let them eat ice cream cake!

Clearly, my new blog-trend is to only discuss weekend events. This can be attributed to a few things: 1 - weekdays are boring by nature (work, gym, dinner, bed, repeat), 2 - weekends equal time with friends, 3 - no one wants me to rant and rave about my job every single day (though I have PLENTY of material).

This weekend was rad. On Saturday, Rob and I headed to Monterey for a picnic, to visit the seahorses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and to score some locally grown artichokes. Wins all around...except the Aquarium was crowwwwwwded. We expected that it'd be busy on the weekend, but it was Sardine-ville, population: 150 bodies/square foot. The highlight of my day was easily the fried artichoke hearts that have weaseled their way into my dreams. I quadruple heart fried artichoke hearts...

*sigh*

On Sunday, we snagged Summer and were northbound for the DubC (Walnut Creek, to the layperson) to celebrate with/surprise Katie after getting engaged that morning. John completely and totally ROCKED it...he called Sum last weekend to let her know that it was game time, and asked that we all come up to be a part of the day (very sweet).

With Katie's sisters in town, John had to be extra-sneaky about getting Katie alone. He recruited Julie and Shannon to 'take Katie on a hike on Mount Diablo' on Sunday morning, where he'd have a super-romantic picnic set up (complete with an actual "Bottle of Wine and Two Dixie Cups", Katie's fave song). Katie is not a morning person, nor is she very prompt, so you can likely imagine the shenanigans that ensued getting her up the damn mountain. After the big speech (documented perfectly by the sisters), alligator tears from Katie, and that three-letter word John had hoped to hear, they headed to John's parents' house to "tell them". Little did Katie know, she was the last to know about he proposal and a group was waiting to (loudly) congratulate her. More crying -and a snot bubble or two- followed. So damn cute.

what do you yell at someone who's just gotten engaged and has no idea that you're there?! "ahahaaaaaaah" seemed to be the consesus

Sum and I made it a personal mission to find the ugliest, stupidest lookin' veil thing humanly possible. I think its safe to say that we succeeded, and Katie was a good sport and rocked it for a bit...

Cuz we're classy and growed-up like that, Sum brought a bottle of Patron to celebrate with...!

ice cream cake #1 of our day (notice that John's name is a bit larger and bolder? yeah, that's because the cake originally said "Congratulations Katie & Sam". awk-ward.)

potentially Rob's fave pic of Summer ever. EVER.

I don't know when I became such a girl, but even I shed a few teardrops. There, I said it. It was absolutely amazing to see my good friend so happy. Congrats again to Katie and John - thank you for making us a part of your special day! Love you!

Lastly, but certainly not least(ly?), we made our way to my Mom's house for more celebrating, this time the birthdays of my Unkie Glenn and The Stepdad Brian. As usual, a kick-ass dinner followed by cake and presents was a terrific way to wrap up a loonnnnnng (but never long enough) weekend.

Unkie Glenn & Mimi (a.k.a Aunt Amy. YOU try saying 'Aunt Amy' at the age of two...!)

ice cream cake #2 - sugar coma, anyone?!

cha cha chaaaa!

Ennnnd scene.