My Weekend

Friday morning I got up early, packed my bags and left for our First Annual Family Women's Conference. It was wonderful! This was with my Dad's side of the family. He is one of eight kids and all of my aunts except one was able to be there as well as several cousins, my Mom, my sister, and my Grandma.

We started downtown at the Temple. It was so neat to be there with these women I love and admire so much. After that we met at at the Lion House for lunch, a piano solo by Grandma and a guest speaker about understanding the book of Isaiah. Truly so helpful and interesting, I can't wait to tackle Isaiah scriptures!

After lunch I got to ride back to my aunt Kristen's house with another aunt, Melanie, who is the only out-of-stater. Melanie is so intelligent, fun and interesting -- I thoroughly enjoyed my chance to catch-up with her.

When we got back to Kristen's she and her daughters taught us how to crochet around the edge of fleece blankets to donate to a women's shelter. Lots of crocheting, laughing, and fun.

After we ate a great dinner we attended a local production of "Big River". This is one of my favorite musicals, I have always loved the story of "Huckleberry Finn". Anyway, this wasn't the best performance I've seen of that show, but there were some good characters and it was still great to see it and get all those songs stuck in my head again.

After the play we all went back to Kristen's for more crocheting, talking, laughing etc. Most of us slept over sprawled out all over the floor on air matresses and foam pads. A hardy group of us stayed up until 4:30 am. I can't explain how much fun we had and how hard we laughed. These women are some of my favorite people in the whole world, they are truly amazing quality women (yes, you Allyson) and exceptional mothers, but they are also so hilarious and fun.

This morning we awoke to a wonderful breakfast with homemade granola, yogurt, fruit parfaits and bagels. Kristen is such a great cook and a fabulous hostess.

After breakfast we had some classes by each other.
--First Allyson and Jan (aunts) gave us the cookbook they've been compiling for the last few weeks.
--My Mom taught a basic gardening class
--My cousin's wife, Kristin, who is a nurse taught us CPR for children and infants.
--My aunt, Liane gave a class on "Creating Spiritual Experiences for our Children."
--My aunt, Tammy, did a class about "Growing Through Trials and Tribulations."
--Macy, Eliza and I taught did ours on "Happy Children, Happy Mom."

All of the classes were so different and so well-done. Very uplifting and inspiring.

After a yummy lunch we wrapped up with a book discussion of "What's So Great About America" which was headed by Melanie. I didn't finish the book but what I did read was fascinating and Melanie gave a great summary and led an interesting discussion.

What a great weekend, huh? So much learned, so much shared, so much fun. I'm so grateful Brennan so willingly took yesterday off work and held down the fort so I could enjoy myself so completely. I'm also so grateful to Kristen, Kirstin and Tiff who got this all going and planned and hosted it all. I only wish that my SIL's Meredith and Rebecca could have been there and that Macy could have joined us the whole time. Can't wait til next year!