Texas Day 2

Here we are, the group of us for our "Porch Swing " picture. We had just finished a delicious breakfast prepared for us by Stacy's husband, Darren. Kristi had taken Melissa and Sarah down to the Stockade grounds again to pick up some souvenirs (the 'good' shop was closed the night before). Many thanks to Sarah who picked up a branding iron for me! Once Tiff arrived we were all set to go!

Yes, that is a U-Haul! Sheri hitched it to her husband's pick up truck to accommodate all of the scrap-crap being brought to the retreat! It saved bringing two extra vehicles, and with the cost of gas it was a brilliant idea. In our little caravan there was also a fully loaded Suburban.

On our way through Waco we went to visit our friend Melissa who had just had her baby a week or so before we descended on her. Melissa looks BEAUTIFUL as always and the baby is simply gorgeous. She has her hands full with the baby and her two energetic pre-schoolers!

Attractive, eh? Can you tell I was pooped. Ah well, just resting my eyes ;) If there was ever any doubt that cell phone cameras were dangerous ... here is one such example!

With a quick stop for food, gas and WINE (there will be a separate post) we headed off to the retreat centre: Summer's Mill located on 35 between Waco and Austin. We aimed for 3PM when the scrap room was open and arrived sometime around 4PM or so to an incredible site. The rooms were phenomenal, big and clean. The scrap room was like none I had ever been in before. HUGE and bright, really bright. Each of us had an 8 foot table to ourselves! Waiting for me at my table was a gift from Kuleen (Kermit) my table mate from the SSTX4 retreat in November with all method of opening a screw top bottle as she remembered I had issues before and Stacy had to use some awl to open my wine last time! It was a very thoughtful and kind gesture - and the first time K had every altered anything. She did a beautiful job.

Dinner was Mexican. Have I mentioned yet how my system is not accustomed to Mexican? Or how spicy is infused into everything in Texas? "Oh, it's not hot" really means "You poor Canadian will never be the same"! At the risk of TMI: my butt will never recover.

Dinner was followed by at 2-mile walk around the grounds along one of the planned walking trails. It was beautiful. I don't know that Melissa was thrilled: between her being motion sick and her allergies having her sneeze and sniffle throughout the weekend, walking through fields may not have been the best thing for her to do! Our group split into fast, not so fast and stroll. I was with Desi, Lissa and Kermit (Kuleen) in the stroll group: walk and talk, walk and talk!

My roomie, Tiffany, turned into a pumpkin and was already back in our room before we got back from the walk around 8PM. I managed to make it to 1 or 2 in the morning and made a good first stab at getting my photos organized in iPhoto. Only 4,000 left to go!