Dolls and Doilies

I am not sure I ever posted about our girls weekend away. Dallin's grandparents and family have a wonderful home in a very small town about 2 hours south of us. It is amazing - really quite indescribable. It is huge and so beautiful and all done by the sweat of their brows. Anyway, you have to see it to believe it but it is incredible.

I offered to take a bunch of friends down there for a little Girls Retreat but in the end only 5 of us ended up going. After a late start and a yummy (but salty) dinner in Claresholm, we made it. Only to discover that a really warm September had created an infestation of flies. And I do mean that literally, there were HUNDREDS of flies in the Lodge, dead and alive. They were EVERYWHERE! It was actually quite .... yucky! I have never seen it like that before, and it kind of grossed me out. We each picked a room and vacuumed up the flies like gravel off the carpet and beds. As one of the ladies went to put her baby to sleep a mouse ran across her room. Seriously, in 11 years I have been going there I have NEVER EVER seen a mouse. Dallin has been going there all his life and he has never seen a mouse inside the Lodge. This is the worst luck ever!

I took the ladies on a tour of the Lodge - it is something to be seen and experienced and told about. Everything was good until we came to all of the porcelain dolls. Grandma has a thing for dolls and especially old fashioned ones. They were there, watching us, staring, borderline creepy! It was hard not to laugh but also hard not to be slightly afraid of them!

We spent most of the time there eating talking and laughing. There is nothing like girlfriend talk - it is like balm to the soul, a refreshing drink of cool water to a parched mouth. It soothes my frayed nerves and allows me to just be myself: silly, crazy, irreverent, ridiculous, whatever I want to be!

It was 24 hours of happy-ness and deliciousness and creepy-ness. It was good for me and I hope it was just as good for them. Until next time, Dolls and Doilies will be but a fond memory ......

Our poor babies who were subjected to flies and mice and insane women all weekend