Saturday, April 12, 2008

Here Comes the Bride... and you can all her "Al"

Today Nik and I headed over to Normal, Illinois to go to a bridal shower for our friend, Allison Hocker. We worked with Allison at the Assembly Hall, and Nik even played softball with her in high school, and they were in the same major at the U of I. Al is going to marry Bill on May 24th. I was great to see Al. We had not seen her for nearly eight months, when she and Bill came down for an Illini football game last fall.

Thursday Nik and I went shopping for a shower gift. We found an 11 x 14 photo frame, and an 21-picture photo collage frame on the registry that we liked, and then... we got a little twinkle in our eyes and decided to have little fun with the gift. I am not sure if there is such a thing, but I guess you would say was gave a "prank" bridal shower gift. We filled the photo collage frame up with all sorts of pictures of Al with the two of us. Many of them were from various St. Louis Cardinal games/outings etc. Al is a big Cub fan, but she had/has the biggest crush on Rick Ankiel so she occasionally leans toward the red side... which Nik and I love... her fiance, Bill, another big Cub fan... not so much. For the cherry on top we printed an 8 x 10 of the three of us and put it in the big frame... I am certain that is why Bill and Allison registered for that frame to display the biggest picture ever of Nik, Al and I... not for their wedding picture of anything. The gift/prank was a big hit... I love that the shower was attended by lots of folks with really good senses of humor.

Here are few pictures from the shower. Allison had a few little helpers to assist with opening the gifts. She was also quite amused with a Chicago Cubs garter. Also, I have included a few pictures among those that we included in the frames. One of my favorites is from "You Can Call Me Al" Day at Busch Stadium, the last season of the previous Busch Stadium. No, it wasn't an official promotion of the ball club, but instead what Nik and I decided to call it since we took Allison Hocker and Allison (McLaughlin) Sit as our guests... and we made a point to go to AL Hrabosky's for lunch :) Ahh... fun times remembered.




2 comments:

Abe and Allison said...

May I say that was the hottest baseball game I've ever attended. Thankfully, the pictures make it look like we are glowing and not covered in sweat! That was so much fun. Thanks for holding a "You Can Call Me Al Day" event!

Anonymous said...

At first I thought the pink patches on your sweater were cut-outs and I was wondering how you got such a bad sunburn on your shoulders but not your face.

JG