sisters' weekend

every year, on my dad's side of the family, all of the women get together one weekend a year for a sisters' conference. husbands and kids (except nursing babies) are not invited, and they just get a weekend to themselves. this has been a tradition for quite some time now and they always enjoy their weekend together.

well, even though we all live close and see each other at least once a week at sunday dinners, we decided that it was time to have our own sisters' weekend this last weekend. we started as soon as we could get off of work on friday and headed up to sandy to start the festivities. madeleine got to come along because she is still nursing.

we started the weekend by going bowling together. this went better than my most recent attempt at bowling, and i actually broke 100 both times.

after bowling, we headed to the paradise bakery in sandy for a delicious dinner. as soon as we got home, we started playing hand and foot, an activity that was repeated throughout the weekend, especially when madeleine was sleeping.

part of the tradition of sisters' conference is that everyone brings a party favor. it doesn't have to be anything big, just a little something to share. so, after hand and foot on friday night, we all got out our party favors and exchanged them. my mom went a little overboard and couldn't help herself from getting a few extra gifts, but we didn't really mind. i got everyone little notebooks with pretty covers and an elastic band to keep it closed, audrey got us brown sugar discs to put in our brown sugar to keep them soft, beth got us the "flipper" measuring spoon, with four measurements in one (so far, madeleine has commandeered this and prefers to use is as a rattle like chew toy), and my mom got us terry cloth insoles for shoes that you can't wear socks with, face lotion, the book "alfie gets in first" (a family favorite), a reading journal, and a magnetic notepad with our initial on it.

on saturday, my dad got up and made us pancakes (he was pretty scarce all weekend, as required, but did come out to make us food now and then, a welcome exception to the rule of no men) and then we commenced in more hand and foot, several chick flicks, and best of all, we got a few projects done. for christmas, we got my parents a digital photo album, but hadn't assembled it yet because we needed to get all of their pictures organized and we finally did that this weekend. madeleine was great during all of this and let us get things done.

after church on sunday, we got one more game of hand and foot in before the men came up to join us for family dinner. even though sisters' weekend was great, i have to admit that i really missed randy a lot and was so glad to see him on sunday. i think he was even more glad because he had been alone at our house - at least i had my sisters and mom!

all in all, it was a wonderful weekend. here are a few more pictures that we took to commemorate our first sisters' conference (sorry for the blurry ones, my camera is having issues).