Carly's Wedding - Topeka

May 29, 2010

My friend Carly got married! Carly and I were in the sorority together and in the last couple years, have reconnected again and had a great time working together - in more ways than one. We both worked as volunteers for the sorority, and eventually I took over her roll as recruitment advisor since she was graduating, getting married and moving away to start her new life and career. It was a daunting job, but Carly made the transition easy, and I've had a lot of fun with it since! I also hired her on as a temporary employee of TJ during our website moving phase and she was able to help out during the crunch... while keeping me a little company in my, usually solitary, office. :)

I was so exited to hear about her engagement to Travis and honored to be a guest on their special day! Here are a few pictures of the ceremony in a rose garden - so pretty!!



It was a simple, classy wedding on a beautiful (but very warm) day!




Such a fun and happy couple! :)




The guests and wedding party gathered around the fountain to throw in pennies and make a wish


And on the reception at a ballroom downtown... here are a few of our fellow SK's:






And some yummy cake!


And a few more current and past Sigma Kappa's




Pam and I


A toss of the bouquet...


Of the garter...


And drinking fun with the Sig Ep's


Of course I had to sport a TJ dress... my first Sherri Hill. ;)


Congrats Carly and Travis!!

Andy's Race - Hermann MO pt. 2

April 16-18, 2010

It was a big racing weekend, so today it's on to the Road Race.

Here's the very start of Dan's race as they cruise around the first corner.

And as they head out around and out of town.

Here comes Andy's group

And rounding the corner

And Michaela and I went straight to the town Brewery! Turns out we were too early, go figure. :) But, luckily the winery across the street opened up soon and we were able to do a little tasting and find a bottle of some tasty cherry wine to pass the time.

Dan's group making their first lap

A rather painful hill to climb, if you ask me!

Our delicious wine came from Hermannhof winery

During Andy's race, I took several videos, rather than pictures. After he finished, in 7th!, he came to meet us and had quite the injury... but a better story. Apparently he was really close to another rider, tires touched, and when they separated he got flung to the side, and into a mailbox! This mailbox just happened to be on a large metal pipe set in a concrete base - ouch!!

Luckily it wasn't as bad as it looked and wasn't too deep... but his jersey didn't fair so well.

Here are Dan and Michaela

Cheering on the Pros... first to start and last to finish...

And then... OUCH! This guy wiped out pretty bad. He did get up and finish the last, like, block to the finish, poor guy!

Andy's Race - Hermann MO

April 16-18, 2010

Andy's next biking race was in Hermann, Missouri. I had never heard of Hermann and had no idea what we were in for, but it turned out to be a pretty cute little town. And, actually fairly well known, although not to me, for its wineries! We made a weekend out of it, along with Dan and Michaela, and had a really nice time. Some dinners, plenty of wine, and good racing.

This race in Hermann is well known, as well, and the race was very well run. It was an omnium, which, I soon learned, consisted of a time trial, criterium and road race. Andy and Dan competed in all three, so it was a busy couple of days.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast type old hotel just opposite this City Hall/Fire Department. Well, technically not right across the street, seeing as it was directly in the middle of the street dividing the lanes, but you get the idea. ;)

Here's our place (in the attic)

You can just see Andy and Dan back there going over the bridge

I don't know, but it's funny...

Here's Andy starting his time trial. Very pro start!

Then Michaela and I headed out to the bridge to wait for the guys to finish.

Dan's finish

And Andy's

Checking out the results

And on to the Criteriums... here's Andy

At least we got to hang out in a nice vineyard setting...

He finished in 4th!

And time for Dan's race... big group coming up the hill for the first time:

Yes, I visited the gift shop to get some wine to sample. :)

More wine and racing to come!