Kiwigirl Cooking: What A Weekend!!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of spending four nights away with some of my dearest friends at the Oregon Coast. I have been looking forward to this trip for an entire year now. It's my opportunity to get away, relax, talk, laugh and SCRAPBOOK!!!

Oh how I love to scrapbook. And four days, with no interruptions, no children, no distractions... well that's just beyond blissful to me.

So last Thursday we packed into two vehicles (an amazing feat I must say) and caravaned our way to Lincoln City.

Can you spot Tricia?? Look close - she's there I promise!

Thank you having such a big car Tricia because we never would have made it otherwise!

Jodi, Tricia and I met Sarah & Laura in the local grocery store parking lot and we were off. We got to our rental house only to find out that none of the pictures on their website showed it was a multi-level house... with the main living area on the second floor and the bedrooms on the third.

Scrap happens here!

Now stairs are not a problem if you're on a normal vacation. After all, this is all I packed for myself.

Carry-on size suitcase and toiletries bag

However, this is my scrap stuff.

This is normal right?

Hello... my name is Kelly. And I'm a scrapaholic!

And yes I realize one of my drawers has dropped off the track and looks very sad in this photo... it just traveled up a gigantic flight of stairs... trust me, it's just happy to be alive!

Hello treacherously narrow and slippery stair well!

When faced with hauling my INCREDIBLY HEAVY scrapbooking gear up this INCREDIBLY NARROW staircase, I was INCREDIBLY THANKFUL for my INCREDIBLY HELPFUL friends.

Sometimes I like to overuse the word incredibly.

Without them there's an excellent chance I would have spent the next four days sitting at the bottom of the stairwell sighing deeply and tragically while contemplating the meaning of life, and questioning why I started scrapbooking at all.

But I was not alone. And everyone pitched in and helped, because they all had great gobs of stuff too, and we hauled every last bag upstairs, and then rewarded ourselves for our hard work with dinner out on the town.

We also gave ourselves the freedom to complain about our aching calves, sore backs and tender knees the rest of the weekend without judgment!

And the view made us feel better too.

Pacific Ocean right there out the window!

And we had a fabulous weekend. Besides lots of scrapbooking, we shared stories, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, we laughed til we cried and smiled until our faces hurt. We ate delicious food (still dreaming about Laura's amazing fish taco's) and got amazing shopping deals at the Lincoln City outlet stores. We talked about temperaments, and even went out and bought Florence Littauer's book to give Sarah & Laura the official "test" to pinpoint their personalities. (And we were not surprised with the results - Sarah is a sanguine with a good shot of choleric and Laura is a perfect melancholy!)

Goodness I love these girls!

Oh, and we also got fun presents courtesy of Bobbi Villa here and her amazing sewing abilities.

She used fabrics and belts from Goodwill to make them all!

Yes, it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm already looking forward to next year... and a one-level house!

And let me just mention my husband for a moment, the man who allowed me to leave him alone with two boys for four days without complaining at all. He did such an excellent job that I'm going to go ahead and forgive him for going out and buying this while I was gone.