Two Weddings and a Whole Lot of Dancing

I absolutely love weddings and was lucky to have two of my friends get married this summer on back to back weekends!  Add a week at the lake in between, and I was one happy girl!  Conor was busy with work, so I flew to Spokane by myself for a week and half of fun! As usual, I packed as many activities into this visit as possible!

The first weekend my parents and I attended my friend Gretchen's wedding.  It was a perfectly sunny day and at a beautiful venue on Lake CDA!  The bride was stunning!  Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me, so I have no pictures of this lovely event.  I enjoyed the view while sipping on a huckleberry vodka lemonade, mmm.  You don't find any of those in AZ!  It was great seeing so many old friends that I don't get to see very often!  Lucky for me, my good friend Dan was at this wedding, and he also happens to be my old prom date, so I had someone to hit the dance floor with!  I had such a wonderful time and did not want to leave at the end of the night!

I was up early the next day for my drive to Montana to spend a few days with my bestie Amanda.  I powered through the drive without my ipod, but some pretty awesome MT radio stations kept me entertained.  Thank you Hank FM!  Amanda, her boyfriend Sean, our friend Chris, and I took their boat out on Whitefish Lake for a day of fun in the sun!  This was my first time on the lake and I was loving it.  It's just big enough and not too busy.  The tiki bar made the day spectacular!

As the sun was setting, we decided it was time to get off the boat and hit the bars!  At the Red Room, we met back up with Chris for some tasty cocktails.   Amanda refers to Chris as a "cougar snack" and Red Room was crawling with them!  Always fun to see.  As soon as he closed up, we all headed to the Northern for a fun little dance party!  There was a DJ playing that night and we all took full advantage of it.  We shut the place down and continued our fun back at Amanda's house.  A very successful first night in Whitefish!

The rest of my trip was very relaxing.  It was so nice being able to catch up with Amanda because I don't see her nearly as much as I would like!  Amanda had tend bar my second night there, so while she was getting ready for work I went to the river with Chris.  A nice little walk turned into some bridge jumping!  Just a normal Monday activity I suppose!  I used to love this sort of thing, but the older I get, it seems that my fear factor isn't quite what it used to be.  I wasn't going to do it, but also gave in to peer pressure.  I survived, but don't anticipate any more bridges in my near future.

That night, I had a blast hanging out with Amanda at work.  Spending an evening bellied up to the bar is an excellent spot for people watching.  I saw everything from first dates, to angry lovers, to a few creepy guys!  Quite an evening.  I loved my time in Whitefish and can't wait to go back!  I used to think that I could never live in Montana, but Whitefish is really growing on me and has a special little spot in my heart right now.  We will see....  On my drive back home, I stopped by Bigfork to see the in-laws.  It was so nice to catch up with them, although it was a brief visit.  I can't wait til Conor & I are back in Northwest and can take visits home much more frequently. 

Next on my busy agenda, was a night at Spirit Lake with some of my extended family from Texas.  They come up to Spokane every summer, and lucky for me, this year it was the same time I was in town.  Both of my brothers came out to the lake for the day as well, so we got lots of family time in!  And later in the week we were all at Tonicx together (which is rare), but unfortunately we were missing Conor.

The next day I was back at the lake after a fun dinner with my friend Kyra.  She stayed with me for a night at the lake cabin which was a real treat!  It's hard to fit in months of catching up over one dinner.  The weather cooperated all week, so we were out on all the water for the entire day!  The weekend finally arrived at it was time for my good friend Erik's wedding!  The party was at Schweitzer which is one of my favorite mountains.  I have been to one other wedding here, and it was absolutely gorgeous so I was really looking forward to this one.  My friend Mikael was in town for the occasion and our friend Elyse joined us as well.  We were running a little late, but made it onto the chairlift just before the bride.  Good thing, because otherwise it would have been a little awkward...

Next Post: Glacier Vacation (and finally lots of pictures!)