Happy Birthday Jessica!

Girlfriends gathered for a night out on the town to celebrate my friend Jessica's 30th birthday. Jess has been a busy mom over the past year raising Aidan (aka. the "little man") and definitely deserved a night that was all about her! We celebrated with lots of food at Grill 225 in downtown Charleston and then moved on to the wine bar 'Social'. Our friend Hannah even flew down from Delaware to surprise Jess and join in on the party!

Andy originally thought he was included in the plans (..."you mean I don't get to enjoy a night downtown?!"), but he got over the disappointment and was the family representative at a cook-out for his squadron. He ate free hot dogs and I dined on a multi-course meal from a premier restaurant. Personally, I do not have a problem with the conclusion! =)

"Jessica and I peak out from behind the BIGGEST menus ever!"

"Liz and Hannah.....come out so we can see your smiles!"

"Jessica gets a special dessert along with a rendition of Happy Birthday!"

Me with my friend Liz

Andy continues to study and fly for his SOLL II upgrade and is doing well with it, or so it seems. I only have two days of work this week because I am headed home for a visit with my family and then on Saturday will celebrate Purdue Homecoming! Tailgate and football, here I come! Andy can't arrive until late Friday night, but he will be just in time for the tailgate. There will be a cornhole tournament on Saturday morning so Andy and I have already been discussing strategy! Fellow tailgaters....consider yourselves warned!! We are anticipating another Allen family victory! (see previous post!)

Cornhole and a night with the alligators

Cornhole. It is such a strange word, yet it actually describes a very fun game! The object is simple...throw bean bags toward the board and get points by making it in the hole or for merely landing it on top of the board. However, landing your bean bag on the board is a lot harder than it may seem! Andy and I have played a few times together at various cook-outs, but this weekend we were in a couples tournament at his squadron picnic. It was time to get serious.

We are both competitive natured, but we never dreamed we would actually win, especially since we have only played one time in the last calendar year. However, we won the lot of 16 and now have the champion title until next summer!! wohoo! I did hear comments such as, "well, she IS from Indiana!" Like being from a state that is abundant with cornfields makes me an automatic pro at a game with 'corn' in the title!! I think maybe the were just jealous of my smooth bean bag launching technique! But, if they want to claim that our win was biased by my Indiana farm roots, then I suppose I will allow it.

With the big cornhole win behind us, we were able to focus on our next adventure of the day. We were going to camp in a tent!!! Despite my concern, Andy secured us a campsight in the "primitive" area of the park and we got busy setting up our tent. Primitive meant that we had no electricity or water, but Andy assured me that we didn't need either. We camped with our friends Blaine and Jennifer, and they beat us in the tent set-up portion of the night by about 20 minutes. However, our tent was eventually erected, the air mattress was blown up, the sheet set was appropriately placed on the mattress, our sleeping bags were rolled out, my suitcase (Andy still can't figure this one out) was unloaded, and we changed into our carefully selected "camping attire". Let the fun begin!!!

Once the fire was going strong, I was able to introduce everyone to my family tradition of 'pudgy pies' cooked over the fire, and they were a huge hit! I would share the details here, but I am afraid that would compromise the integrity of the recipe. If you want to experience a 'pudgy pie', then you will just have to invite me on your next camping trip!

Our campsite was right on the water and I was convinced all night that an alligator was going to break into our tent. You see, last summer a man was attacked by an alligator in this very lake and his arm was eaten off! It was big news around here and I could not get that image out of my mind. I had even asked the lady that rented us our sight about it and her response was merely, "ahhh, I don't think they will bother you tonight."!! You don't think they will get me?!?! Are you kidding?! That did nothing to reassure me. I made Andy follow me around with a light everytime I needed to make nature's call in the weeds behind the tent because I was afraid of being bitten in the butt by an alligator. I don't know if the light would deter them, but I wasn't going to take my chances! I figured, at the least, he could give me warning to get my britches pulled up and RUN!

I only woke him up once asking if "that noise" was an alligator and we were both in one piece this morning, so all in all it was a successfull trip! We are talking of buying our own tent and making camping more of a habit, but next time I may choose us a campsite a little further from the alligator infested lake!