The Annual Gala Girls Week

This is another wordy post :)

The background story: Every summer my BFF, Ruth Melvin, and I try to get together for a girls week without any kids or husbands. We were able to go to Women's Conference in 1996, and after that we were so busy with missions and weddings and grandbabies our time off was spent being responsible. We joked that we should just meet in Barstow --- since she lives in Las Vegas it's a bit more than the half way mark for her and less for me. We finally did it a few years ago and had a blast. We stayed at a bargain hotel in Barstow and turned the thermostat down as low as we wanted 24/7. In addition to fabulous A/C, our room had a frig and a microwave, plus the hotel had a pool and an ice machine, so we were set. We both filled our cars with scrapbook stuff and had a lovely, lovely time. We did it again the next year and then 3 years ago we actually got to go to the beach for our gala week as a 50th birthday present from Craig and the kids.

Since then, we've been back to being responsible with our last two missionaries and a few more grandbabies. When we started out our adventure, between us we had 2 returned missionaries and Ruth had one in the field. Since then we have added 5 return missionaries, 5 daughter-in-loves, 2 son-in-loves and 16 grandchildren, with 4 more on the way!!!(Melissa is due any day now).

Needless to say, our time for gala weeks has been challenged by our adorable, growing families as well as our tight budgets. This year it looked like we weren't going to be able to get away, especially now that Ruth's parents live in her home and she lovingly cares for them full time. It had been much too long since the two of us had spent time together, so I brilliantly thought of just picking up Ruth and whisking her off for a few days someplace close by. Ruth got on the computer and found the perfect place.
We ended up spending Mon-Thurs this week at the Casablanca in beautiful downtown Mesquite. We got a bargain rate on our room which overlooked this glorious, waterfall-filled pool. We opted out of scrapbooking this time and instead laid by the pool, swam, napped, ate, read, shopped, and had the best time catching up. Ruth surprised me with tickets to see the musical Footloose, at Tuacan in St. George one night. ( just about 40 minutes away). It was a darling play and it was a treat to see Thayne Jasperson in the lead. He was on So You Think You Can Dance last summer, Season 4. The 80's music and dancing were so much fun.

One afternoon we went to the movies and saw "My Life in Ruins" which made us decide to set our sights a bit higher and try a trip to Greece one of these years. Craig and Dwight might have to join us for that one.

On Thursday afternoon I dropped Ruth off in Vegas and headed home to California where I spent a lovely hour in a huge thunderstorm, going 35 miles per hour. The lightning and the thunder were amazing and the air smelled so good. I do love the rain and a good thunderstorm!

It was good to get back home to Craig and his warm welcome. . .because the day I left the air conditioner in our house died, and they couldn't get us in the schedule to replace it until Monday, July 27. The A/C guy spent an hour trying to repair it, but because it's over 30 years old, the time has sadly come to replace it. The good news is the new unit will hopefully be more energy efficient and cost less to run. The bad news is that the weather has been hot and humid all week.

Yesterday was overcast in the morning so that kept things cool for a while, and then we spent the afternoon reading and then went out to dinner. Today we went out to lunch and saw 2 movies. Fortunately, we've got a cold snap tonight and it's only 90 outside with a decent breeze. At the worst, it was 87 in the house downstairs and upstairs it's 10 degrees hotter. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for air conditioning and for gala girls weeks!!!