1.25.2009

a weekend with friends

This is has been my view all weekend.  Peaceful, no?  Even though we were in the midst of a deep freeze ... I'm talking 20 below zero ... before the windchill!

I'm blessed to have access to a beautiful place in northern wisconsin where I holed up with my girlfriends for a much needed girly-girl weekend.  Our husbands absolutely did. not. understand what we were doing.  What could we possibly be doing?

Did you go outside?  Did you snowmobile?  Go for a walk?  What then?  What did you do?

"You talked?"  "About what?"

Men don't understand, do they?

We were literally in our jammies the entire weekend.  We joked that we played musical chairs ... we moved from this chair, to that chair, to the sofa, to the chair ... and we listened to music.

We played games, we read, we facebooked, we talked ... about every topic under the sun {I'll spare you the details}.  Isn't it awesome to have a group of ladies you can go away with, and feel complete peace with?  We didn't need to do anything.  We didn't want to do anything.

Oh!  Wait!  I failed to mention ... we ate.  We ate, and we ate, and we ate ... and none of us will need to eat for a week.  Honest.

I am blessed to have these ladies in my life.  Thank you friends.

And, as always ... as great as it is to get away, it's even greater to return.  I am so in love with my family.  With us being at Mayo, I hadn't seen the girls since Tuesday night.  Is it not the greatest feeling in the world to feel the love of a child who hasn't seen you in almost a week?

Pure excitement.  Little arms wrapped tightly around your legs ... coming at me from every direction.  Even Taylor came running when she saw me, "mommy!" ... can I ask for anything more from a thirteen year old?  Sigh.

As I was sitting with the girls tonight watching TV before bed, I studied each of them and wanted to record each memory.  Every single detail ...

Wynter needed my scarf the minute I walked in the door ... she wrapped it around her neck like she was the Red Barron and added a matching headband to complete her ensemble.  She's such a tactile little creature ... she's loving, touching, squeezing, smelling.  Yeah ... she smells me.

Piper has strep right now ... she's such a sick little girl.  So she's laying on me, all stuffed up which means she needs to breath out of her mouth ... that really awesome infectious-dragon-breath-that-only-a-mother-could-love smell ...

And then little Hunter ... who's somehow grown up so fast.  She's potty trained now.  I didn't want to potty train her.  Not because I didn't want to do the work.  But because I want her to be a baby ... forever ... and ever.  Is that wrong?  Anyway.  She sees Piper laying with me, so she comes over and tries to squeeze in too.  My 'baby' in her silky, summer pajama dress {that she insisted on wearing} with red polka dotted Christmas pj bottoms and her sister's hand-me-down pink Uggs, that she thinks are slippers.

And then of course there's miss teenager.  I love her so.  Every complicated, moody, emotional, temperamental, sulky ounce of her.  We just finished watching The Bachelor {gotta love DVR} and as we're sitting there I'm realizing just how quickly this little girl has grown up ... and even better ... just how cool she really is.

I am blessed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Holed up" in winter's paradise in pj's all weekend with an amazing group of women...was the most relaxing, peaceful and fun-filled weekend I can remember. Tracie, thank you letting me be part of it.

Poor Piper, hope she feels better soon.

Amy Schaal said...

It was wonderful to be away with such fantastic women and delicious food! Thanks, Tracie, for EVERYTHING.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Tracie for an awesome weekend, it was absolutely perfect! We too are blessed to have you!

Unknown said...

Thank you Tracie for inviting me to share in a weekend with such amazing women. It was definitely a relaxing weekend in jammies, full of laughs, colorful discussions and lots and lots of yummy food.

What a beautiful place!