Burns Oregon or Bust

On March 26-28, me and 3 of my very best middle school friends (yes I did say middle school!) went on a road trip to see Michelle Caldiero Steineckert the fifth member of our middle school group! Michelle was having a baby shower on the 27th and we all got thinking that it would be fun to just show up! At first I don't think any of us really thought it would happen, but everybody got the time off and we were able to spend one amazing weekend in Oregon! Here we are making a quick stop for lunch....somewhere in the middle of our 9 hour drive to Burns:

(Natalie McIff, Merisa Lanford, Nancy Barber Walton & Me)

We also took Michelle's mom with us! Michelle's friend Candace knew how much Michelle wanted her mom there for her shower, and since we did want to pull off the best, biggest, grandest surprise of the universe we invited her to come too! And this is what Michelle's face looked like when she saw us: (and then of course we all cried!)

I don't think we would have been able to pull it off without Candace! She basically made all the plans, kept us at her house until it was time to go to the local pizza place where she had invited Michelle and Ryan to come have pizza in celebration of her sons birthday. It was the perfect cover!

And here we are at Michelle's baby shower. I don't think I could ever have asked for better friends. I was so lucky to have them growing up...and now! I love you guys!!!!!!!!

Let me just tell you how wonderful of a trip this was: 3 days with no kids. 3 days with wonderful friends. Staying up until 2 am talking even though we had been talking since 8 am! Eating yummy food. sewing. talking, talking, talking. Meeting the wonderful people of Burns, and hearing about the weird ones. Realizing that I didn't call home when it was 1 am and a bit late for a call...oops. Talking about old times: the Beatles, the spice girls, sleep overs, friends, birthday parties, teachers, school...realizing how much I have forgotten! And realizing how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends. That even after 10 years we can still all get into a car together and nothing has really changed!

We found a few fun things to pose by on our long drive:

SURPRISE:

Michelle sure got a lot of baby shower gifts (and friends) in one car!

Had to teach Michelle how to properly wind a bobbin =)

Thanks you guys for the most amazing trip EVER!!!!!!!!! :-)

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I was a little worried about leaving David alone with the kids for 3 days. Maybe worried isn't the right word---excited perhaps? hmmm. Anyhow, I thought it would be good for him to see what it was like being mom for a few days. Eye opening if you know what I mean. So, I was a bit surprised when I called home and found out he had taken the kids to the sand dunes (so much for his experiencing what it is really like:

Thank goodness he went with my sister and her husband...or I'm pretty sure they would have come home with 3rd degree burns since David didn't think about sunscreen. ha ha.

but they had fun...and I had fun...and that's all that matters!

David missed me. My kids missed me. And even though it was fun being gone, it was WONDERFUL to come back!