Monday, April 19, 2010

Back To Life....Back to Reality

We celebrated our annual Girls Weekend Getaway this past weekend. We left Thursday morning and got home Sunday evening. We rented a gorgeous home in St. George for all 13 of us to fit in. It was a 5 bedroom 3 bath home with a ping pong table and a pool. We loved every minute. We stayed up until 3 or 4 each night (morning) talking and sewing. We stayed up later than the girls did. They konked out around midnight each night. We wore them out.

Our ward is doing a Celestial Ward project. I'd never heard of it before, but it's a pretty neat goal. Each of us are responsible for finding names to take through the temple from baptism to sealings. Our ward goal is 400. The size of an actual ward, but "celestialized". So my Mom sent me three male and two female names for us to do. "A" and I thought we'd start our girls weekend by going to the Temple. "A" did the two baptisms and confirmations. Our ancestors were her 5th and 7th great grandmothers on my father's side. They were born in the early 1700's. "A" got all ready and we headed into the font. We were the only ones there. Right after we were done a huge group came in so we were grateful we had gotten there when we did. I had the opportunity to witness the baptisms and I was so overwhelmed at the wonderful feeling of the spirit that was there. They had been waiting about 300 years to be baptized and they were there to accept those ordinances. It was a wonderful experience.

We met up with the rest of the girls afterward and went shopping to stock our rental home for the weekend. We were so happy to be together to spend some quality time. It was me, my four cousins who are sisters, a cousin's mother in law and then our daughters. We laughed until we cried all weekend. We enjoy each other's company so much. They are not only my cousins but my dear friends who love me no matter what! I'm so grateful for our close relationships. There wasn't any drama this weekend. The girls loved spending time together and didn't want the weekend to end.

We made scripture bags, bracelets, rings, headbands, necklaces and earrings. We took pictures of every activity. We took the girls to the beauty college for up do's and manicures then we went out to dinner to show off their awesomeness and attractiveness. We ate late, stayed up late and only REALLY slept in on our last morning together. We decided to do a service project and made 7 blankets and got two more cut out to donate to the local hospital. They turned out so cute. We all wanted to keep the blankets, but we knew that the hospital desperately needs them to have for the new babies. Well, at least 9 of the babies. We are going to do a service project each year from now on. We also decided that next year we are getting up do's and manicures while the girls are getting theirs. We wondered why we were just waiting for them and not doing it along with the girls.

So now it's back to life and back to reality....Until next year....

5 comments:

Amy said...

FUN! Can't wait to start that tradition with Paige.

Jill Branch said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time and got some great service in as well. Where are the pictures? Got to put on some pictures. :)

juli said...

It was a great weekend. I was really thrilled that the girls got along so well and no one got their feelings hurt. That's a real feat with 7 girls under 14!

KLARK Nehring said...

What a great idea!! That sounds like a lot of fun!!

Our ward is doing the same thing, duplicating our ward on the other side! Isn't it wonderful! I was thrilled when my daughter was baptized for those of our family members!! It is wonderful to feel the spirit of those who are overjoyed at having their work done for them!!

The Giles Fam said...

That was so much fun! I love spending time with you guys. I look forward to it every year and so do the girls!! You are much more like a sister than a cousin. I'm glad we are so close! I love you!!