04 May 2010

birthday weekend recap

We went to the lake for the weekend to celebrate my birthday--it was awesome! We had the best time, and though some very precious people were very much missed, there were 15 of us who rang in my Quarter-Life Crisis together and it was perfect.

We rode to the lake with Jason and Chelsea Dasinger--thankful for his truck! because we brought our grill and donated it to the lake house--met up with Zach, and got in around 8pm. To our wonderful surprise, the Stingers and the Vessels ended up leaving Atlanta later on Friday and making it in before midnight! Lovely! Then my parents, Stahler, Alice, and the Nalleys made it over Saturday in time for fun and (some) sun, steaks, and cake!

We took the boat out--it was overcast, but not raining (kinda perfect to me)--and watched in amazement as Alice and Stahler wake-boarded. We drove the boat up and down some familiar stretches of lake and then when we got pretty close to home, cut the engine to enjoy the stillness and beauty--quite the time and place for serenity and comfort....

until we tried to crank it and head home.

The boat wouldn't start.

We tried and tried, but to no avail. So we (7 guys and 5 girls) began paddling. Yes, paddling this 25 foot ridiculous throw-back of a boat (retro: 1960s) to the nearest shore. I now fully appreciate the expression "so close, yet so far away..." yep [It should be said that it's never really failed us before]. Anyway, so once we get ashore, Stahler and I trek off to find help, which we do in the form of two women who live full time on the lake--the only two on the point, actually. They try to crank a fishing boat, and then another boat--neither have been taken out since winter, and do not crank--and finally get a jet ski running. They tow us back--Tonya saved my bday--and we were very grateful. It really wasn't that big a deal and the whole thing from start to finish may have taken 30 minutes, but it was an adventure, nonetheless.

Grant cooked some of the best steaks I've ever had--ever--and then they sang to me and we had cake (so good!). My family went in and got me a Barnes and Noble "Nook"--to which I may devote an entire post because I already love it so so much!--a gift card to go with, and a really cool piece of wood painted with a Smith Lake water scene. The coolest thing: they got everyone there to sign the back of it. So now I have a really sweet piece of rough looking art that Grant and I both adore and a recorded memory of those that helped my celebrate my 25th birthday--very special. A gift and a memory, what more can you ask for? Total birthday success. A+ to Grant and everyone else who made it so very wonderful for me.

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