Girls' Night, Boys' Day

Friday night I went out to my friend Shaina's house for an extremely entertaining Girls Only Night. She even kicked her husband and kids out to a friend's house for a slumber party so we'd have the house to ourselves and not have to worry about waking up kiddos. Which is good, cuz we were loud!

We played the "Garbage Bag Game" (if you want to see how it's played because the pictures intrigue you click here), a really funny writing/drawing game, and a guess-who style game. We also made some sweet music videos that brought out the inner rock star in all of us. Since no good girls' night would be without them, there were also plenty of delicious goodies to munch on!

And we stayed late...I'm talkin' late...I mean really late...just talking and laughing. At one point in the night I had to massage my cheeks because they were hurting from laughing so much. Laughter is such great medicine. And I always come away from a night talking with my girls feeling so much more peaceful. The things going on with me are going on with others, the things my kids struggle with, other kids do too. I know it sounds odd, but sometimes it feels good to just know things are "normal" and I am not alone in my challenges! I crawled into my cozy, welcoming bed and was out like a light at 3am. I can't remember the last time I went to bed that late. Now that's a great Girls' Night. Thanks Shaina!

Here I am along with Margaret, racing to open my trash bag prize. Which was a....

Dollar Store pregnancy test! Sweet!

Sadly, not a new set of choppers like Marcia got. Beautiful!

I just loved this picture because between Trinette (in green) and Heidi (in orange), it shows how hard we were all laughing!

Here are all the girls after the garbage bag game showing our various prizes.

This was my group for the music videos, I am the Tutu Head, Jenn is the Feather Head and Becky is the Tutu Neck. We lip synced You Got It (The Right Stuff) by New Kids on the Block. Kendra (our lovely worm) was the object of our admiration in our particular rendition of the music video. She certainly had The Right Stuff as she busted out the worm moves!

More scenes from the footage of our smooth music video. The best part of the videos was watching all the gals step out of their comfort zones and just be crazy. Don't we all need to let loose once in awhile? Yes! I love it!

After such a fabulous girls' night, it was only fair that Saturday include some fun for the boys. It started off with an early morning hike for Adam and Zach. The young men from our ward are planning a two-week hike this summer, so they are doing some shorter preparation hikes. Adam volunteered to go along on the first of these prep hikes yesterday morning, and decided to bring Zach with him after talking to our friend Vern, who was also going to bring his son, Spencer, one of Zach's good buddies. Zach's comment later that day, "I had to get up really early, Mom, like 5:30 in the morning, but I am so glad I did it!" It was a pretty hike, five miles in the foothills of Pike's Peak above Garden of the Gods. Maybe by the end of the summer, when the littler boys are back in hiking shape, and willing to walk that far, we can do that one all together!

It was a very early morning for Zach (look at his tired face!), who loves to sleep in at least until 7:30am, as all his brothers do. And it was pretty cold, too. Adam said it was 18 degrees when they left the house.

So cold, in fact, that even fur-coated Ruby was a little pissed about having to get out of the heated car.

Sunrise behind the rocks at Garden of the Gods.

Heading into the mountains.

Zach and Spencer, by some of the red rock formations off the trail.

It's a cute picture of the buddies, but look at the view of Pike's Peak behind Zach and Spence...a nature-made picture frame!

No hike is complete without some rock climbing!Adam and Zach with Pike's in the background.
More Colorado mountain vistas; lovely as ever!

The rest of Saturday was spent doing chores, building cool things out of scrap wood in the garage with dad (pictures of that to come when those projects are complete) and playing really nicely together. I think I only had to say, "Guys! Treat {insert one of my boys' names here} how you want to be treated!" twice! That's a good day. And Josh got to run errands with Dad. Adam got some one-on-one time with Josh, which he doesn't get as often as he does with the older boys, and Josh got a milkshake from Carl's Jr. They both thought it was a treat!

Later in the afternoon/evening we babysat the three boys, Landon(6), Austin(4) and Isaac(1), of our good friends Kendra and Cameron, so they could have a date night. They watched our boys last weekend when we went out too. It was such a nice swap, we're doing it again the next two weekends! The seven boys play together so well every time they are together. And last night was no different. We didn't have to settle one single argument and the only tears shed were not from fighting, just from being left behind when the herd moved on once. The boys together ate at least 35 chicken nuggets, and would have had more if they hadn't been all gone, and polished off a couple of cans of peaches. Every time I feed a group of boys I am reminded of how large the grocery bill is going to get in the future...their stomachs are like bottomless food pits!It was a really fun weekend, and I am so happy to have Sunday, where nothing needs to be done but church and chill. We even had dinner with some friends which rounded out this great weekend perfectly. I wish it was this weekend every day!