What a Great Weekend!

I just love the retreats put on by Creative Haven! These two gals really know how to pamper us.

Gina and Leah have been doing several of these retreats for over 5 years now. Check out the website and join us sometime. You can count on a good time, great food, friends, a few drinks and lots of late night/early morning scrapbooking.

Here are some of the gals that were there:

 Pam and Erin Cjakowski are Leah's mom and sister. Erin finished her very first scrapbook page---below.

These fun ladies---Carla, Erin and another Carla were at the table next to ours. They were so intrigued by my workshop---A Year of Memories---that they decided to join. Glad to have them!

 Erin's very first layout. Easy to do when you have such darling children to work with.

 My niece Bridget with me! She and Leah are childhood friends.

 Connie and Beth---Beth is my niece, Jessica's sister-in-law. I guess you could say that scrapbookers tend to be an incestuous bunch!

 My sister, Jeanne and sister-in-law, Janet. Janet has been my scrapbooking buddy since the beginning.

 On the right is Heather. I'm sorry, but I can't remember this other very interesting lady's name. She had some very unusual stories that could NOT be told on a scrapbook page. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. They can't even be repeated on my blog!

 These ladies were very nice to talk to at dinner, but they were not near us in the crop room, so I don't remember their names.

Sherrie and her daughter, Devon have been coming to every retreat since the very beginning.

 Here are Kim and Mel. There other table mate---the very cute and friendly, Jennifer, had already gone to bed:( I'll have to be sure to get her picture next year. She was a lot of fun!

I don't know how I managed to NOT get a picture of Pam and Karolyn at the retreat, but here's one---even if it's from here in Nashville!

I always learn so much at scrapbook retreats. Nothing about scrapbooking, but all kinds of other things including drinking!!!
This year:
I learned that Cake Vodka mixed with orange soda tastes like a dream sickle.
I learned that Rum Chata tastes like Baileys.
I learned that  chocolate wine is delicious!
I learned that Pam and Karolyn had never had a Limearita.
I learned that locks and teen boys don't always go together.
I learned that there are some really unusual methods to relieve constipation that don't always work!

And lastly, I learned that we just can't always rely on our navigations systems. Pam drove. We made it home 9 hours later---after what should have been a 7 hour trip. We did stop for lunch, but this was an unexpected delay.

We somehow wound up on a ferry in Illinois. After 3 hours on winding country roads, we made it BACK to St. Louis (the retreat was only 2 hours away from St. Louis)!! By the time we got on to Highway 64, it was as though we were just starting out. Turns out, Pam had OnStar! We should have used it. Apparently, her GPS was set for shortest route rather than fastest.

 Pam's car on the ferry.

It was a great weekend. Thanks everyone for the fun!!

I still have to tell you about my St. Louis trip, but that's going to have to wait. Plus, I'm going to give you a week off from Operation Organization. If you haven't finished the earlier assignments, then you  can easily go back. Just go to the right above and check out the labels for Operation Organization.

We're heading to Colorado on Wednesday for our annual ski trip. I plan to really catch up on my blogs and blog writing.
Stay tuned...