kaitlyn getting married (!!!)

practice makes perfect.

the vaske ladies looking good!

in the process of getting our hair did.
aka torture.

the placing of the veil.

the salubrious bride wanted an apple. 

and so we went and got her an apple.

ready to roll at ma2's. 

off to the farm (via classy minivan).

two handsome fellows waiting for the action to start. 

as the first walker, i got the most stage time (even more than the lady herself).

here comes the bride!

the boring stuff.

it's official!

YAY!!!

she is always remarkably calm which was great on this day, 

but what we like most about her is the fact that she's really, really ridiculously good looking.

aka bride barbie.

the party post-ceremony.

the fam and me.

the boy and me.

the father and me.

the bff and his boyfriend and me.

congo church besties for life. 

(provided they don't make me acolyte on the choir side. who knows how flammable connie's hair is with all of that hairspray!)

gene put latrines in his chicken coop. what a clever man.

i don't even have my ears pierced, but i did a pretty good job of faking it.

pretty ladies... annnnnnd troy.

typical.

the gang.

what a wonderful weekend!

get married to jj again soon, kate! 

pride.

where the buffalo roam.

nate and i rendezvoused in north platte, nebraska over labor day weekend.

our final destination was not planned, but it turned out to be pretty great (obviously).

except for when i almost got attacked by a bear at the fort cody trading post!

kitschy fun.

this native american statue (corpse?) was pretty creepy.

furs. i wasn't about to go near them, but nate said that the skunk was the softest.

buffalo bill's hometown.

we paid 10¢ to look in this box. 

sooooo worth it! next time you're in north platte, definitely check it out.

also check out this two-headed calf. 

it was born in something like 1926 and lived for something like 3 days.

there was also a giant diorama of little carved people. 

i took photos of some of my faves, like this guy getting a hair cut.

and this guy having quite a ride.

and this guy pooping (seriously, that's what he was doing).

nate had the opportunity to ride a giant buffalo.

and stand next to this humongous man.

cowboys and indians.

then we went to buffalo bill's ranch and saw some real buffalo.

and at cody park we saw llamas.

and peacocks. they were in the same area as the llamas. 

who knew llamas and peacocks were besties?

then we toured this giant train.

nate had a hard time driving.

he made me take this photo. i was mad there wasn't a train to algona. 

sweet train/ bike hybrid.

hershey station.

nate nye bond or jesus? 

the world may never know.

we ended our little trip with a bike ride around the countryside.

travels with daisy.

cam and derrick came to visit me!

and so did our old friend nate hundt.

we went for a lovely hike up mt. falcon.

i got rocks in my shoe.

and nate got iceddd.

(if you don't know what this means, ask a frat boy.)

derrick's #1 colorado dream was to hit up dave and buster's. 

mission accomplished. big time.

so many tickets!

then the camster and friend were kind enough to give me a lift back to the homestead.

daisy came too! 

scott took a whole day off work to take me water skiing and bike riding and rainbow sherbet eating. 

i have the best dad ever.

(we didn't bring a camera, but i'm sure i looked something like this.)

old pops even got up. what a show off.

then i went to kaitlyn's bachelorette party. 

there's no need to discuss the happenings, but here's a photo of all of us at okoboji.

the next night was alicia's bachelorette party in des moines.

good times with old friends.