Rejuvenated

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

My weekend away at the annual scrapbooking retreat was just the ticket to renew my lagging spirit and get me ready for the workweek ahead.

I spent the weekend here ...



in this room ...



... with nine other women. Although it looks like Hobby Lobby vomited and left without cleaning up, it is really a most pleasant place to be. The room is windowed on three sides, so we enjoy being able to see small animals running to and fro outside while we scrapbook, as well as just watch the weather.



This was our fourth year at Blue Spring, and it started out beautifully. This is the B&B from the front:



And this is the garden at the front (my friend Lisa is reading on the front porch).



We didn't know what was coming, but Big, Big Storms were on the way. We lost power at 8:15 Friday night and didn't regain it until 9:30 Saturday morning. That means we lost about four hours of Prime Cropping Time on Friday, and since I don't usually go to bed until around 1 a.m., I spent a LONG, LONG TIME staring into the pitch black air in our room that night.

Anyway, back to the tour. There are birdhouses scattered about the property, and LOTS of birds live there.



Here's the entrance to the side yard, where many, many weddings have taken place.



And once you've walked through the large side yard, you reach the entrance to the backyard.



Another birdhouse greets you as you round the corner.



And as you walk farther back into the property, you come upon an Asian-inspired garden, complete with lily pad pool and koi pond.





I think they thought I was there to feed them.



Here is the room Lisa and I stayed in. It was painted a dark purple, sort of eggplant shade.



This was in our bathroom ... one of the complimentary toiletries provided by Blue Spring.



I will say this: It is not mouthwash, but it looks deceptively LIKE mouthwash when you are stumbling around in the dark because of a power outage and you are used to hotels that provide mouthwash for their guests. Ptooey.

Aside from the power outage, the weekend was simply lovely. I got to spend time with close friends, catch up TO TOTALLY CURRENT on all four scrapbooks (!), and I got to know some new people, too.

On the way home, let me treat you to my view from the car:



Another storm was coming in, and it was A Mother of a Storm. My car was being pelted by huge raindrops.



When the sky turned to this unique shade of charcoal with some suspiciously twirly looking cloud formations, I seriously considered pulling over. But I soldiered on and got home safely.



Home was just the same as I'd left it, complete with precious baby. Here he is, entranced by a Baby Einstein DVD. I swear, he DOES wear shorts when I'm around most of the time. But Grayson, for some reason, never puts them back on after a diaper change. Since I'm happy he changes diapers, I'm not pressing my luck by insisting on the shorts.



I did get him on video enjoying it, too. What's funny is that he LOVES DVD cases, and he appears to be looking at the screen, then looking at the DVD cover, then up and back down again, then plopping down in surprise thinking, "Hey, this isn't what I thought it was."




And here he is doing one of his Top Five Favorite Things: emptying out the DVD cabinet.



And this is cheating a little bit, because this isn't what the big boys looked like TODAY when I got home, but I wanted to share it and don't have a separate post to write about it. This is what they looked like last week when we got home from the pool and put Jake down for a nap.

They're "too old for naps," but if they're tired enough, they wreak havoc on the couch and then fall asleep all wonky on it. It cracks me up.

And this WAS taken today, as I accidentally recorded video with the camera because I still had it on the video setting after catching Jake watching Einsteins. It is Nick yelling "Run for your liiiiiiiiiife!" And I have no idea what the context was or why he was yelling it ... but it made me laugh when I was reviewing the videos this evening and found it.




I'm glad to be home to my family again, but I really had a GREAT TIME this weekend. If anyone ever wants to come scrapbook with us, let me know!