Some of the highlights of the trip (in order of appearance):
1. Breakfast with Lisa Gillespie, my singing bosom buddy that I haven't seen in years. I don't know if it's still this way, but growing up, Lisa's and my voices blended so well, we were just meant for duets together! To this day, I struggle to perform O Holy Night and O Divine Redeemer without her. We've determined that we'll attend "Time out for Women" together in November in St. George and I'm sooooooooo looking forward to spending more time with her then!
2. Quality time with Alisha (at Megan's) and spending the night with her. Alisha has two little babies who love (and would immediately miss) their daddy lots and lots. So to help out a little at church that first week, the boys and I spent the night at her house so we could attend church with her on Sunday morning. Alisha and I first spent the evening at Megan's, and then stayed up way too late learning how to use the 'My Digital Studio' program she bought a long time ago and had yet to install on her computer! At church the next morning, I got to hold a darling, sleeping Lauren all through Sunday school and Relief Society... ah bliss! I love my wee little sister, Alisha ;), and am super glad I got to spend a good chunk of time with her and her cuties!
3. Quality time with Shelyce on Sunday afternoon. Shelyce is a busy gal... busier than anyone I know, especially now that she's taking classes to get her CPA licensure on top of her 60+ hour work week. I took the chance to insert myself into her crazy life on Sunday afternoon and I'm so glad I got that chance. She's always so easy to talk to, and she helped me out a lot with my feelings about the loss of my oldest sister in my life. I don't have to feel so much pain about it now. Good stuff... thanks a ton, Shelyce! I love you and all yer guts too!
4. Time at the pool with Summer and Sarah. On Monday, I took the boys over to this little pool in my friend's neighborhood and met up with the Kelly sisters. Oh how I love these women! We let the kids swim around as we sat on the side and talked and talked and talked. I'd say it doesn't get much better than that, but I haven't gotten to the AMAZING dinner party they threw on Wednesday night! Summer is living in Lakewood while her husband is stationed in the Middle East. It was good for my soul to spend some time with these ladies.
5. Quality time with Jen & the girls. On Tuesday, we went up to Longmont to visit Jennifer. She is expecting their first son and I'm just DYING with excitement about it! Can't wait to meet our little nephew who's coming this November! Jen and I spent a lot of time going over the MDS software and hopefully I've gotten her hooked on digital scrapbooking as well. We took the kids to see a pretty dumb movie (The zoo keeper) and then got back to the house and just kept on gabbing while the kids played! At around 10:00 pm, we got 6 pairs of puppy-dog eyes begging us to spend the night, so we did... and stayed up way too late again! Since I love to be repetitive... I just love Jen (and Mikayla, Greta, and Katie)! I'm so blessed with amazing sisters (and nieces)!
6. Attending a "The Help" themed dinner party at the Kelly's house. Nobody knows how to throw a party like the Kelly women! The movie finally opened... something I've been looking forward to for a while, and the ladies put together a super fun party to celebrate the book! We all dressed up in our best 60's dresses (oh if I had only known in advance... Rhyll has the perfect dress I would've tried to borrow!) and pearls and brought food featured in the book. Since my culinary skills are limited, I offered to bring a chocolate pie from Village Inn! I made sure they left out Minny's secret ingredient. The dinner was amazing, the hostesses were SO CUTE, and we all had a great time. Summer had purchased the tickets in advance (which reminds me...) in case it sold out, but when we got there... we were the ONLY people in the theater! So FUN!! We could laugh as loud as we wanted! For as much as I love all the people I got to spend time with over the week, this party was definitely the highlight of my trip. THanks ladies! I love you all!
7. Quality time with Rebekah (noticing a theme here!?). On Thursday morning, we headed out to Parker, with my cutie pie niece Lily in tow, to visit Rebekah and her four girls. As you can imagine, we did a lot of talking... and it was GREAT! We established much earlier on in the day that we would just plan on spending the night with them as well. Scott & Rebekah's only son, William, is a favorite cousin of my boys and they were super bummed when they found out that he was going to be gone in Alaska with the men. But it was awesome that the boys got to spend some good time with their girl cousins that are all exactly the same age as them! Here are some pictures of them all sleeping together! I sure love Rebekah and that whole family! Thanks for having us!
8. Doing pretty much nothing else for the rest of the week. On Friday and Saturday, I made no plans. I used this time to actually spend it with my beloved mommy. We looked at oodles of choir music, put mulch all over her flower garden, watched the entire Pride and Prejudice movie, and talked. I didn't ever spend the night at Megan's, but I did get to see her the most often and I'm so relieved about that! I'm glad I took the opportunity to NOT pack my schedule to the hilt. Sometimes on a long vacation, you need to stay long enough to get just a little bored so you don't come home exhausted! That's what the weekend was for as we waited for the men to get back. I got to see Jen, Alisha, & Megan one more time on Sunday and then Paul flew in on Monday morning. We were back in Utah by 6:00 pm.
I love Paul A LOT! But I gotta say, 90% of what I loved about this trip to Denver couldn't have happened had he and the other men been there! It was nice to have my sisters all to myself, without worrying about if we were staying too long or if Paul was getting bored! I'm just ultimately so grateful that I got the chance to really connect with all these women again. Living my own busy life a state away from my entire family and the place I grew up doesn't lend itself to easy access to some very important people in my life. I hope we weren't too much of an imposition on anyone, but I couldn't be more grateful for the time I got to spend with everyone. Thanks for filling my soul and giving me the boost I needed to return home with the start of the school year looming in front of me! I'm ready to take it on! {happy sigh!!}
I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!! Thanks again to all of you
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