Whew! I just got back last night from the longest, busiest, most exciting weekend I've had in a long time. I had a blast, but I am exhausted!
Warning: This post will probably be a bit random. Sorry 'bout that!
I left work early on Thursday, and made the 3 hour drive down to Gresham, Oregon (south-east of Portland) for a VBS clinic and preschool/children's church workers conference. Once we arrived in OR, Thursday was pretty laid-back and relaxing. But Friday morning the conference started at 8:30am. The first part of the day was all an overview/training of this summer's VBS: Big Apple Adventure!
We got to hear the songs for this year's theme, learn the different lessons of each day, and just basically get an idea of the outline this year's will follow. We also got to tour different room set-ups to give us ideas on decorating. I'm soooo excited to put some of these ideas to use in our church this summer!
After lunch, we transitioned to the preschool & children church workers stuff. The rest of Friday, and all morning Saturday, was filled with main sessions plus 7 elective sessions. I learned a LOT of stuff and my brain felt like it was going to burst by the time I left Saturday afternoon.
So, I left Oregon on Saturday around 1:30, and got back home about 4:30. I quickly unpacked and re-packed some things, got to love on Monster, and leave again to take Monster to my MIL's house, and then Ben & I took off for Canada for a dive trip! It was so hard to leave Monster again. He was so excited to see me when I got home, after being gone for 2 nights. And then what was I doing.... leaving him again. :( But we left, and he was OK. We got out of Tacoma around 6:30... and got to Horseshoe Bay, BC, Canada around 10:30. Yes, I spent 7 hours in a car on Saturday. Fun fun. Anyways...
We got to Canada. Checked into the motel. Our room was beautiful!! I won't even try to describe it... check out these photos!
Beautiful bed and nightstands!
(look at the TV!) And electric fireplace... should've taken a pic with it on. Oh well.
This dresser was my favorite piece of furniture in the room.
The bathroom was nice too!
It looked freshly remodeled!
Love this mirror!
Then we walked the block and a half down to the pub where the rest of the group that were were meeting up with was hanging out. Stayed there a while, played some pool, and then headed back to the motel, got to bed around 1am. And set the alarms for 6:30 so we could be up, packed, checked out of the motel, and at the dock by 8am to get on the charter boat! We were on the boat until 4pm, and we did 3 dives (although I ended up sitting out of the 3rd one because I was soooo cold, sore and tired. But the first 2 dives that I did do were a BLAST! I saw so many awesome anemones and starfish. And the scenery above the water was just as beautiful! The area we were diving was surrounded by huge forested mountains that had snow at the top! Gorgeous! I regret that I didn't take my camera on the boat - but its probably safer that I didn't, since there would have been about an 85% chance of it getting wet, even in the "dry" area, lol. But here are some pics from the town.
So we got back on land around 4, took all our gear off the boat and loaded the truck back up to come back home. By the time we got on the freeway, it was about 5:30, and we got to MIL/FIL's house at exactly 9! Monster was asleep but woke up enough to nurse and fall back to sleep. After chatting with them for a while about the trip and about Monster's day with them, we headed home. Then we had to unload all our dive gear once we got home.. and it was about 11 before we were able to go to bed. I was so exhausted, I think I fell asleep in 2 minutes, haha!
This morning I am going into work a few hours late. Thank goodness! I slept in 2 hours this morning - and Monster only woke once at the normal time to nurse, and then went back to sleep! Thanks little buddy! Now I'm just continuing my morning - slowly waking up, getting ready for work, and trying to wash 4 loads of laundry. :) But it's good to be home! I missed this little Monster of mine.
Oh, I almost forgot. We made a potty stop at a gas station in Canada, and I checked out the candy aisle... check this out! All of the hersheys were in wrappers like this. And they had crazy flavors I've never seen in the US before! I bought a Black Cherry & Almond... and it is heavenly! So yummy! They also had an almond & coconut... a caramel.... and some others I can't think of, in addition to milk chocolate, almonds, and cookies 'n cream. Has anyone else seen these hershey's wrappers before?
