My Bachelorette Party...

was pretty fantastic! If I could describe it in just one word, I would say that word would be 'me'. I have never been one to jump at the chance to go to the bars or be the one to get totally plastered, so this weekend was right up my alley (no pun intended)!

First, I must give major kudo's to Jenna and Nicole for planning this great weekend. The Doty's lake house was wonderful as well as their boat that we spent much of Saturday on!

We arrived the lake house on Friday evening and the first thing we see is an unsightly and LARGE picture of me in the window - this was suppose to be the clue to all that this was the Doty's lake house! Scary! The rest of the crew arrived shortly after us and after getting situated and a brief tour, we immediately busted out the brew and began a fun night of games... or basically Allyson telling embarrassing stories about her and Matt.

We were interrupted by some visitors a few different times - first visitor was Paul Buck (please see above picture). He was as close to a stripper as we got all weekend! :) The second visitor was his father and one of his buddies... let's just say, "Like father, like son!" By 1:30 a.m., we were all a bit tired and were just drunk enough to hit the hay.

Everyone was up pretty early on Saturday morning. A handful of girls went out on the boat early to ski and wakeboard while the rest of us hung back at the pool. Chelsi was the last of the party crew to arrive that morning, and after the boaters returned and grabbed some lunch, we all jumped back on the boat with our skipper for afternoon - the lovely Trey Doty - and found a nice little cove where we parked and stayed the entire afternoon!

I must say that I did many things on this trip that I have never done before -- the first was to bong a beer... the second was to bong a beer via a noodle (see above picture). It was ... interesting to say the least. And though I know it is not something to brag about, I will brag that my 25-year-OLD self defeated my 19-year-old sister, who is in college and probably does this regularly! She couldn't hack it when it came to bonging against her sibling! :)

After three hours and many deep discussions about who knows what, we trekked back to the Doty's to drop off some girls to start getting ready for the evening part of our party. Though I was tired and in desperate need of a shower, I decided to stay on the boat... and then decided I would make an attempt at wakeboarding.

I have tried to ski in the past and usually after about 10 attempts of trying to get up on the ski's, I throw in the towel and call it a day. But not this time. I'd say it took me about six attempts to get up on the wakeboard... and once I did, I screamed -- partially because I had no idea what to do next and partially because I couldn't believe I had actually gotten up! I made myself get up twice before ending my run and I had to say I was pretty proud of my self! I must thank all of the boat riders that had to sit through the agony of waiting for me to get up, but also thanks for the encouragement! They all might have been more excited about me getting up on the wakeboard than I was! :) (Sidenote: my body is in complete agony STILL two days after wakeboarding - I think I used muscles I never knew existed!)

We finally made it back to land around 6:45, quickly took showers and were back on the road to eat dinner in Shell Knob. We closed the restaurant down (surprise, surprise!) and headed back to the lake house to open gifts. Can I just say that my plan of always buying my friends comfy PJs for their bachelorette parties in hopes that they would return the favor some day really worked! I received only one piece of langerie and many sets of boxers and T's... woohoo! :) We had a fun time opening up everything and then, though we were all exhausted, a dance party ensued.

As you can see from the above pictures, my back was really starting to kill me (all from wakeboarding!) so I look like a 95-year-old woman trying to hold my back, hold my beer and dance all at the same time! :) Somehow we lasted until 1 a.m. but decided to throw in the towel and hit the sack.

Everyone was back on the road by noon on Sunday, but not before a group photo in front of the house with our lovely t-shirts that Jenna had made specially for the weekend!

It was a pretty wonderful bachelorette party and I wouldn't have had it any other way! Though we were missing a few of my fabulous friends, I am so appreciative of everyone that made the trek to Table Rock for the weekend -- I am lucky to have such great people in my life that took time out of their busy schedules to spend a weekend celebrating my bacheloretteness!

This weekend, Matt and company travel to Vegas for his bachelor party. I told him yesterday that it will really hit him this weekend that we are getting married... and getting married soon! He's pretty excited, as he should be! I will be hitting the lake in Austin, Texas and visiting my family! I can't wait!

Here's to all the bachelorettes and former bachelorettes... Drink a beer in honor of your single life! :)

PS. More pics to come...