(not quite) 27 Dresses

After my trip home at the end of March, Nancy posted these pictures of her, our cousin Hillary, Natalie's friend Jeanna and me trying on potential bridesmaid dresses at David's Bridal in Cedar Rapids on Facebook. My friend Teresa commented on my wall, "Are you a professional bridesmaid?" Lately it has been seeming that way. There was Staci's wedding in September, Beth's in March, and now I'm gearing up to be Maid of Honor in Natalie's this August.

It's been fun being in these weddings. Prior to Staci's, the last time I had been a bridesmaid was at Aroea's and Kevin's wedding back in 2002. It had been awhile. It's been an honor to be a part of all of these ladies' special days. And, unlike poor Katherine Heigl's character in the movie 27 Dresses, I've liked all the dresses I've had to wear so far. I probably won't shorten them to wear them again, but they've been good picks all the same. :-)

Two weeks ago, Hillary flew into Omaha from Pittsburgh, where she goes to college, in order to take part in the dress shopping fun. It was great having her here in O-town, and fun having her along on our road trip to Amana to meet up with my sisters. We tried on many dresses over the course of the weekend, and it paid off when we found one that all five bridesmaids could agree on (we actually don't have a good picture of any of us in the winning dress, so you'll just have to wait until August, I suppose).

One of the most fun and unexpected moments of the weekend came while in the dressing room at Hope's Bridal with Natalie's good friend (and Aroea's sister) Rohana. First, some backstory: The first time Aroea was pregnant (with Cainen), the surprise was ruined for me by Natalie. Nat and I were talking on the phone one day and, out of nowhere, she says to me, "Have you talked to Aroea lately?" "No, why?" "No reason..." That made me very, very suspicious, so I tried to call Aroea and when I finally got a hold of her, sure enough, my suspicions were correct. She was pregnant.

THEN... two years ago, Katie had just given birth to Abby, her second daughter. I happened to be talking on the phone to Nancy later that night and said something to her about how it was so weird to have friends with not one, but two kids already! And then Nancy (who is friends with Aroea and Rohana's younger sister Katrina) goes and says, without missing a beat, "Have you talked to Aroea yet?" Oh no, I thought, not again! I called Aroea and left her a voicemail: "Are you pregnant again? Our sisters have big mouths!" and sure enough she was pregnant with Jonas.

After that I made her promise that the next time she's pregnant, she needs to tell me immediately after she tells Rohana and Katrina so that the surprise will not be ruined by my not-so-subtle sisters!

You can probably guess where this story is going. We get to Hope's Bridal and it's time to start trying on the dresses that we've pulled off the racks. So I go into a dressing room, and Rohana comes in after me. "Oh good," she says, "I was hoping I'd have a chance to talk to you alone..." She proceeds to tell me that she now is pregnant, and she wanted to be sure that I knew before Natalie did. Ha! I thought that was so fun of her to think of me! So we each put on a dress and go out to model and she pulls her dress away from her belly and points out that she thinks it will be good for growing. Growing? Natalie looked confused. "Yeah, growing," Rohana says, motioning to her belly while I'm standing behind her jumping up and down and clapping. Finally Natalie gets the hint and screams and all that good stuff. And then Rohana adds, "And Nicole knew first!" That's right I did!

From Hope's Bridal, Rohana and I actually headed up to Hiawatha to get ready for a sort-of surprise party for Aroea's golden birthday (she turned 27 on the 27th). Aroea knew she was getting a party- the surprise was that she didn't know the activities planned, nor did she know who all would be there. She was very surprised to see me, that's for sure, especially since I'd called her the day before (her actual birthday) and left her a voicemail about how I missed her and wanted to talk soon and hoped she had a good birthday and all of that... I'm sneaky.

The premise of the party was an Amazing Race-type scavenger hunt at Lindale Mall that her husband Kevin put together. It was great. There were three teams and the goal was to complete as many of the 27 tasks and get the most points as possible. It was great fun. Here are some examples from some of the photo challenges:

The first task was to get a picture of all the team members coming down the escalator. Another task was to get a photo with the whole team in mid-air. We got a bonus for getting a stranger (in the center) to pose with us. Technically, I'm not in the air in this picture, but it still won for best photo of the night thanks to the fact that Chris' head isn't even in the frame! Another challenge told us to buy bubble gum and have the bubbles touch. The photo here is of Aroea and her brother-in-law (Rohana's husband Derrick) doing just that. And we also had to pose on the merry-go-round. And a kid came up and posed with us! The most daring feat completed by our team was by Aroea. For one of the challenges, she stood by the fountain in the middle of the mall and started singing "The Star Spangled Banner" in full force. The goal was to draw a crowd of at least nine people, and she did just that- even the Easter Bunny came over to check it out. I was pretty impressed. That Aroea, she's my hero- my Napoleon, if you will (there's a story behind that nickname from high school, but I'll save that for another time).

And for gifts, the invitation recommended gifts that either had to do with golden things, or the number 27. So I brought her a box of Golden Grahams and the movie... you guessed it... 27 Dresses.