march finale

"so, it's your birthday next week?" asked eryn at the ill fated family golf club dine out.  "uhh, no my birthday's a month from now." i told her.  "but isn't my mom coming down?..." she trailed off, confused.  "not unless they are planning a surprise for me." i said, and as i said it--i knew by her face that she had let the surprise slip.  suddenly sarah giving sly nods to a fun weekend with katie, and katie insisting i stay until sunday, and mom saying "why don't we do that on the girl's weekend?" and then recanting "oh there isn't a girl's weekend is there?"--it all came together.  i bet they are going to squeeze in my 40th celebration before i turn 41, i thought.  just like them to not give up on that.

still when the day came, i had some doubts.  and i didn't think bethany or amy would be there--i mean it's a long way to come.  so when i got to katie's house and no one was there but katie and kids, i wasn't surprised about it.  katie said i was going to sleep in michealah's room.  (lie!) so we went in there and michealah was supposed to make the bed but took a looooooooooong time.  i thought she was just being a teenager procrastinator.  maybe yes, maybe no.  katie kept getting texts from 'brent' about dinner, but i didn't actually think anything of it.

malachi and i chillin on the pillah.

after a while katie came in and said dinner was ready.  "what's for dinner?" i asked on the way up. "baked potatoes and sausages" she said appologetically.  at the top of the stairs i looked kind of absently into the living room and there everyone was.  "oh," i said, actually surprised.  "hi" they said in kind of a lame way. all the sisters but martha, and mom and delanie were all sneakily sitting there.
we had a yummy dinner.  a thai coconut curry soup, and a delicious salad.  then we went bowling at the chili bowl.

i asked a local lady to take a pic of us outside the bowling alley.  i wanted the kitschy chilli bowl sign but she was more concerned that almonzo manly wilder was in the photo.  so i had to go back out and take one of the sign myself after she left.

disco bowling!  this is a sock i gleaned from amy's fresh sock pack.

we all got a lot of amusement out of mom's glowy outfit.

five pin bowling seems pretty easy after doing ten pin.  i won the first game.  got strikes and spares, was totally rad and all that.  then the second game we decided to do trick bowling.  like the first one was bowl with your eyes closed, and so on.  by the end we were doing a lot of bum wiggles and the like.  mom doing the sideways shuffle was pretty funny.  during this game, i had a score of 3 most of the way but by the end increased to 16.  some people actually did better on the wacky bowling--amy and andrea for example.  just goes to show...

after bowling we stopped by the video place to get a movie.  there was an orange cat that lived there.  we looked around, but they didn't have any of the ones i was looking for.  so we went home and watched the first episode of cranford and had two unbelievable desserts. beta cream puffs, which are divine and an out of the world chocolate peanut butter paih by bethany.  everyone was tired and no one was really into cranford.  

so after the first episode we went to bed.  i was sharing an air mattress with andrea in the downstairs family room area.  she was already in it and a snoozin.

next morning we had scrambled eggs, and bacon in toasted english muffins.  yum.  it was a rainy morning, and it was supposed to rain all day.  i was given a choice of activities to do.  after some hemming and hawing i decided on going to the blue heron sanctuary.  sanctuary!! (quasimodo).  everyone was taking a long time to get ready and the sun came out, so elizabeth and bethany and almonzo manly wilder went on a walk across the bridge and back.  then i met amy and adrea and we walked a different way. amy was cold and wanted to turn back so andrea forced her green sweater on her like a bib.  meanwhile back at the ranch the beauty mill was spitting out beauties left right and center.  even mom got made up.

i kept it wild and natural.  and andrea cinched her hair back into a french braid keeping it real.  katie got her hair done and none else. 

anyhoo, after a while we actually left the house, which was not an easy task.

i think we stopped at the bus depot so amy could try and get her ticket re-printed because shawn grabby graberson had it and he should not have had it.

then we got to the sanctuary.  SANCTUARY! (quasimodo).  first things, first we had lunch from the back of my station wagon.  it was yummy wraps with different kinds of humus, and veggies.  then we walked and took photos.  we never actually saw any herons except through a fence flying through the trees.  it's their baby time, ok.  you could see a bunch of nests, well most of us could see the nests, but ahem...some couldn't...  but we had a nice time anyway.  once there was this log out in a pond and the two a's went out on it and i took their pic, and then bethany sunk a white canvas shoe in the muck to join amy and i took their photo.  and there was one of those towers.  i took a photo of our shadow. ... and a bird blind or two, and the bridge group shots.... then sarah was thirsty and led a contingent, back to get water, leaving me and katie and mom and andrea.  and we started taking other pics of me and katie and me and mom and that's when i somehow deleted all the previous pictures.  and so the water contingent who had decided to stay, were forced to come back and retake some of the pics.  

why must a pic like this be done on a bridge?  there is no why, there is only must.

me and mudsy

a concept i copied, and i enjoyed doing it.

sometimes i enjoy what i get on a candid set up photo...sarah seems to be driving some hilarity in the back while bethany graces the bridge with her gentle touch, blocking delanie and amy hunkers.

we got ourselves in the smiling mood by poking amy.  this is only right.

sarah need her cute pregnant sass recorded.

we retook the bird blind pics, because they were so weird and wonderful and i could not go on without them.

i take this opportunity to look stunning and highlight my amazing cheekbones.

 katie is the angel cloud behind us all.

 this pic is disturbing in many ways.  and that's why i like it.

after this we rushed back to katie's and got ready for the women's broadcast quickly.  i had to wait for the primpers--sarah and delanie, so we were a bit late, but i had it going on my phone while we drove and i got to have one of the last cream puffs, so.. it all worked out.

the chapel was empty and the screen was small and everyone was sitting in the back.  weirdos.  i sat up near the front.  i'm cool all by myself.

that night we had bbq pulled chicken on buns with humus and pineapple.  yum.  everyone did well in the food department.  they also made my honey turnip recipe. after dinner we went to the bus depot again and then we drove what seemed like a long way to get to the frozen yogurt place.  bethany had given me an accusing eye for picking a dairy dessert.  but she was mollified with sorbet.  

that night we played consequences.  it was fun.  we had some good laughs.  then we stayed up very late talking.  very very late.

next morning came too soon. andrea made us waffles of goodness.  michealah's boy came to church.  there were some good moments in chillichurch.  not the distance of pew to pew, though.  that was bad.  

and that was my special weekend given to me by my special sisters.  

later we all came home and got sick. :)