Time out For Women and a Giving Tree

Time out for Women is a weekend  conference in Portland  (put on by Deseret Book) that I have never had the chance to take advantage of.  When my pal Jessica called and asked me to accompany her to TOFW, I jumped at the chance.  To make things even more exciting, they held a Time out for Girls at the same time.  So, our daughters got to go with us. Casey was kind enough to watch the other girls at home so that I could get away for 24 hours.  On our way up to Portland, we stopped at Panda Express for dinner.  In the above picture, Marissa and Charlotte are being their goofy selves.  They kept us laughing the whole weekend.

We were so excited to have other members of our Stake (and some of Charlotte's best friends) meet us there.  While the women were being spiritually fed in another conference hall, the girls were upstairs listening to Jericho Road.  (They are popular in LDS circles)  Here, they are taking a picture with their favorite member of Jericho Road.  In addition to music, we both got to hear some amazing talks.

We stayed that night in a hotel near the Portland Conference Center.  As great as the evening talks were, the morning and afternoon talk were even better.  We got to hear from a man who lost half of his family to a drunk driving accident.  He told an incredible (and tearful) story of forgiveness and love.  

At lunchtime we raced up the street to Subway.  We were one of the first to get there and it was  good thing! The line of hungry  ladies went out the door and down the street!

Charlotte and I had such a fun time being together. 

After lunch, the girls were goofing off walking through the Portland streets.

And then again once we got back inside:

The day ended on a spiritual high note...a wonderful rendition of Homeward Bound sung by Jericho Road.  I left the Conference feeling like I could conquer the world.  Next year, I am taking all of my girls.  (Maggie and Jillian enjoyed the temple today.  It was Maggie's first Youth temple trip)

I am so thankful for the Gospel.  We walked away from the two day conference with a very real sense of just how much our Heavenly Father loves us.  For teenage girls, and even middle aged women...that is a very important lesson to learn!

We also got to spend some time with our amazing cousin Nicole who is leaving on a mission for Colorado (The same mission that Casey served in).  She came to Springfield to visit before she left.  On Monday night, we invited her to go with us to our annual Giving Tree Family home evening.  We pulled five ornaments off of the tree at the mall and then went to buy the requested items for children that are in foster care.  It was twice as fun with Nicole there!

Once purchased, the gifts were put back under the tree at the mall to be dispersed throughout the community.  We then came home and ate pie. Yep, pie.  Allison declared this morning that she wanted to make a chocolate and an apple pie for FHE tonight.  So, after school today, we whipped them out.  We're just practicing for next week right? 

 We so admire our cousin Nicole.  She is setting such a wonderful example for our girls.  We hope each of our girls will serve a mission if they feel that it is right for them.

Here is week 46.