Monday, March 31, 2008 | by nathan

Huggin’ and a-Kissin’, Dancin’ and a-Lovin’

Saturday night we ventured out to The Restaurant Formerly Known as Pearl’s Lakeside. It’s a beautiful little spot on the bank of Lake Hefner. The clouds obscured the sunset, but that was okay because we had this:

And these:

Which sort of set the mood of the evening. See, our good friends Chris and Sara got engaged!

They’ve been dating for awhile, and had shopped for a ring together, but Chris and our friend Erica, who will be Sara’s maid of honor, weaved a devious and complicated web of lies for at least two weeks, convincing Sara that Chris was going to be out of town this weekend and assembling the likes of Sara’s family and friends to surprise her inside the restaurant after Chris proposed on the gazebo outside. Adding to the awesome was the fact that Sara’s brother Burt was engaged to be married only scant days beforehand. It was a night filled with love, laughter and margaritas. Sara and her new ring decided to celebrate in style:

It also marked a momentous occasion, as it was the first time since July 17, 2007 that Erica and Alex went out to a restaurant - or anywhere at all, really - without the company of their darling baby boy, Cooper. Here they are, and you’d better believe that under this calm exterior, Erica is gripping her cell phone HARD and missing the crud out of her kid. Which, when a kid’s that sweet - it’s hard not to miss him:

Later, for the first time in years, Erica and I took to the stage at a neat little dive bar in south Oklahoma City and sang our signature karaoke song, "Love Shack." Hilarity and dancing and shots of whiskey ensued.