Time Out for Morris Women

Last year, I flew to Portland in the fall to go to Deseret Book’s “Time Out for Women” with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and aunt. This year, we decided to do our own “time out” weekend. It wasn’t too much of a time-out from mothering for me since Bennett won’t take a bottle and cries when other people hold him (until I’ve been gone a little while, then he’s fine), but it was a fabulous weekend and everyone was more than willing to hold Bennett when he would let them. I didn’t take any pictures so I’m borrowing a couple from the people who did :)

  (eating in Davis’s booster seat)

I flew in on Thursday morning before everyone else got there and went to the zoo with my sister and her kids. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the car, so no pictures. Bennett didn’t appreciate it too much and actually took a nice nap in his stroller, but I haven’t been to the zoo FOREVER so it was fun to see all the animals (except the bats. Those are Landon’s favorite but they’re a little creepy, although I will admit, also a little fascinating).

Friday was our fun / spoiled day. Once everyone got there, we went out to lunch, then went and got facials, and went shopping. We went back to my sister’s and ate dinner, then enjoyed making fun of each other’s skills (or lack thereof) while playing the winter olympics Wii game.

Saturday, we went over to Jessica’s church building and camped out in a room there for our workshops. We had each read an educational / uplifting book, and shared what we had learned. We ate our lunches there, then we each “taught” a workshop – Stacey gave us some great photography tips, Jess helped us figure out how to organize our homes (which I obviously need as I’m sitting here looking at stacks of random papers and misc. junk on the computer desk) and had some great home management tips, I led a discussion about budgeting (which we all decided is important and good, but also a big pain), and mom helped with the organization stuff and orchestrated some meal planning / meal sharing. It was great to learn from each other, share ideas, and come away motivated to do a little better in those areas. We stopped at the fabric store on the way home and I got some cute fabric for a project I worked on last night – and now need to finish :(

(getting organized, and Bennett playing while we worked – if you look closely, you’ll notice he once again crawled out of his pants)

The weekend went by way too fast. Mom & Dad and Jake and Stacey left shortly after church on Sunday, but Bennett and I were able to stay one more day and play with Jess & Landon and Davis. The men have decided they need a Time out for Morris Men next year (although I’m pretty sure theirs will not involve shopping and facials), so hopefully we’ll be able to repeat the TOFMW in a couple years :)