Ohhhhh, am I BACK! (That’s not a question. I just said it that way because it feels so good). Do you know that last month went something like this:
The 4th of July!
Girl’s Camp for me!
A week long training for him!
A “regular” week!
A DIFFERENT week long training for him!
A retreat for me!
A family reunion for all!
And now it’s today.
What’s next? NUH-THING and it feels SO good.
You know how I’ve known for a year that I’d be going to this retreat? Well, I wasn’t exactly the best at packing for it. Saturday morning, my sister went through the Temple. You know my zisster, right?
It was absolutely amazing! Everyone should be so lucky as to have a sister.
As my husband and I were driving home, I mentioned that I needed to be packing. And he said, “We should go to Flag.”
Being the super responsible girl I am, I said “Yo-kay!”
And proceeded not to pack for my trip that was happening in less that 18 hours.
Was it worth it? Of course! Throwing caution to the wind is usually, sort of, kind of ALWAYS worth it! (minues teen pregnancy…)
With my sister-in-law in tow, we wandered around downtown and snapped a picture of this hotel:
So:
I don’t have an official “bucket list.” But I would have to say that if I did, going to the Hotel Monte Vista would definitely be on that list. It’s haunted, and despite my utter loathing of horror films and movies (minus “The Haunting” which was pretty much a comedy riot) I’m itching to stay there with my husband. No kiddies, you understand. No responsible parent would check their child into a haunted hotel. I mean, really. Have you seen “The Shining?”
I did.
The TV version, anyway.
We stopped at some old time shops and stared at the caramel apples we wanted to buy, and then we window shopped the snot outta that place:
Who has the coolest daughter? I do! I do!
Except when she runs away from the table at Pita Jungle (swoon!) and her Dad has to put her in her place:
And then he gets mad when I try to capture the charm of the moment:
Sometimes I just don’t think men understand sentiment.
The next day, I woke up, got ready, got my kids ready for church, gathered my bearings and bags and when I went to put them in the back of mom’s car found…
The coolest girl in the world wanted to come! If daughters fit on carry-ons…
I wish I could say that our flight was uneventful, but it went something like this:
“Hey mom, look at the clouds! They’re so pretty.”
“Hey mom, look at the clouds! They’re getting thicker.”
“Hey mom, look at the clouds! They’re turning grey.”
“Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking…”
When we landed in Salt Lake City, it was raining. We were picked up by my best friend, Tia, and her husband, Merrick. By the time we got to their house, I was so motion sick I could hardly eat the amazing food they had prepared for us.
I’m talking CORD ON BLUE! (I typed it that way because that’s how we speak french out here in the sticks)
I’m talking CHEESECAKE!
Check out all those toothpicks!
And check out all THESE toothpicks:
I wish everyone could meet Tia and Merrick… seriously -these guys are the bestest.
They introduced me to a youtube video that made me laugh so hard I went on a mission to deliver it to the world.
I love everything “folky” (see my usage of Cord On Blue, above).
“Two taco salads for the ladies…”
They were nice enough to share some of their garden with us AND they were nice enough to let me eat my cheesecake EVEN THOUGH I couldn’t finish my chicken.
Real friends for sure.
That night, as I lie “sleeping,” I posted a facebook status that read “women’s retreat in 3 hours and I’m too excited to sleep!! maybe I should go jump on tia’s bed until she wakes up so I’ll have someone to play with until the sun comes up…”
The next morning, Tia told me that she was having trouble sleeping that night and logged onto facebook and saw my status. I really would have jumped on the bed with her had her husband not been sleeping. I read somewhere that girls are supposed to jump on beds and have pillow fights when they have sleep overs. Well, we didn’t.
In fact, we even went so far as to DEFLATE the bed instead of jump on it.
To be fair, I didn’t help. Hey, someone HAD to take pictures!
I couldn’t leave without getting a picture of what Tia has called her “Easy Bake Oven” because it’s so small.
Tia dropped Mom and I off at Thanksgiving Point the next morning, and then she snapped a picture of us:
I miss Tia so much already. We spent all of Sunday evening laughing so hard.
That’s prolly why we all look so happy in this picture:
Last but not least: Despite the rain, Tia and Merrick were nice enough to cruise by the Salt Lake Temple so Mom and I could get a glimpse. Merrick snapped this picture for me, and it’s pretty much perfect.
I should pay him.
