Camp Nakanawa

So, this past weekend I went on a spur of the moment 'womens retreat' (no boys and no kids. seriously, there wasn't even a baby. i was surprised) for church. I only decided the week before that I would go cause I didn't want to drive to Crossville Tennessee by myself (hour 45min north east) AND I had never been there. Mike agreed to keep the kids for his first overnight by himself with either of them. Anyway, I just needed to get away all the sudden and the thought of getting to canoe on the beautiful lake I had heard of was calling my name. I only knew 2 others were going at first and later 4 but knew it didn't matter cause I needed the trip for me to recharge my batteries after a hectic last 3 months (surprise newborn and all). The overnight started at 3pm Friday night and would end Saturday at 3pm. I couldn't leave till after work at 5pm with my 2 passengers and new bffs ;) but we prayed we'd still make it for 7pm chow time. he he he. We totally did! What was better there were way more people there that I didn't know would be there and they saved us bunks in their cabin, whoo hoo (although later I think a few regretted this. he he he he)! So we were in Cabin 18 and it was divine. After dinner was a quick and quirky uplifting meeting given by one of our local leaders and his wife. I caught up with some friends and aquaintances that didn't know I had a new baby so I got to brag on her a bit then it was off to rain sprinkling on the bon fire for SMORES. :) yummy. Back at our cabin, we had a fun time telling our worst date, chatting about life, text talking and laughing. It was so nice to visit with everyone that way because at church, we are busy and reverently going from task to task but here on the overnight it's for letting your hair down. I could only do what any reasonable person would do... I performed my old Go Fight WIN cheer from High School, a basket ball cheer called Dribble Shoot and as a freebee, did a 'hurkey' for the first time. Oh and let's not forget spirit fingers. :) Anyway, we all about settled down at 230am! I however could NOT sleep and was praying multiple times for sleep to overcome me. It did not work and at around 330 I started playing battleship on my phone then emailing Michael from my phone to tell him that dispite having a GREAT time, I don't have a pillow, my sweater is making a horrible replacement and conducting heat, people are breathing heavily or snoring (which i'm used to with Mike but don't have a pillow to put over my head, then it was downpour raining, everytime someone moved their bed squeaked and it was all amplified cause I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep for goodness sakes! lol. Anyway, in the middle of emailing him inside my sleeping bag, trying to be quiet and not light up the room... suddenly, I got a text from across the room. Linda was up and said, "I see you glowing over there". I was soooooooooooo relieved I could 'talk' to someone so we texted back n' forth for about 15 min. I saw Rachel glowing too so I texted her also. I admit, giggled once then we both went out to the bathroom. When we got back, I think she tripped and we giggled again and Linda got BUSTED and told to (shh). Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. BUSTED!!! Anyway, I was alone again after that and tried to play Hearts or Battleship during the monsoon that ensued. Finally after 4am I fell asleep!!! Yikes. Only to be woke up at 630am by a woman from another cabin walking by outside, talking at full voice saying "IT LOOKS LIKE ITS GOING TO BE A REALLY NICE DAY OUT!" That was it, I was now up after 2 1/2 hours of sleep but a thing about me, I'm happy when I'm up so I just made the best of it. Still raining but on and off light rain, I went out to take pictures of the grounds. The lake looked beautiful (i'm sad i didn't take a new picture once the rain stopped and sun came out :(.) and women were out and about, fishing, writing in journals, reading books on the rocking chair porch and going on walks as everyone slowly woke up for breakfast to start at 8am. Breakfast was yummy, I left soon after to go read over my sunday school lesson for the next day and then some of my friends came over to rock my car (where I was reading). They were ready to have fun, even though it was still raining but they had ponchos on and were going to defy the weather. I couldn't resist so I went with them. It seemed as though there would be no canoeing sadly as I looked forward to that the most. We took a walk around the grounds and found a tetherball court. I basically whipped my new muse, Linda and it hurt her, bad. :) he he he. I got to know Emily who is new to our area and we all shared stories about this and that. Whomever was wearing my cowboy hat, 'had the floor'. Lucky for us, when we got back to the boat house, the sun was out! We decided quickly to get a paddle boat although, we decided to put all 4 of us in it and it was comical cause we were just going in circles! We went back and traded it in for canoes and I was in HEAVEN! It felt like Girls Camp type of thing all over again. Although, we NEVER stayed somewhere this nice. It just reminded me of my sister Katrina cause she loved camp, couldn't wait for me to go and love it too and always made it fun. I wish you were there with me Katrina, next year, come to visit the second weekend in September and we are sooo there! Linda and I 'raced' Stacey and Emily and again, totally schooled them, he he he. We had such a great time. We even got a tan after the sun came out and it was breezy so it was just wonderful. I can't wait to go again next year and hope you want to come to, anyone can whether you are LDS or not, we all just have to pay the fee for the grounds/meals. Anyway, here is the photos I wanted to share....

Itasca imparting her wisdom to everyone. We are rivited!

My friend Rachel, also our babysitter before C.G. joined us.

Vivian, isn't this an awesome picture!?

Emily, Linda (she doesn't know how to make a serious face as you will see throughout! lol), Stacey as we were all talking. 2nd pic is 630am when everyone was in denial about waking up. Beverly is glowing in the back corner, she was up all night too but I couldn't text her cause I didn't have her number :(.

1. cool pic of leaves on the steps with boat house in back drop 2. the boat launch. Both pics are between rain storms.

blurring self portrait with 'the hat" and.... GO DODGERS! :)

This is the wig wam where we had our meeting and social on Friday night.

Ahhhh....

The coolest cabin in town basically, #18!

1. Linda with her famous face pulling. 2. Emily ROCKING "the hat". Amazing!

Breakfast with the group. Clockwise from me: Lila, Beverly, Itasca, Heather, Vivian, Stacey, Michelle, Linda, Emily and Rachel.

Braving the rain!! Lila, Stacey, Linda (with an almost normal face. ha ha ha) and Emily!

Teammates for life baby!

Before they left on their 3 hour tour... :) Seriously Linda, you are killing me! You are hilariously and seriously like a 7 year old boy with all these faces! bah ha ha ha ha ha. (I can't stop giggling at all these faces). Stacey, you look AWESOME in 'the hat'! xoxo

this was my view and somehow when they took a picture of us, it didn't take ;( so you didn't get to see how awesome Stacey and I looked. ;)

Anyway, I cannot wait till next year already and hope even more ladies go. :) Thank you Michael for encouraging me to go! xoxo

,,d...........d../.;/'c`":;> (evan's "wonderful" contribution to this post. also i'm pretty sure he tried to hack into my friend Rachel's blog. so sorry!)