It only happens once a year...but I am already wishing we could do it again before next year...It'
s our annual "Girls Weekend!" We started this wonderful tradition last year in July, just before Todd and Dana were married. We vowed t
o keep it a tradition and and made plans for the event to take place again...which it did this past weekend. Last year we sort of did the "SPA THING", with facials, painting toenails and a "get to know you game"...this year we took on the theme of "GAME TIME". We ate at the Chinese Gourmet in Orem until we were ALMOST too full (we had to save room for our "junk food" later on). Afterwards we tried something new and did a Photo Scavenger Hunt...which turned out to be a blast! We had a list of 60 things (that were each worth a different amount of points) on our lists. We had to take a picture of one of our team mates with the object from our list. We had 1 1/2 hours to get as many photo's as possible and the team with the most points won. Poor Kim had to be on my team...(she felt sad that she had to be on my team too because she knew that I would be the loser)...I was the slow one, so yes Dayna and Dana won...but Kim was a good sport and we had tons of fun. We took pictures of strangers, candy, something
that reminded us of summer, the inside of a restaurant, a fire hydrant, someone working and many, many more hilarious and crazy things. We really had to think "out of the box" on some of the objects and be super creative. It was hysterical to see so
me of the pictures that everyone took...good laughs for years to come thats for sure. Dayna and Dana won cute purses for getting the most points! We then went back to Dayna and Jack's where we were spending the night. We made junk food and played more hilarious games. We played one where we passed the camera around (that was set on the timer mode), whoever got stuck with the camera when it went off had to pick some outrageous item from a bag of "unknown" objects!...we wore masks, crazy hats, wigs, moo moo's...crazy garb that none of us would be caught dead in. It was great for laughs and many fun pictures. At about 1:30am, we couldn't hold our eyes open any longer and we headed for bed. BUT...bright and early (7:30 am) I got up, made crepes with raspberry freezer jam, frozen strawberries, Nutella and banana's and whipped topping...yes we ate AGAIN...can you believe it!
Then we got ready and headed out for a day of shopping. We found some great deals on winter wear...shoes and "girl stuff"...we bought a few fun things and then we all went and had our nails done! I'm not one to get my nails done often (this is only the 3rd time in my LIFE) because I don't feel like its a luxury that I can do all the time...BUT I have to say~ it sure makes me feel pampered and pretty when I do. I love the way my hands actually look like "girl hands" and the way that it makes me feel a littl
e more feminine with long nails. We had a fantastic time just "being girls" together. Talking, laughing and goofing off couldn't have been any more fun! I love my girls! Girls weekend is something that I look forward to every year. I can't wait until next year when we can do it again.
ay and all. We passed 2 people on horses going up past the dam and there were 4 people behind us...just going to see the dam. We hiked in about 2-2 1/2 miles, ate our lunch along the trail, took lots of pictures and enjoyed the gorgeous mountains. I had forgotten how rocky the trail was...hence the name "ROCK CREEK", but I'm a little slow...if I was going to pick my favorite trail that we've gone on this year, it would be the one up Moon Lake, hands down. Its got the incline and decline along with the smooth, straight way... but the path isn't rocky and we could enjoy the view around us without having to STOP to LOOK at our view like we did on the Rock Creek Trail. We had to keep our eyes down most of the time because the rocks are so thick and none of us wanted to trip. Cameron found some wild raspberries and even ate a few of them. We decided that the ones at home were much sweeter and alot BIGGER! The ferns were still out and in areas of the trail they were just thick and lush! I've never seen ferns all over like I have this year, they are beautiful. It makes me sad when I think that be
fore too long all the plants and the pretty colors are going to be gone and everything will
be blanketed with that YUCKY white stuff!...I am soaking in all the nature and warmth and sunshine that I can get...hopefully storing up enough to get me through the winter. Our day was splendid even though there was a "LITTLE" complaining and some tired bodies, we are still hoping to get in a couple of more hikes before the snow flies..maybe even one up to Timp Cave!....We're on a roll now, why stop?!
thout voicing (too loudly) how I feel about guns. I am NOT against guns at at...I just personally don't like them or like to shoot them. When I was taking hunters safety, years ago when I was 12, I was doing the shooting test and one of the bullets (in my gun) backfired and blew up in m
y face...no harm was done, but it scared me to death and I have hated guns since. I think I have only shot one once since that time and will probably keep it that way. During our Labor Day adventures this year, Deron taught Halle how to shoot. He had been telling her for some time now that he wanted to teach her how to shoot, but she would never go with him. WELL...he thought that their little camping trip would be the perfect opportunity to put the plan
into motion. At first she didn't want anything to do with learning...BUT after experiencing it, she loved it. She couldn't get enough of it!!!! So...Deron has another one hooked. I think all of my kids love to shoot guns, not as much as their dad does....but its still one of their favorite times with him. They all talk about the memories that they have going up to the shooting range or somewhere else and spending that time with their dad. Deron is such a wonderful dad. He has so much patience and likes to spend time with the kids, no matter how
old they are. Sometimes its things that he likes to do and sometimes they
ar back into the mountains, through the brush, the pines and even a small creek. WOW...it sounded fun, so we finished packing our lunch and headed up to pay them a visit....thinking that we would ALL go,
but when we got there, nobody wanted to venture up the trail again. After a little debate, Cameron decided that he wanted to come- so off we went. It was a gorgeous path. Lots of pine tree's, squirrels, birds and even a little rain. We ate our lunch along the trail, took lots of pictures and even sang some goofy songs that I used to sing with the kids when they were little. Kim kept saying that we had been on the trail long enough and was ready to go back...I wanted to hike for at least an hour and THEN turn around. We were at the "5 more minutes" mark, when we stopped to rest and I told them, "Just 5 more minutes, and then we'll turn around". We were looking around at the way the path was going. It was heading up into some pretty t
hick bushes and narrowing...not that it bothered any of us, but just observing. Cameron was the first to see the markings on the tree's right by us...YES a bear had left its mark in several tree's right there next to us and YES they were fresh! At first we thought maybe we were just freaking ourselves out...but NO, we looked closer and could see that they defiantly were bear markings. Earlier (not too far back on t
he trail), we had passed some "FRESH DUNG" on the trail...I thought it looked like bear poop then, but I didn't want to say anything to the kids or scare them so we just said "Hmmm...animal poop" and kept walking. NOW we were scared...at least a tad bit nervous to say the least. I've always wanted to see a bear in the wild...but I wanted to be DRIVING when I did...and we WEREN"T driving!...We had walked 55 minutes up the trail and decided that we had gone far enough...(and we were a bit scared)...so we turned around and headed back. We were making as much noise as possible and still trying to hurry without running...but somewhere along the way, I think we must have ran because we made it back to camp in 15 minutes....We were all happy to be back safe and sound and glad that the bear kept to himself, where ever he was.
ulled out of the driveway. Our first movie of choice wasn't a scary one, but one that we both had wanted to watch. Then we watched "The Passengers"! It ended up NOT being scary and we were both bummed...the show was good, but left us both feeling let down that our time was running out and we hadn't even scared ourselves yet. Then we watched "The Haunting of Molly Hartley"...it was pretty scary (at least the part that I stayed awake for). Kim kept saying, "Mom, wake up"...it just wasn't the kind of scary we were look
ing for...But regardless, we had fun. We both ended up sleeping in our own beds because we weren't terrified enough to sleep out of our comfort zone (we had planned on both sleeping in my bed because we were going to be too scared to sleep alone...but it didn't happen). BUT....Halloween is coming and I will find a movie to scare the socks right off of us...I always do! I know- there are many of you out there wondering "what kind of mother allows her children to watch scary movies?"...ME! I've always like them, and I guess some of my kids inherited my love for a good scare once in awhile~
