Sisters Weekend

Growing up in my family was such a treat. I'm not sure how my parents did it, but they raised all 6 of their children to be thisclose. My parents had three girls and then three boys. I am the youngest of the girls and so I have two older sisters who were my best friends growing up. We were even in high school all at the same time.

I always dreaded the day when things would change. Life happened and my sisters moved out, which was one of the hardest things I had been through. And then the changes continued, and it got even harder to stay close, throwing marriage and motherhood in the mix. Now that my parents have 11 grandchildren and 11 children (including spouses), it gets a little crazy when we are all together. It always ends up being all about the kids. Often times I return home, feeling a little bummed that I never got to reconnect with my sisters.

But this past weekend we started a Tradition that will go on and on and on and on and on. (Well, you get the idea) The 1st Annual Sisters weekend. My mom, two sisters, honorary sister, and two sisters-in-law all met up in Vegas to have a blissful, relaxing weekend together.

I flew down with Serena and already I was starting to get excited. It was so strange (yet wonderful!) to be riding on a plane and not have to take care of anyone else! I pitied the other couples who had brought their kids. (Hee Hee)

See how happy Serena and I are waiting to get on our flight?

I was already relaxed and feeling giddy by the time Amy picked us up at the Las Vegas airport! I was so ready for this!

We went swimming in a gorgeous pool that morning. Lorelle and I couldn't keep off the water slide, it was like we were kids again! I think we swam, ate and talked for about 4 hours! It was so awesome to actually be able to swim, instead of constantly holding on to one of my kids.

Then we went to the Las Vegas Temple. This is all of us posing. What an adorable group! I love all these girls! They all feel like my sisters. It has been a blessing that our good friend Kendra "adopted" our family and became our sister and both my brothers married amazing women, Serena and Merrilee.

Here is a pic of me and my sisters. Aren't they gorgeous!!! I feel like we picked each other in heaven, because we have always been best friends, despite the fact that our personalities are vastly different.Later that night, we had dinner at Bahama Breeze. We ordered a bunch of entrees and ate family style. It was wonderful to taste so many different meals.

That nite, we raided Kendra's facial stuff and Amy took this scary Geisha girl pic of me.

We were so happy to be together, we didn't want to miss a single moment together and stayed up way past the point of cognitive functioning.

Merrilee holding our spoils of frozen unmentionables (swimsuits). How can you have a slumber party and not freeze something?

We were so tired . . .but we reasoned we would just sleep in the next day.

But that was not to be. The construction work woke us up at about 6:30 a.m., so we decided to go out for breakfast since there was no way any of us could go back to sleep with all the pounding. Then someone suggested we go in our PJ's, so we all borrowed PJ's from Amy and went to IHOP. (See what Moms do when kids aren't around? We actually are fun!)

We decided to go to the local beauty school and pamper ourselves. It was heaven! (Thanks Amy and Lorelle!)

That nite we went out to eat at Thai BBQ, which was delicious. Especially the Pad Thai. Yum!

Then we played Spoons with consequences (I laughed so hard, I toned my abs) and we also went around the table giving our best advice for marriage and motherhood. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend!

A big thank you to Brad for watching the children all weekend and cleaning the entire house. (How did you do it? I can hardly do it!)

I can't wait for the next one . . .