Women's Retreat and family picture

Well this past weekend I went to the Women's Retreat at The Yarrow in Park City on Friday and Saturday. Friday I caught a ride from my friend Teri and we made it up there at about 4:00. We got checked into our rooms, relaxed for a minute and then I headed down to have dinner with some friends.

I guess the restaurant inside the hotel was the most logical place for everyone to come for dinner because we were slowly joined by more and more ladies there for the retreat. The only problem with that was that the restaurant manager had obviously not planned for that many people and only scheduled one server. This one guy managed to get drinks, take orders, pass out checks and take payments along with all the in-betweens. I felt really bad for the guy. Many of the ladies that came later ended up sitting for close to a half hour before getting their order taken. The server did a really good job for what he was handed though. Many of us ordered off the lunch menu and it was excellent. I ate the salmon, which is usually what I have. Someone had sweet potato fries, I tasted them and then realized I should have ordered me some of those!!

They were so good that I sat down next to my friend Catheryn and shared hers. She even had this really good sweet / hot dipping sauce that I really wish I knew how to duplicate.

Our first Session was at 7:00 that night and lasted about an hour and a half I think. After that was over, Catheryn and I went to Albertson's to pick up some random things and then we hung out in a friend's room and drank iced espresso and did what ladies do best, talked. It was really nice, there was about 8 of us hanging out in there.

I made it to bed really late and got up really early. Breakfast was in a really big tent because they didn't have enough room inside for our large group. Our session's through the day were all amazing.

Margaret Becker did a wonderful job and surprisingly took on all the sessions, giving us messages about life, our gifts, staying positive and shared a little about herself too. I enjoyed her very much and I'm so glad we had the chance to listen to her speak.

The retreat ended early which was actually a good thing for me because I had to get home and then turn around and leave again with my family to go to our friend Marinda's Annual Pictures in the Park. Marinda gets us along with other friends of hers and takes pictures of everyone. She does a group picture

and then individual family pictures,

this year she even took a picture of just the kids. There was actually a few camera's going but I only have the pictures from one for now. I just love the way the pictures turned out, even though both kids were pretty irritated about the whole process.

Herrin girls.

Well the night before last night I was watching a special on TLC about Kendra and Maliyah Herrin. For those of you who don't know who they are you should go to http://www.herrintwins.com/. They were conjoined twins that were separated by the same surgeon who did Collin's surgery. Their surgery was the day before Collin died, all day long. I remember the news crews were there and there was a lot of commotion about it. On the TV special about the twins they also showed the Collin's surgeon and another surgeon. I absolutely hated seeing Collin's surgeon on TV then and I still hate it now. The twins surgery made her famous. Collin's surgery was nothing to her. I'm not blaming her, she didn't do anything wrong in Collin's surgery. It's just how rude she was to us, acting like how dare we ask for her to do his surgery when she clearly had her fame to worry about. It's so frustrating. For her to say she wouldn't do Collin's surgery because he would die anyway, but then separate conjoined twins!!! Are you kidding me? I hope that my irritation at the doctor does in no way reflect how I feel about the twins getting a chance at a normal life. I am so very happy that they were successfully separated. I think that is a medical miracle and God should be given the glory on their lives. I think it's amazing. This special that was on TV, exactly 3 years and 2 days since their surgery and they are getting prosthetic legs. My frustration is that I don't understand why my son's surgery had to be so much less important than the twins. Were their lives of greater value to her? So maybe there was a greater chance of survival with them, conjoined twins. Please! Even if she truly believed that my son had no chance at all, is it completely necessary to make that thought so blatantly obvious to me? Well I know this has been kind of a rant but seeing that TV special just brought up all that. I guess I need to ask God to help me forgive that woman for her harsh behavior toward me, praise Him for using his hands to separate those twins and ask him to remind me that He's still in control.