Girls/Guys Weekend 2007

This past weekend, my mother and sisters and I went away for a few days for what I know will be a much anticipated yearly tradition. On Thursday night, we headed up to a nearby city for a girls shopping trip. We first heard about this idea on Girl Talk and decided that it sounded so fun that we had to make it one of our traditions too! It sounds like our trip was similar to the one the Mahaney girls described here. Each person brought her own special something to the group.

We had so much fun and enjoyed almost three days of uninterrupted shopping. I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done and am now free to really enjoy the holiday season, rather than to face the stresses of unbought Christmas gifts and fighting the holiday crowds at the store. Yea!!! I am so thankful to have this done, but, more importantly, am so glad that I was able to spend this fun time with "just the girls". We split off to shop on our own or with one other person during the day, met up for meals, and crashed in the hotel room each night. Of course, we weren't too tired to stay up half the night discussing just about everything ranging from appropriate Christmas gifts to the role that the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. We always seem to get around to discussing some sort of controversial topic when we are together. It is always interesting to see each person's unique point of view. We laughed a LOT.

One very funny thing that happend on our trip.... All of the sisters (Hannah, Alisha, Taylor, Tessa, and myself) and Mom were supposed to bring a fun ornament to exchange. We had a Chinese Christmas ornament exchange. You know, drawing numbers, stealing from each other, etc. Anyway.... When it was all said and done, we figured out that 3 of us bought the exact same ornament. The ornament was not just any ornament either. We are especially fond of random, silly ornaments in my family. The ornament that three of us chose was a beaded pink flamingo!!! My mother, Taylor, and myself all brought the exact same ornament to exchange. Crazy! And...if that wasn't enough, we all bought our ornament in three different places/towns. Taylor bought her flamingo at Hallmark in Arkansas for $4. I bought mine in Canton for $7. It looks like my mother got the worst deal of all! She bought her flamingo at a local shop in Cleburne for $9. Can you believe this?!? What was also funny was that Taylor and I purposely bought our ornaments at "different than the usual" locations to avoid getting the same ornament as someone else. Also... Tessa had seen the flamingo ornament in a fourth store and almost bought it too, but decided on another one instead!!! And we all thought we were being so creative with our choices! HA! Better luck next time!



(The famed pink flamingo ornament....that almost everyone thought was a great purchase. At least we know that the recipients liked it!)

We had so much fun on this trip. I am so excited at how much I got done and am so excited about making this a yearly tradition. Thanks to Mom for putting us up in such a nice hotel for three nights. It was wonderful! What fun memories for us all!

Meanwhile, while the girls were shopping, the guys were camping. My dad bought a boat for the occasion. Nearly every time my Dad has tried to take his grandkids out on the boat, the boat wouldn't start. Dad, Adam, Ben, Josh, Scot, and the boys (plus Mary Alice) all went camping. I was told that the boat worked this time. Yea! They celebrated Landon's third birthday and ate all kinds of junky junk food, such as Adam's specialty "superdogs" (Yuck!) and s'mores. Josh took a few pictures from this trip. Looks like they had fun!