I’m Home From Paradise!

There’s nothing better for me than being in the middle of my favorite place on Earth – the Sierra Nevada Mountains, specifically the Eastern Sierras just outside of Bishop. I was so excited our first morning there I couldn’t wait to go out and have my first cup of coffee outdoors.

It was a totally relaxing weekend for some of us and others like “Beaver Boy Thom” felt the need to be up at 7:00am on Saturday shoring up the creek bed in anticipation of the upcoming fishing season. My favorite fishing rock is still there and the best part is that now it’s on the McBeths’ property so I won’t feel like a trespasser when I sneak over to the secret fishing pool. Mark joined the work party eventually but is really looking forward to our next trip up there when he can lounge by the creek with one eye open for the fish and the other just relaxing.

Mike and Sue were such gracious hosts. I love this picture of Mike toasting our first dinner at their new cabin and Sue looking on in fear of what he might say.

This is probably because earlier he was being the “Spaetzel Nazi” with his own ideas on how Sue’s traditional German feast of Rouladin, Spaetzel and red cabbage should be prepared. My favorite was definitely the homemade German Chocolate cake covered with the traditional frosting in heaping amounts. This whole dinner is a McBeth family tradition but for me I like my meat sans pickles!

Absolutely the best part of all is being in the company of such great friends. A truly spectacular setting for such an awesome group!

OMG! That's Hilarious

OMG! That’s Hilarious!

5 minutes into the crop this weekend with the girls I knew that “OMG! That’s Hilarious” would be the theme for our weekend. We spent the entire time laughing hysterically and enjoying each other’s company. It amazes me that we haven’t seen each other in an entire year and we just picked up right where we left off at the Cape last year.

Some highlights:

Flight out from San Diego was great. I managed to even sleep a few hours. The Newark airport isn’t nearly as nice as O’Hare was last year with its internet cafes and so I wasn’t able to log onto to the House at 5am and surprise Karen and Dawn, however Dawn called me at 5:30 – one time when I love someone being up at that ungodly hour.
Dawn is a most gracious hostess and I loved seeing her part of MA despite her continual reference to it as being “Deliverance” country (I can’t get the banjo music out of my head). Loved the trip to the Lake with the name as long as your arm which means in the local Native American language “you fish on your side, I’ll fish on mine and no one fishes in the middle”. Her household is wild but I just love her kids, especially Eta who came to greet me at 5:15am on Friday and Ingie who thought I was a human calculator.
They even tried to turn me into a Bo Sox fan by threatening no dessert unless I wore the Red Sox cap. My love for all things ice cream
won out there.
The Girls at the Crop:
What can I say – I love these girls. So happy to meet Mandy and Linda. Linda is a super scrapper and I love that she brought her sandpaper tools for me to borrow whenever I needed.
Mandy, so glad she good escape her job and family to join us. She also gives excellent lessons on Canadian geography!

Johnna & Binni – love these two. Johnna is my drinking pal, although she has a hard time getting things straight on the page after 2 Presidente margaritas. Binni is what I aspire to be, sure of herself and not afraid of anything.

Dawn is my Diva shopping pal. We so could have ditched the others for a full day of shopping at the great little mall next to the hotel.

And then there’s my pal Karen.

Why oh why don’t we live closer?

We can talk for hours and best of all she has come into the light and seen the beauty of the “made up” face.

After the crop when we had a day to ourselves and I introduced her to the Benefit counter at Macy’s.
I never dreamed she would like it as much as she did. I’m so sad that our visit was so short. I love her family, even Roger’s spreadsheets re college costs. Jordan is such a cool kid – I know Karen is going to miss him so much next year when he’s away at school despite how hard she and Roger are working to find him the perfect school. And then there’s my pal, Seth. Never have I met someone as much in love with WW II as Seth. I brought Papa’s POW scrapbook to show him and he was genuinely interested in the stories I told him. I really hope he does well on his upcoming WW II presentation.

The trip ended much too soon. Talk will begin soon of another get together but it will take a lot to come close to the great time we had this past weekend.

All I can do now is scrap these wonderful memories of these awesome women!