a scrappy summary

Well, I wanted to wait to post this until I had some pictures to go with it, but I'm starting to forget and don't want to get too far behind. So just to sum up our Scrappy Retreat weekend, let me just say, it was so awesome. So fun! A breath of fresh air, literally. I'm so grateful to Toni for organizing it all and her parents for hosting. We all seriously got along great, got a lot done, and ate well. I mean well. I'm not kidding that I gained 5 pounds this weekend.

It was so cool that our hubbies were sweet enough to take care of things at home so we could be gone for 48 hours. So thanks to all the manly men left at home with the chitlins!

Christine, Toni, Susie, Connie, and I drove up Friday night. Natalie and Stephanie came up Saturday morning, and Lindsey met us there from just up the road. We were taken on a lovely tour of this magnificent house, all of us just oohing and ahhing and dying of jealousy. We set up beds (3 big air mattresses in one room, can you say Slumber Party?) and got to work, each putting out some great layouts just that first night. 'Course the 'first night' led to the 'first morning'...I don't think we went to bed until 4:30? My husband was shocked. But happy that I have friends that I can stay up to 4:30 in the morning with. ;) I was so glad that my cousins (I'm gonna stop calling them my husband's cousins...we've been married for 9.5 years for crying out loud, they're my cousins now too) Susie and Connie could come. We sure got to know each other well! And like Toni mentioned, the theme from the weekend was "what happens in Prescott, stays in Prescott." {Normally I hate that saying, but there were some pretty funny conversations that just HAVE to remain private--and girl, you know who you are. Thanks for your PSA!}

Conference in the morning was awesome of course (and so was breakfast...just love the smell of bacon in the morning!) So neat to find out new callings and hear talks written for us by prophets and leaders from our time. WE luh-huh-hoved the scrappy store up there, The Scrapbook Den. Honestly, we've been singing it's praises so much, I think the owner owes us some commission. It was so well stocked. I still can't believe it. I do think I liked it more than any other store I've been in. It just had so much for such a small town. It had a huge cropping area and you can't beat the parakeet in the back who would whistle as we walked by. =)

More conference, more scrapping, and more fun conversation. Toni's brother and wife (Lindsey) came up and cracked us up. Ryan blessed the food with the most memorable prayer (and it wasn't sacriligious, but I almost giggled right in the middle of it) as he referred to us as Sisters in Zion and blessed our scrapbooking. (Later, Toni's Dad's prayer even blessed that our cameras and pictures would turn out well--something I've never prayed for, but why not?) And we all took turns holding the babies in the house. And we all took pictures. And we all read the bathroom book sitting on the back of the toilet. Great literature. And we all took pictures with "Bonsey" in the crawlspace under the house, built into the side of the mountain. Truly creepy...I really hope my picture turns out well, cuz we need to share those, right girls?

The roads up there are nuts. Toni claims she's the 'slowest' driver of the bunch but I had my handhold on the seat and my share of oh-my-gosh-we-are-so-going-over-the-side-of-the-cliff moments. Twists and turns and queeeeeeeeeeasy stomach. Ugh.

The weather was wonderful. Period. So nice and cool and perfect and it smelled like girls' camp. Christine says she's sure Edward and Jacob live out there. (high-five to all the "Twilight" fans out there)

So yeah, we had fun. I got to know some girls so much better and loved it! This post is more of a jounral entry than anything else, but I wanted to get my feelings down before I forgot.

And here are pics of the pages I took. I did get a new camera 2 days ago, (Canon PowerShot A560) but decided against keeping it for several reasons including very lame battery life and really slow recharge-after-flash. So, I'm still in the market.