Jack and the Giant Peach: Reception Recaps: Food n' Cake

After much planning and changing (and changing again) the official date of our Six Flags trip, I was able to get cheap tickets for only $21 and we decided to go yesterday. They're only open on weekends at this point, and Sunday is a better bet than Saturday. So after making this meticulous list...

And packing a cooler of stuff, my fanny pack (yes I really did) and icing down our water spraying fan, we headed out the door at 9:15 yesterday morning.

We stopped at McDonald's on the way (they have a deal right now--2 bacon egg and cheese biscuits for $2.50) and grabbed a quick breakfast. We got to the park, drove under this awesome sign

and took a tram to the front gate where they had already opened, a little early. It was probably around 10:10 when we went in.

Immediately we got a locker because some of the bigger rides don't allow loose articles. We then rode The Georgia Scorcher, which is a stand-up coaster. We were in the very front, which gives a great view of all the twists and turns. It was a fun ride...but I already felt sick when it was over.

I'm used to being motion sick, so I decided I'd just muscle through. We started walking towards the back of the park, where all the big rides are located. We passed the newest ride, Dare Devil Dive, which we noticed had basically no line...so we went ahead and decided to ride. We were in front on that one as well, which was really cool because it's sheer drop ride (it's actually more than a 90 degree angle) and it's really smooth and fast. There is a corkscrew though, which led to me being sicker.

We knew we absolutely wanted to ride Goliath, which is supposed to be one of the best coasters at SFOG. It was a great ride. We were in front again and it was really really cool. It was a longer ride though...maybe around 30 seconds, and it takes you over a large part of the park. It made me feel even dizzier, but I didn't want to give up. Although I did feel like barfing.

By this point it was getting really hot and humid, and I was having to sit down to rest/try to stop feeling sick between rides. We decided now would be a good time for a log ride, because they're usually gentle-ish and you get wet. We got on Log Jamboree (were in the front, haha) and thought it would just be no big deal.

It wasn't a big deal, and we were pretending to be scared/screaming for fun because we were the only people on the ride. While we were on the 'big drop' of the ride, I was fake screaming when suddenly my butt kind of came up off the seat and I did get a little scared that I might fall out as we were plummeting into the [dirty] water below.

I don't remember exactly what happened at that point, but according to Thomas I let out what he can only describe as "a massive wounded rabbit scream." (Note that the rabbit would have to be large, because the sound was deeper than the scream of an actual wounded rabbit). Apparently this isn't one of my many regular sounds, because he was absolutely shocked by it. There was also a guy waiting on the landing within view of the 'drop', and he looked at me and laughed hysterically. It just so happens that they took the picture right as I buffalo screamed, and I had a hilarious look of sheer terror on my face. It's pretty funny that I can ride a million roller coasters without being truly afraid, but I turn into a terror beast on the log ride.

After the log ride, we trekked across the park to see what else there was to see. By this point, it was becoming unbearably hot, and more crowded. We rode a little kid coaster called The Dahlonega Mine Train, and the lap restraint smashed Thomas' legs. There were twin little girls behind us scream crying because they were scared, I felt suuuper sick, and over all the day was going down hill fast.

We took another break and I sprayed my face a million times hoping to feel better.

I didn't want to give up and leave because 1) This trip was expensive for us and 2) We had planned for sooo long. Thomas was of course supportive though, and there was really no point in staying if it was just going to be miserable (we knew it would get worse the hotter it got as the day went on). We decided to go ahead and leave. We saw some funny stuff on the way out though.

A weird skittles sign.

Tweety bird hats. This was a covert picture, so most of them are facing the wrong way.

This isn't really funny per se, but I did think it was notable that we thumbs up in every picture.

On the tram on the way in, thumbs upping.

And finally, leaving--at 11:41,less than two hours after we got there--probably thumbs upping out of view.

Overall we did have fun, but I have been yet again owned by motion sickness. It definitely gets worse as you get older I guess, and I didn't feel normal last night until I went to bed. We did get to ride lots of the big rides we wanted, but most importantly, I didn't throw up in front of tons of strangers.

Now, onto the reception recaps! Today is all about food and cake. Since we had a super non-traditional Sunday morning/afternoon reception--I know, you think we're crazy--we wanted to serve brunch food. Honestly, a big part of why we had the wedding and reception in the morning was because we love donuts and breakfast food, and this way we had an excuse to serve them without people thinking it was weird. The Holiday Inn had great food, and they were able to handle all my 'exotic' requests (i.e.pigs in a blanket and cake donuts).

I couldn't decide whether to put cake with food, with details, or on it's own...but it seemed to go best in the food category. We used Sweet Temptations for our cake, and I very much believe it is the best bakery in Lubbock--if not all of West Texas. Having worked at a bakery and being a baker myself, I am picky about cake, so that was one area I was willing to spend a little more of my budget on. Unfortunately Vida is closing sometime soon to move back to South Africa, but we're glad we got in when we did! We went with a traditional white cake with white (almond) buttercream and a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. Vida makes absolutely everything from scratch, and I loved the look of her cakes and her willingness to do exactly what I wanted (which was all about simplicity...no fondant, pattern, etc.). Deana provided the flowers to use on the cake the morning of the wedding, which I'll talk more about in the details post. (Note: Unless otherwise mentioned, all photos below were taken by our friends at Cinderella Photography).

HAM!

We do love mini quiche.

Chicken fangers. With honey mustard, of course!

Pretty fruit kebobs.

The all important cake donuts.

Tortilla roll-ups.

Our hands down favorite, pigs in blankets.

We even fed each other pigs in the line (friend/family photo).

This has nothing to do with food, I just think it's really funny and have no idea what we were so outraged about (friend/family photo).

Ahh. My beautiful, simple cake. I made the cake topper myself, which I'll talk more about in the details post.

Cutting a cake is harder than you would imagine...

But we made it work.

There was no smashing, because that's probably my number one wedding pet peeve and Thomas is ~~smart~~ sweet and knew better.

LOVE this picture! Those flowers were absolutely beautiful (friend/family photo).

Delicious. We're both bigger fans of groom's cake, so we got a big one.

Again, pretty flowers (more about those in the details post).

It was too pretty to cut...but we did it anyway.

Yum. Good thing we cut a huge piece of chocolate to feast on.

This was one of Thomas' (and everyone else's) favorite things. Everyone knows Thomas' first love is chocolate milk, so we had a whole fountain of it at the reception.