What Happens in McCall Stays in McCall...

Gayla, Stefanie, Kris, and Tracy enjoying one of the many laughs of the weekend. This is the only picture my camera took since all others had to be deleted...

Well, not really. It's just that I'm not very good at keeping my camera battery alive. Blast.

A girls' weekend away.

Away from the internet, facebook, kids, errands, time schedules, getting up early, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, doing laundry, and all that fun stuff that goes along with being a mom. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and doing all those tasks, but I was psyched to get away for a couple of days to rejuvenate, recharge, and remember the reasons why I love my little family so much!

Thanks to my sweet friend Gayla, we got to stay in the lap of luxury at her "cabin" in McCall, Idaho. (I mean, really, who calls a cabin a cabin when it has a hot tub, 5 flat screen TVs, soaring ceilings, a state of the art kitchen, and a painted garage floor?)

We enjoyed lounging around in our comfies, watching great chick flicks, soaking in the hot tub, enjoying fresh faces with no make up, shopping at good old McCall Drug Store (and finding some cute stuff!), eating lots of chocolate, drinking our fair share of diet Coke, and laughing until I cried - SERIOUSLY - I cried real tears thanks to Stefanie, and it was good to have a nice hard belly laugh, indeed it was!

I will admit that I was extraordinarily happy to see my sweet family and catch up on the events of the couple of days I missed. I'll spare the details, because I'm sure the girls would want me to do that, and after all, what happens in McCall on a girls' weekend stays in McCall!

Our Little Princess...Homecoming Princess that is...

It happened.

Little Kourtni, who was just barely born, and just barely learned how to walk, and just barely graduated from preschool, got asked to Timberline's Homecoming Dance.

Of course the way a girl gets asked is as important as who asks the girl. In Kourtni's case, it was a trail of string and daisies leading to a 7 month old baby boy sporting a t-shirt that said, "Will you go to Homecoming with my big bro?"

And of course the way a girl answers is as important as who the girl goes with as well.

Kourtni and her friend cut out a bajillion hearts, confiscated the garage code to enter the home, and spent about 2 1/2 hours taping hearts to the bedroom wall.
"I would love with all my heart to go to Homecoming with you" was her reply.

Yeah, she's pretty giddy about taping all those hearts to all those walls...

A few days before the big game, important news from THS:

Your daughter has been selected to be a finalist in the Homecoming Court. Please fill out the enclosed form indicating who will be your daughter's escort(s) and indicate how to say said escort(s) name(s). Oh, and don't wear your grubbies on the blue turf.

OK, maybe I made the grubbies part up...

Three girls from each grade. Three guys from each grade. Parading into Bronco Stadium at halftime praying that no tripping over blue grass would ensue.

And the sophomore winner is:

Yep. Kourtni Ball.

Totally cool.
Totally darling.
Totally memorable.

I'm just glad the background is so un-grubby.

Kourtni and her good friend, Alyssa after halftime.

Nope. We didn't get a picture of Kourtni with the sophomore guy prince. (And his lovely crown.) He was the quarterback and was a bit anxious to run in to the locker room to get a little tongue lashing from the coach.

A manicure was a must for this girl.

So was a pretty pedicure.

Waiting patiently for those nails to dry.

Aly and Kourt making the boys wait just a few minutes more - you know, don't want to seem tooooo eager, or tooooo nervous!

Oh, and the curls were courtesy of big sister Alyssa who came to Boise for the weekend. I don't know who would have done those girls' hair if it hadn't been for good old Lyss! Whew!

Obligatory mom and dad pose!

Yeah, I was a bit of a freak following them out to the car and snapping pictures...

I was so afraid they would fall into the little creek right behind them, but they had really good footing!

I just really like to look at this picture! To me it's just soooo cute!

The group.

The sisters.
(Lindsay was there somewhere...)

The mamas.
Do we look too young to have kids this age???
Don't answer that about me, but you can say yes about Carly looking young.
Because she is!!!
Still love her though!

A final shot of the family before Kourtni was whisked off for Hawaiian food, great dancing, frozen yogurt, and a "change your clothes so we don't make your dress smell like smoke" bonfire.


Oh, thought I'd mention that being the Homecoming Princess didn't go to her head - the only thing she said to us was,
"Since I'm now a princess, can I get a bigger bed?"

Um, yeah, no.

The Napping House

One of my favorite children's stories is The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood. If you haven't read it to yourself or to your children, well, I won't alert the authorities just yet... It is a beautifully illustrated and well written story about a house where everyone is sleeping. That just about sums up the Sunday afternoons here at our house.

Yay for 9:00 church!

Yay for some peace and relaxation!

Yay for cat butt hair when you wake up from your slumber!

Yay for the grogginess that ensues after you awaken!

Yay for blissful slumber for 2 hours of the afternoon!

Yay.For.Sunday.

Blue and Orange and Windy Game

So every year the BSU football team (have you heard of them? My alma mater? Number 3 in the nation?... yeah, them!) has a scrimmage open to the public. It's called, for the lack of a more creative name, the "Blue and Orange" game. It's free to the public, fans, and anyone who wants to go see what all the hype is about BSU. We aren't season ticket holders, although Bill and Payton attend a lot of their home games and even traveled to Phoenix to watch them play. We do love to watch them and so off we went to Bronco Stadium on a overcast Saturday evening.

The guys look good in their shirts, I look like I'm in my pajamas. Oh, that's because I usually wear this shirt to bed!

On our way to the game - yeah that was a HUGE piece of gum in my mouth that makes me look all distorted and such.

We sat waaaaaaaaay up high in the bleachers. Waaaaaay up high. And, in case you were wondering, No, I am not a smoker, even though I have the lines that may say otherwise...

It was extremely windy that evening. So windy that we decided to leave early because we didn't want to have to run to our car through the crazy weather we could see coming since we sat waaaaaaaay up high in the bleachers. Did I mention our seats were almost to heaven?

Go BSU!