My Weekend

 Back in 2007 my family had our first big family vacation in YEARS and traveled to Virginia for a week, after which we spent a week visiting family in Maryland and Kentucky before coming home. During that first week my Mom had the good fortune of meeting a lady from out east. I don't remember the lady or her family though I remember Mom mentioning her afterwards. Not too long after we returned home the lady's daughter mentioned a film costume critique class, thinking some of us might be interested in it. That was when I joined a forum of other seamstresses, meeting a number of lovely ladies, including the girl who had written my Mom. Somehow I've never been able to picture her from our time  in Virginia though she says she remembers me. Over time Jessica and I became friends, writing and chatting online frequently.
 That was nearly 8 years ago now and of all the young women I've met since then Jessica is one that is still here, the one who's been there for me when I needed somebody the most, in good times and bad, even though she's half-way across the country! Most of our friendship has been through online correspondence as I never actually met her in person until the summer of 2011 when I was able to spend a weekend with her family. Since then we'd only been able to see each other once, very briefly when they were driving through Missouri.  Well, that changed this past weekend! Friday night Angela and I picked Jessica up from the local airport!

     Saturday was filled with sewing (finishing up the last few details on costumes we'd made for the occasion - yes, we're both seamstresses and costume-lovers so we jumped at the opportunity to make new costumes when an excuse presented itself), talking, exploring pinterest, and attending a baby shower in the afternoon.

 Sunday we met for church here in our home with another family after which we had a small party (did I mention it was my birthday?), Abbie, Daniel and my friend Cathy joining us for enchiladas, ice cream and a delicious chocolate cake Mom made (as much as she hates cooking, Mom's great! That cake was delicious!)

   Sunday afternoon Cathy and the boys headed out to the nearby volleyball court while Jessica and I roped Angela into taking pictures of us in our costumes. It's so nice having a willing, GOOD photographer to take pictures of us instead of having to figure out something on our own. :) 

    It is fairly rare for a visitor to come for a few days and NOT visit the "cliffs" with us. After we'd donned regular clothes again we headed south of town for a fun hike out in the warm weather. 

 Apparently purple was the color of the afternoon :)

 Ben being Ben :D

 We three girls on a leaning tree trunk - it's a rather large tree and we actually weren't that far from the ground but I hate heights and so was having trouble forcing myself to go much higher, despite my idea of the ease of the thing from when I was on the ground

Luke showing off his muscles from the tree trunk

Not sure this sign was there when we've gone before: I don't remember ever seeing it until Sunday. We'd just come down from the "very dangerous area."

  Saturday while looking at pinterest for a good muffin recipe to make for breakfast I came across a 2-ingredient recipe and was immediately intrigued. They're made with ice cream and self-rising flour! We instantly wanted to make them, just to see if it would work. So that's what we had for breakfast on Monday. Ice cream muffins. They worked and they were good! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished product. I'll have to make them again sometime and make sure I get pictures. :)

Monday morning we drove around, to the shop, to the library (where I bought around 20 books for $0.50 - no joke!), and the chocolate factory. For lunch we headed to a cafe downtown and then to an ice cream place just south of town. Go figure, when we got there we found out that they're closed on Mondays. Oh well, at least on the way I'd gotten to show her the little castle someone built nearby. And all hope of ice cream was not lost: there's a new ice cream parlor in town that I hadn't visited yet so we headed there to try it out. Yup, the ice cream was great! :)

After ice cream on Monday we were discussing what to do with the last couple hours. Glancing around Jessica saw a tattoo place just next door and joked about getting tattoos. No, these are not real and, for any of you who might not know us: neither of us have any intention of getting a tattoo. But I happened to know where we could find some somewhat pretty fake ones so we loaded up and headed that direction.

But at last we had to head to the airport to await her plane. :( Even though we were sad about having to say goodbye we still had a hard time looking sad for a picture. I smile on command - it's a little harder to actually cry on command. :P

 

   So glad I got to see you, Jessica! I can't wait till we can get together again!!!!



   On that note, one of my favorite youtube violinists just uploaded a new video!