Don't Worry Be Scrappy!

WHEW! What a weekend! On Thursday night, Carly and I left our respective children with their very capable fathers (and grandmas), boarded a plane and took off for Seattle. We both had a hard time leaving our kids because we hadn't been away from them for more than a few hours their whole lives. I didn't think I would cry over it, but I did.

I detest flying. So during our very turbulent take off, Carly and I chatted away like we didn't have a care in the world while we both secretly prayed our way to a comfortable cruising altitude. We passed the time by gabbing about kids and watching Pride and Prejiduce.

We landed in Seattle and found my mommy. She was amused at the the size and weight of our scrapbook supplies suitcases. My carry-on held my clothes for the weekend and it was only half full. My gi-normous suitcase was crammed to the gills with every scrapping supply I could possibly need. Most of which, it would turn out, I wouldn't even touch.

We could hardly sleep that night for the excitement the next day would bring. Wow. How lame did that sound? But it's true. I'm easily excited I guess. We each slept for about three hours before we had to wake up, get ready, and drive through rush hour traffic from Monroe to Bellevue. But we made it in plenty of time for our class and even had a chance to stop at Starbucks on the way.

Our first class was a whirlwind, high paced, get your layouts done in less than an hour class. That was fun but difficult that early in morning. This is Carly, working diligently...

After our first class, we had an hour to kill at the vendor fair before our second class started. We walked into the hugest room at the convention center and were brought to a standstill by the vastness of it. Only another devout scrapbooker can possibly imagine the depth of our glee at what our eyes beheld. It was utterly overwhelming and we didn't know where to start. This picture captures our feelings, but fails miserably to capture the enormity of it all.

After our second class was over, we rushed home to grab mommy and headed to the outlet mall. Mass hysteria ensued as we layed down some serious carnage to our bank accounts. We rapidly ran out of time, rushed home for dinner and rushed back out to the convention center for the nightly crop party. We arrived late and couldn't find the right room anywhere. That's because we were at the wrong venue. The crop was being held down the street at the Hilton. So we scrambled over there and spent several minutes trying to find a table we could sit at together. But we found one and we tiredly went about scrapping for four hours. The highlight of the night was when we met our favorite "scra-lebrity," Ali Edwards! She writes and scraps for our favorite scrapbooking magazine and as we informed her, we just love her.

The next day we were able to sleep in a bit, mom and I went running, then we all went shopping again at Target. More carnage but massive amounts of fun. We were late for our one and only class of the day but because we are so awesome, we caught up withing about 15 minutes.

After that class we rushed off to have dinner with mom, dad, JR and Kate. I'm so glad we had a chance to visit with them, even if it was only for about 30 minutes. Because then we had to rush right back to the Hilton for another crop party!

We stayed at this crop party for an extra hour because it was our last night and we just couldn't let it end. When we were finally ready to keel over from exhaustion, we drove home and spent the next couple hours (until 2am) trying to cram all our new scrapping supplies, class projects, prizes and shopping loot, into our already full luggage. We got it done, but it wasn't pretty. In fact, my large suitcase was overweight and I had to unload a couple items and stuff them in my carry-on.

The flight home was uneventful, long and boring. But it was all worth it for the greeting I got at the airport. Jakey ran and gave me the biggest hug and Jordan raised her arms and screamed, "MOMMMMMEEEE!!!" From her stroller. I missed my babies so much! And my Darrin too of course. He was such a super-star for letting me have this weekend away.