27 motherless children

oh where do i start?! myself and seven wonderful friends took a well deserved and long overdue ladies mini vacation (much too mini! next time, i think we all agree, we need at least 2 nights!). at 3:00 friday afternoon we left our children in the care of our dear, sweet, loving husbands and excitedly piled into 2 cars and made the scenic hour and a half drive out to the coastal town of seaside. once there, we checked into the penthouse suite (thanks to heidi!). we are talking 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms (each with jacuzzi tubs), 2 balconies and a great view of the ocean! and NO kids!!

as soon as we arrived we claimed our bedrooms, dumped our stuff, and broke out the snacks!! chatting and eating we lost track of the time and realized at 7pm that it was 7pm and we hadn't eaten dinner. so, we set out in search of some good seafood, since we were at the sea. while we were waiting we decided to do some shopping, only to find out that most of the stores had closed at 7pm. bummer! we opted to go take some photos at the beach instead.

the photographers

ready... set.... run, rachael, run!

the photos

we finally made it to dinner and chowed down on seafood and some more great conversation. we made our way back to the hotel just before 10 pm and unanimously agreed that we needed to relax in the hot tub, only to find out that the pool area closed at 10 pm! bummer, again! our timing was terrible!! we were all dressed in our swimsuits with nowhere to go, so we got in our pj's and stayed up until 3:30am talking! yup! you read that right, 3:30am!

it was such a wonderfully, relaxing time with friends! exhausting, yes, but a good kind of exhausting! there was at least a few times during the wee hours of the morning when we were a bit slap happy due to the lack of sleep, but that just made it all the more comical! we made some awesome memories!

quotable quotes and fun memories

• "i'm sending a live lobster to my father-in-law for father's day." "does he like lobster?" "i don't know?!"


• "isn't there another less painful way to kill a lobster?" "here, let me give you a lethal injection. it will just sting a little!" "hammer?!" "gun?!"


• "no glove, no love!"


• "your baby is crying! oh wait, we don't have any babies here!"


• "she's being a cow right now"


• "what do you have in your uterus?!"


• "you want to see our cheeks?"


• "we have jacuzzi tubs in our room." "yea! we could take turns, we each get 5 minutes!"


• "i just figured out we have 30 kids between the 8 of us!" (actually, i think it is only 27???)


• "will you be my valentine? -from Lester"


• "we could have just stayed in the motel 6 in beaverton."


• "is that all of your milk bottles in the fridge?"


• "how do you donate your body to be a cadaver?"


• belly button rings and bikinis -- oh la la!


• rachael, always remember to remove the applicator!


• if your a vegetarian it is difficult to breath through dinner in a seafood restaurant! sorry juliana!


• the roadkill racoon in the bishop's freezer, which he stealthily removed from the road to make a coon hat.


• nathan's uncle stopping the family caravan everytime they passed roadkill so he could look at it.


• unknowingly camping next to a dead horse, only to wake up to vultures circling


• "he would have brought it home if he could" (the dead bear)


• "you don't even move when you sleep!"


• hoarding bridget's quarters


• heidi is the "go-to-girl" what doesn't she know?


• nylons anyone?


• eye shaped pancakes


• "....school." "what was that about schools?"


• "do you know what this means? i don't have to wash my hair for 3 or 4 days!" (or was it "2 or 3"?)


• "i wanted to have a pig, but then i smelled them."


• "so, they were going to butcher the pig and they shot it in the head. the pig shook its head and ran away!"


• going hunting on a double date! sound like fun?


• while engaged showing your sisters positive pregnancy test to your mom pretending it is yours.


• chocolate covered cottonballs, chocolate covered kids chewed up gum.

man, this is a long list, but it doesn't even touch half of what we talked about!! i wish i could remember it all, but this will help me to always remember what a blast we had this weekend! thanks ladies for an excellent night away! and thanks to all the husbands for watching the kids!