Mom's Time Out

Last weekend I had a great time visiting my mom and sisters in Colorado. It was so nice to get away for the weekend all by myself! I left early Friday morning and flew to Denver and got to stay until Sunday. Brian did great holding down the fort at home and getting kids to baseball games, church, etc.

One of the reasons we all went to Colorado was to go to the "Time Out for Women" event put on by Deseret Book. My sister Amy and I had gone to one here in Texas last March and really enjoyed it. Plus, we got to see Amy's new baby and just have a fun girl's weekend together. At the Time Out event, we got to hear Jenny Oaks Baker play her violin on Friday evening. She was SO amazing! Such beautiful music. I bought one of her CDs and was able to get her to sign it for me - fun!

Saturday was spent mostly at Time Out -- we heard lots of great speakers and more wonderful music from Kenneth Cope. Here are some pics from the weekend.

First, let me introduce the girls:

This is my older sister Sandra, who came from Utah.

Here is yours truly, traveling from Texas.

Just after me in age is Malinda, who also came from Utah.

Next in line is my brother Tim, but he wasn't invited (sorry Tim), but his great wife Sarah was. She lives in California and just announced she is expecting #4 (congrats!).

Then is my youngest sister Amy and her new baby Emma, who were our fabulous hostesses!

Here is my cute mom, who also came from California.

(And there is one more younger brother Tyler, who got to stay home with my dad.)

Here we all are at Time Out on Friday night:

Back again on Saturday, this pic shows the stage behind me:

The group again on Saturday:

Lunch time! (It was very chilly in there, by the way -- we were all cold!)

They had a raffle drawing for some prizes and Amy won the very first one! A $50 gift certificate for MollyMe clothing (they had a booth at the back). We were all so excited!

Grandma with newest grandbaby Emma (who was a super good baby!):

Another picture of all the girls back at Amy's house:

Playing cards late at night. (We made Amy's husband Greg go to the store about 10:30 at night -- in very chilly, windy weather -- to get us ice cream and syrup for our brownies!)

We woke up Sunday morning to rain which turned to snow. All of us were leaving that day. I think all of our flights were delayed because of the weather. I took a picture out the window of the airplane as the wings were getting de-iced.

And I thought this was a cool picture of the clouds as we were getting close to land in Houston.

P.S. We found out later that after my mom and Sarah arrived back in CA Sunday, they had to evacuate due to the major wildfires in southern CA right now. They all went to stay with Sarah's sister. As far as we now, their house is still okay. This is a picture Sarah took from their driveway as they were leaving Sunday night:

Very scary! For now, they think their homes are safe, but they don't know when they will be able to return home. We are all praying for them right now.