Andersen Family Reunion

It was time for the Andersen Family Reunion and no one had said anything so I decided to plan it.  It really isn't that hard once you figure out a date.  I sent a message to everyone and it was decided that Memorial Day would work best for those who could come (although plans changed and not everyone could make it who thought they could).  I wanted it to be easy and fun so decided we should go to Lake Las Vegas.  I called the travel club and got discounted room codes that everyone could use and started sharing those with the family.  Some procrastinated so they ended up at another hotel but it all worked out.

Friday morning we loaded the van and then Friday afternoon we drove down to Vegas.  We picked up pizza on the way and met everyone at the patio of the hotel.  It's a really nice place.  We got to see most of the people who were already there and sat to talk with them while we all ate.  Then we went swimming for a while.  Courtney wanted to watch the Dive-in Movie but it was windy and the water was cold so we didn't last long.

Let me explain a bit about Lake Las Vegas.  The resort we stay at has everything there: 2 swimming pools, kayaks, sand toys, restaurants, ping pong, a huge chess board, playground, basketball courts, fire pits, etc.  So when you go there, everyone can play and do what they want and it's easy to meet up for meals or to talk.  I didn't want everyone to feel like they had to do all these activities together.  I wanted everyone to have fun and play.

Saturday morning we got up early and went down to the pool to get some good spots.  With our reservation we were given 2 free breakfast buffets.  Courtney didn't want to go to the buffet so Ethan and Bryan took the ticket on Saturday and ate.  While we waited for the pool to open, the kids played with a giant chess board.  When the pool finally opened Courtney was the first on in and we had the pool to ourselves for a long time.

We swam all morning.  My cousin, Heather, has a daughter who Courtney just loves so the two of them just played and played in the water.  Ethan would go out and bug them once in a while for some attention.  It was a beautiful day that wasn't really hot.  I was amazed at the great weather!

We had Subway for lunch and everyone sat and talked.  I loved hearing stories from the siblings about growing up and funny things that happened.

We swam some more and then we all met up at Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  They were great there.  They don't take reservations and there were 38 of us so I was really worried.  When we got there I told them we needed to have 23 seats and they got us all together.  Those who came a little later were able to get into booths next to our long table.  It worked out great and they were so nice.

Then we went back to the hotel and some people watched a video my cousin, Melissa, had put together while the rest of us went to bed because it was late. ;)

Sunday morning we went to a local Ward for Church.  It was so cool because the chapel just had about 9-10 long benches in it that were really wide.  So when the deacons passed the sacrament they just went to one end and walked to the other end while giving everyone the sacrament.  It was very efficient.  The talks were great.

Then we went to a local park we had reserved for a BBQ.  Everyone brought their own meat, a side to share and some cookies.  We ate, talked, got to know each other better and the kids got to play at the splash pad or on the playground.  It was great.  We stayed there for hours.  That was what I liked the best because we were just able to sit and talk to everyone.

We went back to the hotel to do s'mores but there was a wedding at our hotel so the fire places were blocked off.  Luckily, Justin said that at their hotel there was a firepit we could use.  So we went to the Hilton and had s'mores and watched the video. It was hilarious to see our parents/uncles/aunts when they were younger.  And it was nice to see video of grandma and grandpa.

Kristina, Heather, Ferris, Ronnie, Justin, Michelle, Nevin, Leigh Ann, Charity, Don, Kathy, Merna and Jeanette.

When all the kids had eaten their fill of s'mores and the video was playing for the second time, it started raining so we all said good bye and went back to our hotel.  Some people were leaving early the next day so we said good bye to them.

Monday morning we got a late check out so we were able to stay until 2 p.m.  We went to the breakfast buffet using our saved up free buffet tickets then we went to the pool to play.  It was boring after a while so we checked out around 1 p.m.  Courtney had a bit of a stress attack because she couldn't find her iPod and thought it was left at the hotel.  We looked everywhere and couldn't find it.  (She ended up finding it when we got home.)  Before we left Vegas, we ate lunch to try and cheer her up.

Traffic wasn't bad for us going home because we took the back way but we heard it was bad through the gorge.

It was a great family reunion and I was so happy to see everyone who came!!

Earthquake

On Friday morning I was in the kitchen reading the newspaper when things started to shift.  The door of the computer desk began moving and the birthday chart started moving in the kitchen.  I quickly realized we were having an earthquake.  I called to Ethan in the other room to ask him if he felt it (just to make sure I wasn't crazy) and he did feel it.  He thought someone was pushing his chair from behind.  It only lasted a few seconds but it was an earthquake.

I called Bryan and he had felt it at his office.  And people in Las Vegas felt it also.  I looked up online and the epicenter was in Caliente, NV and it was a 4.8 (initially they said it was a 5.4 but changed that after a couple of hours).  Courtney was bummed that she didn't feel it.  She was down the street playing with friends.

Last Day of School!

May 21st was the last day of school.  Courtney went because she was so excited to see her friends.  Ethan didn't go because they weren't going to do anything so it was a waste of time.  They weren't even allowed to take backpacks.  Next year we are going to go on vacation the last week of school because nothing happens but parties.

The elementary school didn't do yearbooks this year so Courtney just had some papers for her friends to sign.  She had a great day.

This has been a great year.  They both had good teachers and did really well.

Ethan is now on to 8th grade at Snow Canyon Middle School and Courtney will go into 5th grade at Santa Clara Elementary.

Piano Recital

Courtney's piano recital was on Wednesday.  It was a crazy afternoon because Ethan had an eye doctor appointment and I had Ward visits, but it all worked out.  They actually had 2 recitals so everyone could pick a day that would work for them.  So there were only half the usual amount of students which was bonus because it was shorter!

Courtney has been working on these songs and played them the best she ever has.  I was so happy for her.  I love watching/hearing her play the piano.  She got right up there and was ready to go.

Doctor's appointment week...and funny physical

I just have to post about this because it was traumatic for Ethan. ;)

The insurance had some weird rules about checkups and stuff so Ethan spent the last week of school (his birthday week) going to doctor appointments.  He wasn't very happy with me!

Tuesday was the orthodontist.  Ethan's back teeth have taken a lot longer to grow in than the doctor expected.  We probably could have waited 6-8 months and been in the same spot we are now.  But oh well.  So they finally decided the back molars were in enough to put brackets on and now the fun begins.  Once those brackets are on his teeth can move really quickly and he can get out of braces.

We went to his appointment and they said it would be about 20-30 minutes to put the brackets on, change his wires and get him all taken care of.  Well, that was an estimate if we got an experienced hygienist.  We got a newbie and it took over an hour.  Poor Ethan was poked and prodded and the wire kept getting is cheek.  He was so patient and didn't complain but after an hour she finally asked someone else to help her and it took that new hygienist only 5 minutes to finish him up.  He was pretty dizzy when he finally got up because he had been laying back on his head for over an hour.  And he was really sore.  So he teeth were hurting him pretty quickly.  Poor kid.

Then on Wednesday he had an eye doctor appointment.  His vision hasn't been a problem but he is running out of contacts so we needed to get him in.  His teeth were hurting and they did the puff test on him.  He was not happy with me at all!  His eye sight has gotten a bit worse so he got new contacts.  The appointment didn't take too long but he we still had to hurry out to get on with the rest of the night.

And on Thursday (the last day of school) he had his physical.  He had to get a physical for scouts but the insurance wouldn't cover it until he was 13.  He was going on the Fat Man's Misery hike on Saturday so we had to get it done.  He was still sore in his mouth and not happy to be in the doctor's office on the last day of school.

But we made the most of it and had a lot of fun.  The TV in the waiting room was playing Disney Junior.  Mickey Mouse kept asking the kids to count or say what shape there was on the TV.  So Ethan started counting wrong and saying the wrong shapes.  Soon the little kids also in the waiting room were leaving to sit with their moms because this big kid was freaking them out.  It was hilarious.  At one point Mickey Mouse asked what sound an elephant made and Ethan went "moo."  I couldn't stop cracking up as a little kid hurried to go sit with his mom.

Here is Ethan's reaction to the Disney Channel:

Then Mickey Mouse asked everyone to "Shake their Peanuts" to get the elephant out of the tree.  By this time we were the only ones in the office so Ethan decided to shake his peanuts too.

He kept looking around to make sure no one was watching but by this time we were the only ones there.

They finally called him back and he was weighed (117 pounds) and measured (5 feet 6 1/2 inches).  Then we went to the waiting room.  In the room there were a bunch of little kid toys that make noise so Ethan started touching them.  They were so loud!!  

When the doctor came in he couldn't believe how tall Ethan was now.  The doctor had Ethan sit on the table while he checked his heart, ears, mouth, etc.  He asked Ethan what some goals he has are and Ethan answered "to ride my bike to Ice Box to get a hotdog."  Yup, that's his summer goal!

Then the doctor got up to get some gloves on and he said "Ethan, there is a sound that every man hates to hear when he is getting a physical."  He snapped his glove and said, "And you just heard it."  We cracked up because Ethan knew what to expect but it was still funny to watch him squirm.

Ethan is normal.  He is in the 77% for weight and 94% for height so he is doing great.  He is just starting the 3rd stage of puberty.  For boys the growth spurt is in the 3rd through 5th stages so he hasn't even started growing yet.

The doctor asked if we wanted the HPV vaccine and I said yes.  We had talked about this before so Ethan knew it was coming.  It is actually a series of shots so we have to go back in 2 months and then in 6 months.  I told Ethan it really wasn't a big deal so he wasn't too nervous until....the nurse came in to give him the shot and said, "You have to stay here for 15 minutes after I give you the shot because one of the side effects is passing out."  I thought Ethan was going to run from the room.  But then she said, "I haven't ever seen anyone pass out but they claim it happens."  

Ethan was brave and rolled up his sleeve but right before the nurse gave him the shot he said "Stick me doc" and she just cracked up!  She had to wait until she stopped giggling before giving him the shot.  Calvin and Hobbes strike again!

We waited 15 minutes, he didn't pass out, and we were on our way.  That was a hilarious doctor's appointment!!

Ethan's Birthday!!

On Ethan's birthday we decided to do a few things differently.  First off, I had seen this really cute balloon avalanche on pinterest and wanted to try it.  Usually we put up balloons and crepe paper in the kitchen but decided this would be more fun and easier.  I didn't want him to be attacked by it so we decided to do it just at the top so the balloons would fall down on him.  Bryan and I filled balloons, made a "nest" for them and then waited.  I had an LED balloon that said "Happy Birthday" on it that I was excited to use.  This is what the end product looked like:

This is what it looked like in the dark at 6:15 a.m.

I waited to hear Ethan's alarm clock and got my phone out to video tape it.  Unfortunately I didn't take into account that he is blind without his glasses and that in the dark all he would see is a glowing ball in front of his face.  Yup, we scared him pretty good!  He thought it was Bryan trying to scare him and so Ethan lashed out.  I didn't get it on video because I was laughing too hard but Ethan was quite startled.  He later said it was fun.

We did another unique thing this year.  I make breakfast for the kids every day so getting their favorite breakfast really isn't a thrill anymore.  One of my friends gets her kids a Texas donut each year so I thought we would try that tradition.  Ethan has always wanted one but I told him it was just too big.  I ordered one at Lin's and asked them to put his name on it.  Bryan went there early in the morning to pick it up (it wasn't ready so they had to do the writing for him) and then we put it on the birthday plate with a covering so he couldn't see it.  We had sausage, bacon and orange juice for him too.

After he showered and came out (without his contacts in) he took the cover off and his eyes about came out of his head!  He thought it was a bundt cake at first.  Then he was so excited to see this huge donut on his plate!  He went to town on his breakfast.  (I think this will be our new tradition.)

It was huge so this is all he could eat for breakfast but by the end of the day it was all gone.

 Ethan's baseball team had a game Monday night but we decided he didn't need to go to it because it was his birthday.  Ethan wanted to go out for dinner so we took him to Red Lobster where he stuffed himself on shrimp, crab and lobster.  It was empty so we got in and out without a problem.

Then we went home to have dessert with the family.

Ethan didn't blow out candles this year.  I think he just squeezed them with his fingers to put them out.  Weird, but he is now a teenager so you can't really figure them out, right?

Ethan opened his presents and he was given a batting helmet.  Don has a child sized head so it fit him just fine.

 Ethan got a lot of great presents.  Thanks to everyone who remembered him and made his day so great!

Batman Marathon

Ethan and his friends decided they wanted to do a Batman marathon for Ethan's friend birthday party. That was going to be a lot of movie watching.  I borrowed the movies from the library and we were set.

We started the party at 1 p.m.  I set out a table will some fruits, vegetables, candy, cookies and chips so they could munch on them as they were watching the movie.  And we started the first movie.  They loved the movie.  Ethan had never seen them before so he was in heaven.

After the first movie, we made them run around outside.  They played a game they made up called "Tackle Soccer."  It was hilarious watching them play it.  Here are some videos:

The second movie started and they began chatting and stuff.  It was fun to listen to all their chatter.  The pizza arrived about halfway through the second movie and so they got a break to eat and walk around.  When that movie ended, we sent them outside again.

Then we had Ethan open presents while the guests ate ice cream cake.  Ethan didn't want anything decorated on the cake so it was just a boring white ice cream cake but it tasted really good!  Here are pictures of Ethan and his guests while he was opening presents.

When we started the third movie I knew it wasn't going to last long.  They had totally lost interest in watching.  They would talk and when someone got up to go to the bathroom they decided to ambush him when he came out.  So we turned off the movie and sent them outside to play.  They played "capture the flag" for a long time.  We sent them home around 9:30 (I think).

Ethan said they had a great time and it was a great party!

Biking in the Rain

It has been a rainy May and Ethan has been caught in the rain more than once on his way home from school.  He was invited to participate in a program called "School of Life" each Thursday after school in May.  He wasn't too thrilled because it just taught the same things he learns at scouts and home (set goals, follow through, be nice, don't bully, etc.).  The problem was that it always got out right when the hail began and he would have to bike home in the hail.  He wasn't too happy about it after the 4th time!

Choir Concert

Ethan had choir this trimester and he was not happy to be in a choir concert.  They were supposed to wear church clothes but he was a rebel and wore a nice shirt and his church pants but he wasn't wearing a tie.  His concert was in the middle of the day so I ran over to watch it and video it so Bryan could see it later.  They did a great job!

There he is, the Back Row Joe:

Here are their songs.

Duct Tape:

Yakety Yak:

This Old Man:

Old King Cole:

Old MacDonald:

Roar (this is only a partial because my phone ran out of room):

Count on Me (partial again):

Home (partial):

They did a great job and I was very impressed.

Pizazz Review

Courtney's Pizazz end-of-the-year review was on May 9th.  She was pretty excited because they were going to be doing a character dance and, because she is on Jr. All-Starrz, she would be dancing in a lot more dances than usual.  So it was pretty exciting.

She wore the same dress as last year.  We were given a really nice, formal dress from a neighbor that was a size 14.  I took it in so it would fit Courtney and now she will be able to wear it until she turns 14.  It was be her review dress.

She decided to have Ethan escort her this year.  I think they did a great job.  He got to dance with her too.  Bryan got a video of that and I haven't gotten it off his phone yet.  But they were very cute.  Courtney showed Ethan right where they had to line up and she had him twirl her around.  It was great to see the 2 of them and how much they love each other!

Here is their introduction.  Ethan was so happy to hear his name read (haha):

Then it was time for all their dances.  Here they are:

Try (all 3-5th grade dancers):

Oh Sweet Lorraine (Jr. All Starrz):

Fashion is my Kryptonite (hip hop):

Jazz from the Past (Jr. All-Starrz):

Jazz from the Past (3-5th graders):

Jazz from the Past (everyone):

Superhero (Jr. All-Starrz character dance):

I have to tell you that getting the Wonder Woman costume was hilarious.  The dance coach didn't want the girls to buy one at all (which didn't happen for some girls) so we went online to figure out how to make one out of what we had on hand....we didn't have much.  So we went out and bought a red leotard for the top, some blue swim fabric and some gold elastic for the skirt and some gold scrapbook paper for the wristbands and the crown.  Then we went to work.  The skirts was a super easy circle skirt with the gold elastic on the waist.  The crown was cut from the paper and then I put a red star on it.  It didn't take much work but Courtney was nervous that it wouldn't look good enough since we were making it.  But it ended up looking so cute!  I did have a problem with the logo on the front of the leotard.  I bought a sheet of duct tape then I cut out the logo and put it on the front.  It looked great but kept falling off.  We have a family in our ward who do vinyl and embroidery so I called them and they cut out some gold foil and ironed it on.  It worked great but I wish I would have thought of them first!

It was a great night with only one glitch.  I had the feeling that I was forgetting something when we left the house to go to the review.  Courtney and Ethan had to be there early so I took them and everyone came after us.  Right when the review began I remembered...I forgot the gifts for the coach and her assistant.  There wasn't going to be dance again until August so I knew I had to get them.  Andrew and Jessica were amazing and ran back to our house to get the flowers for me.  They saved the day!

Courtney had a break from dance until June when she begins practices for the Stadium of Fire.  Then she has dance camp at the end of July and dance starts at the beginning of August.  It's a good thing she enjoys it!

Guests

We were having Grandma and Grandpa Pack, and Andrew and Jessica over for the weekend to see Courtney's dance review and spend Mother's Day.  We were pretty excited.  Courtney helped me on Friday morning get everything ready for them.  After she left I went in to make sure the towels were on their beds and everything.  This is what I found....

Courtney loves leaving notes for people and this was no exception.  I don't know what she meant about not opening the closet but it was hilarious to read.

It was nice to have everyone here.  It was rainy so we weren't able to do a lot but we were able to go and play baseball (which was heaven for the guys!) and go shopping (which was great for the girls).  Courtney had practices but it was all good.

Orchestra Concert

Courtney had her end-of-the year orchestra concert.  It was a crazy night because she also had a practice for dance.  Bryan picked her up early from practice and got her to the school in time for her to warm up and get ready to play.

Here she is before the concert began:

Here are some songs they played.

The Star Spangled Banner:

Russian Rondo:

Sword Dance:

Celtic Dance:

They played some more songs but I couldn't get them to upload to youtube but they were fantastic!

After their concert they had a quick pizza party with their teacher.  The next day she sadly told them that she was offered another teaching job at Dixie State University teaching orchestra teachers how to teach.  So this will be her one and only year teaching them.  Courtney was devastated but was happy that she had been able to learn from Mrs. Crosby.  We are hoping they find someone else to take over the program so we don't lose out next year on the great experience.

Courtney has loved playing the violin and has done so well.  She absolutely loves it!

Playing Baseball

There aren't too many more games in the baseball season.  We have had so much fun watching Ethan play.  His goal is to just hit the ball.  He doesn't care if he gets on base, he just wants to hit it.  So I took a video of one of his at bats and he did a great job!

Here he is getting ready to bat!

New Glasses

Since Courtney doesn't need bifocals any more, we needed to buy her new glasses.  And since she doesn't need bifocals any more, we could buy them online!! I was so excited because they are so much less expensive when buying glasses online and now we would be able to get her some cute ones.

We ordered some and I was a bit nervous because sometimes you just don't know what you are getting.  They came, she tried them on, and fell in love.  They are so cute on her and she loves them!

Pack May Activities

If anyone is interested, here are our May activities:

May 4 at 5:30 p.m. baseball game
May 6 at 7:30 p.m. baseball game
May 7 at 6:30 p.m. orchestra concert
May 9 at 7 p.m. Pizazz end of the year review
May 11 at 7 p.m. baseball game
May 13 at 7:30 p.m. baseball game (last one of the season)
May 20 at 7 p.m. piano recital at Vista
May 21 Last Day of School
May 22-25 Andersen reunion

Fathers and Sons

There is never any photographic evidence of Fathers and Sons.  Well, except that time a guy decided to play a prank on his very protective wife...but that's another story.

I digress.  There isn't any photographic proof and over the next few weeks little things will come out about what happened.  Here are some stories I have heard so far.

A boy in the ward woke up at 6:30 a.m. and was very happy that he was the first one up.  So he proceeded to "cock-a-doodle-doo" all around the camp to wake everyone up.  (As a side note, Bryan was up but was having such a good laugh that he didn't stop the kid.)

There was also a little boy who threw up all over after Ethan pushed him on the merry-go-round.  Ethan swears he kept asking if anyone didn't feel well and they kept saying they were fine.  But one kid just couldn't handle it.

They had batting practice on Saturday after breakfast of cereal, donuts and muffins.  A bunch of the "old guys" in the ward had their chairs set up in the field and the kids kept aiming at them.  After a while the old guys just turned their chairs around and became the outfield.

I'm glad they are able to go to Fathers and Sons.  The stories are pretty hilarious!

Iron Kids 2015

The boys went up to Fathers and Sons at Pinto and so Courtney and I went to the Iron Kids fun run.  She does this every year and was pretty excited to run this year.  She had soccer practice from 4:30-5:30 and then the run began at 6:30 so there was plenty of time to relax and enjoy everything.

We parked at Town Square and walked over to pick up her shirt and her number.  I was a bit peeved when they asked her to put her name on her bib because it's just a kidnapping waiting to happen.  I know that the Ironman competitors all have their names on their bibs but it is dangerous to have kids names on there.  But she wanted to so I reluctantly let her.

Then we sat around watching everyone while we waited for the race to begin.

When it was time to begin they took the kids running the 400 to their starting line and had the kids running the mile wait by the fence to watch.  They have the short run go first.

When the little kids were done they had all the 1 mile kids line up and get ready to go.  Never once have I seen Courtney run by at the start.  It's so frustrating and each year I promise myself that I will spray paint her hair orange so I can see her but I never do. ;)  So I missed her start but I went down to the gates on the side of the chute towards the finish line to watch her.  It was so fun to watch all the kids come in and hear the announcer tell them "You are an Iron Kid!"  They are all so happy!

Courtney rounded the corner and she looked like she was holding her side.  When she saw me she kicked it into gear, dodged around some kids and finished strong.  And I heard the announcer say "Courtney, you are an Iron Kid!"

Here is the video:

 Then she got her medal and her popsicle and we went home.  It was fun!

It's Thursday

It's Thursday again and guess what's for dinner!  The poor girl should just learn to like stir fry and life would be much happier for her!

Tooth Fairy

Now, if you have young children you shouldn't let them read this post until you have because there are spoilers in it.

Courtney's teeth came in late so it has taken forever for her to start loosing teeth.  She lost on the other day that she has been working on for at least a month.  It was driving her nuts and she just wanted to the tooth out.  She was hallway monitor at school and, apparently, she had nothing better to do than wiggle and tug on her loose tooth.  Well, it came out!  She got a tooth fairy envelope from the office and brought the tooth home.  She was so excited.

Courtney put the tooth under her pillow in the tooth fairy bag.  She let me know that it was under there and then mentioned how she hopes the tooth fairy comes on the first day because sometimes she is far away and doesn't get to our house for a few days.  (Yes, it's true!)  I figured at this point that she probably suspected that we were the tooth fairy but I wasn't positive.

The next morning we realized that we hadn't taken care of the tooth fairy.  Bryan went into her room to exchange her tooth for money.  He came back just laughing.  He said that when we walked in Courtney sat up, mumbled something, laid back down, rolled over and went back to sleep.  But he couldn't find her tooth, he only found a note.  He opened the note and it said something like, "Dear tooth fairy, Instead of giving me money why don't you buy me a cell phone battery from Amazon for my cell phone?  Thanks, Courtney"

We about died laughing.  See, Courtney bought his $1 cell phone from a garage sale and she is bound and determined to buy a battery for it because she is sure it will work if it just has a battery.  Think again sister!

So I went in her room after the tooth and to deposit the money.  I went in, put my hand under her pillow and couldn't find the bag.  I went back in our room and asked Bryan if he knew where she had put it.  He didn't so I crept back in her room...for the 3rd time.  When I got in there, with the 50 cents in my hand, she popped up and said, "HI."  I jumped and she thought she had won the lottery.  She told me that she knew we were the tooth fairy and wondered what we thought of her note. I held out the two quarters and said, "I need to put this under your pillow and take your tooth."  She said, "Okay, but it was worth a try."

So now we know that Courtney knows we are the tooth fairy.  It was a pretty funny morning!  She told us that she had been awake the entire time.  Sneaky girl!

Stir Fry

Courtney HATES stir fry!  We have it each week, not as a punishment like she thinks, but to help her get over it.  It doesn't seem to be working.  There is always weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Poor girl.  I remember looking like this when my parents tried to get me to eat cooked spinach with vinegar on it.  Ugh!!

Girls Weekend

After the crazy funeral I was looking forward to girls weekend.  Friday afternoon I met Bryan and we went to lunch before he dropped me off at the airport....only to have my flight delayed.  It was funny because St. George is a small airport so when the flight is delayed they just shut down security and you sit in the lobby to wait.  What is funny is that there are only a few outlets and chairs so people are vying for spots to plug in their phones and sit down.  It was fun to watch the strategy going on while we waited.  People were polite but you could see their minds working on how to get this person to move so they could use the outlet.

The plane was delayed coming from Denver but it finally made it.  I was late but Julie, Jessica and Jenny were waiting for me.  We met up with Mom and then drove to Arvada.  Lisa took the shuttle later when her flight got in.

We helped decorate for the Women's Conference, ate dinner, played games and talked.  Saturday we woke up, went to the Women's Conference, cleaned up, went for a pedicure/manicure, ate dinner (take out from 4 or 5 different places) and then played games and talked.  It was great!

 Sunday we went to Church, played games, ate and talked.  Do you see a pattern here?

Monday was the day we all flew out.  Luckily we were able to help each other through security (we all got lucky and they fast passed us) and then we went to our separate gates.

The hilarious part is that my gate was way out in the south 40!  I had to walk forever and it kept getting smaller and smaller until it was my gate.  It honestly reminded me of cattle because we were crammed in there, but what do you expect from a small plane.  They loaded us all onto the plane, taxied out and then stopped.  The pilot came on and said there was a computer problem they had to fix and to just hang tight.  After 20-24 minute, she came back on and said they had pressed Control-Alt-Delete and it had seemed to help so we would be taking off momentarily.  They didn't know what the problem was but it seemed to be fixed now.  So apparently Control-Alt-Delete has many uses!

 I landed just find and my parents were there to pick me up.  I was a bit later than I thought and the kids had an early out Monday so they were waiting for me when we pulled up.  It was a fun weekend and I am grateful I was able to go.  We missed Andrea!