Bachelorettes in Estes

Dang, this post has been sitting in my drafts since June 6. Where on earth did June go? I feel like I've been going and going like crazy and am just now coming up for air. Earlier in June I got to travel to Estes Park, Colorado with my best girlfriends! We were there to stand next to our friend Breanna, someone I’ve known since third grade, as she married the man of her dreams. It was a stellar weekend but I have to be honest: most of my pictures are un-publishable because things got a leeeeetle crazy. Just a heads up. ;) Thankfully we were in Estes Park early in June instead of now - there was a forest fire last weekend just four miles from the condo that the wedding party stayed in that destroyed 20+ homes! Hopefully rain comes to the area so those firefighters can have some relief.

I’ll start out with the bachelorette day. We wanted to start out the day with a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park but that was before we discovered there was a $20 fee per car to enter the state park. We were likely going to have to take two cars so no one was too keen on the idea of paying $40 for a two-hour or so hike, so we stayed around Estes Park instead and walked around the lake. Side note: I’ve been to Estes Park more times than I can count. Most of our church and school retreats were in Estes Park and as soon as I drove in and breathed that mountain air, I started having flashbacks of every retreat I’d ever been on! Talk about weird.

The plan for the bachelorette day was to follow this schedule: walk around and be outdoorsy, lunch, visit two wineries, make it to the nail appointments by 4, and be at our dinner reservations by 7:30. We allowed ourselves plenty of time for the wineries which ended up working our way, since we were stuck at one while a thunderstorm rolled in. I was so glad we’d already finished our outdoors lunch by the time the rain started! And let me tell you, rain in the Rockies is NOT like rain here. When it rains there, it pours buckets.

Bride in the middle! :)

We had dinner that night at Mary's Lake Lodge, where we knew a live band would be playing. The band was really the source of the craziness that was to follow. There was actually another bachelorette party (though her wedding wasn't until August... I guess they just wanted to party?) at the restaurant, so the band pitted the two groups against each other to see who could be the craziest. We gave the bride challenges to complete (like asking the cute guy at the bar to dance) and each bride kept one-upping the other in a night that spiraled into craziness. My text to Mark says it all (or not really?): "So... there may be lap dances, and I'm not involved!"

Yeah. So the pictures will forever stay on my computer and never see the light of day. But take my word for it, they are hilarious. And blackmail-worthy.