand Guardian. AND, I got to wear the bridesmaid dress from Kathy's wedding again (finally!) since the colors were burgundy and periwinkle (I'm in periwinkle on the far right). The other moms that went bought dress alike dresses and didn't understand why I didn't buy one also. Simply put, I have already had to buy/have made four too many dress-alike dresses that I never wore again. Why waste the money? |
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Virginia DeMolay's Conclave (Radford, VA, July 31-August 1)
The girls of Bethel 52 wanted me to chaperone Conclave, which is DeMolay's version of Grand Session. It's funny how things come full circle. Who should I run into there but Brad Westerman, one of the DeMolays from Herndon Chapter way back when Hans was a member. | |
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Ivy, as the newest Past State Master Councilor, was attacked with silly string during the dance. We had a great weekend, and some of the girls and I stayed up practically all night playing random games. |
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Here's Melissa snuggled up on the ride home. I thought this was a cute picture. |
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Boston (August 12-August 16)
Kinnery, Kathy, and I flew up to Boston late on a Thursday night to visit Mikki, who is travel nursing up there. On Friday we went shopping downtown. Kinnery is digging through the scarves at Filene's Basement, which is a wonderful place by the way. | |
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Finishing up a long day of shopping. |
Sporting our new scarves. |
It started raining at the Sox/Sox game in the 7th. |
Down by the field after the game (not far from our seats). |
Mikki with a massive Blue Hawaii (see below). |
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| Here's a view of Fenway from our seats. Yes, we were a mere seven rows from home plate. Thanks so much Kinnery for knowing the right people in Boston to get these awesome tickets! After the game, Kathy caught a cab back to Mikki's apartment, and Kinnery, Mikki and I went out to dance. First stop was the Tiki Bar where the three of us split a huge Blue Hawaii. |
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Next we went to Bill's Bar, which is where all of the white boys that know how to dance go (so we discovered). Here's Boston's very own Shank (our friend from home who now lives in Seattle with Dan). I think we got this guy in trouble because his wife pulled him away from us. Maybe she felt threatened by us. |
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Friday night was tons of fun, but Saturday was Tax Free Day in Massachusetts so we did even more shopping. One of the great things about Massachusetts is that clothes are tax-free, so I didn't really miss out on anything on Friday. We spent Saturday afternoon on Newbury St., known for its great boutiques and atmosphere. And "So Good" puts places like Claire's to shame, their stuff is so awesome and organized. |
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Saturday night we went out to dinner at Assaagio's (a place where they don't even take reservations on the weekends, but since Kinnery's got the hook-ups, we had 7:30 reservations) in the North End (known for its Italian restaurants), and then stumbled upon a fair up the street. After the fair, we all went home to change, and Kathy sat another night of dancing out (after all, she's six months pregnant), and Kinnery, Mikki and I went out in search of more great clubs. |
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The first place (Cosmopolitan) was a bust because they couldn't get the music working. We ended up at Parris in Fanueil Hall. Parris is actually located inside Ned Devines (yes, the same one that has locations in Fairfax and Herndon). Since the place didn't provide us with the right kind of music (they had a band) or guys that could dance, we thought we'd loosen up with a couple of red deaths and an Alabama Slammer. The night was a bust, but Friday more than made up for it. Kathy actually got mad at us for being so loud and hyper when we came home, but we couldn't help it, we had all this energy and no where to dance. |
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On Sunday the four of us met my aunt Tracy, and cousins Brit and Jonathan for brunch in Newton. Afterwards we bought our Duck Tour tickets and then went home to rest and pack since Kinnery was leaving Sunday night, and Kathy and I were leaving on the Monday morning 6am flight. Mikki and Kinnery each bought this shirt at Marshalls on Friday and wanted to try them on. Don't they look like Green Bay fans? Mm, Brett Favre... |
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The Big Dig has made a mess of Boston. What a skyline huh? |
Passing another Duck in the Charles River. |
The Salt and Pepper Bridge (real name: Longfellow Bridge, I think) |
The Glamour Slammer: Seems to me that being locked up here isn't much of a punishment. |
The Original Cheers: We didn't get a chance to go here. Maybe next time. |
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We took a Duck Tour of Boston (the above pictures are from it). Here we are after it with our driver, Chef Cookie. Bon Appétit. QUACK QUACK! All in all, a very fun weekend. Thanks Mikki! |
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Dan and I went to Las Vegas for a weekend in August. I had never been, and so instead of Dan flying back to DC, he surprised me with a weekend away to Sin City. We stayed downtown at the Plaza which is at the top of Freemont. This is a picture of the Light Show that takes place every hour.
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On Saturday night we had a nice dinner—including a bottle of champagne, and then went out to explore Freemont St. Because I was wearing a white dress everyone congratulated us on getting married—no we didn't get married. |
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Here's the Plaza, one of the famous images when people think about Las Vegas. I don't think about Vegas, I think about Back To the Future Part II, when Marty goes back to the alternate 1985 and Biff is the richest man in the world. |
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One of the Las Vegas landmarks that I do think of are the neon cowboy and cowgirl. I didn't know until we were right there that the cowgirl is actually the sign for a strip club. Once I knew this, I HAD to go in. Dan couldn't believe that I wanted to go into a strip club, but come on, when in Vegas... |
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On Sunday we did just about the entire strip. (We went to from Caesar's up to Circus Circus on Saturday afternoon.) So we started out at one end (the Stratosphere) and worked our way down to the other end. |
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The big attraction at the Stratosphere is the "amusement park" at the top of the needle--which is about twice as tall as the Space Needle, and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi. So after taking an elvator to the 112th floor (if memory serves correct, World Trade Center Tower 1's observation deck was on the 110th floor), we went on the three rides: Big Shot (pictured, shoots you straight up about another 50 feet, so that your stomach goes into your feet), the High Roller (kinda lame little roller coaster--no loops or big drops), and the X-Scream (an excellent teeter-totter that tips over the side of the Stratosphere—not for those afraid of heights). |
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The view from the top of the Stratosphere. Yup, Nevada is pretty flat and deserty with a few mountains here and there. |
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New York
New York |
Excalibur |
Luxor |
Bellagio |
Hard Rock Hotel |
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On a whim, Dan and I decided to see The Blue Man Group at the Luxor. Pretty cool and funny show. Afterwards we met them—not that they showed any type of expression. The Blue Men are, in my opinion some of the best actors out there, because they do not react to ANYTHING. Even Dan can't keep a straight face when looking at this Blue Man. |
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Dan's a dork. Click on this thumbnail to see Dan and the knight shake hands. So anyway, that was Vegas. Thanks for a great weekend, Dan! |
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After I arrived home from Vegas on Tuesday morning, then went to Norfolk for an overnight business trip on Wednesday, Friday night Shanelle, Jen, and Lecia came to my house so that we (including Courtney) could leave early on Saturday morning for Ocean City, Maryland for Shanelle's Bachelorette party.
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Saturday night we went to Embers for an all you can eat seafood buffet. Mmm, shrimp and crab legs. Jen, Courtney and Shanelle are showing off their mounds of crab legs. After digesting, we presented Shanelle with her Bachelorette hat (appropriate for such a big Disney fan) and a list of things she had to find/do. |
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Naturally, since we went to Ocean City, we went to the Party Block (my brother Ralph's club) to celebrate. As Shanelle wisely observed, a Bachelor(ette) party is for the amusement of the single friends. |
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Of course, Shanelle had a great time, the music was good, and since drinks were basically on the house all night, it was our goal to make sure "Fun Lecia" and "Fun Courtney" (i.e., drunk happy girls) came out to play. |
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Wouldn't you know it? There was a Bachelor party there the same night, and the Bachelor's friends were trying to make him do stupid stuff too. Here is one of his friends dancing with Lecia and Shanelle. |
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One of the item's on Shanelle's Scavenger Hunt list was a pair of men's underwear. This was as close as she got to getting this pair. She also succeeded in getting not 2, but 4 condoms from a bouncer (I guess he thought he might get REALLY lucky that night). |
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One of the Bachelor's other friends, Doug, and Courtney hit it off. But not to worry, no funny business happened. Doug is happily married, and Courtney got engaged the night before. |
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I thought it was appropriate to get a picture of the bride and groom, even if they aren't marrying each other. |
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As I said, Doug and Courtney hit it off. One of the items on Shanelle's list was to do a body shot. She didn't want to, and offered to dance on a bar instead, so Courtney offered to participate in the body shot in her place. What a good friend. |
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Shanelle made good on her promise, and brought Lecia up onto the bar with her to get down. All in all, a great bachelorette party that didn't involve strippers or or nasty hangovers. Special thanks to Ralph for allowing us to stay at the Band House (which was pretty run down—but FREE!) and Becca for a very fun girls' weekend. |
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And so, another great summer has come to a close. Thanks to everyone for making this one of the best summers yet! And I hope 2005 will top it! |
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