A Family....

Every year the women in my family (19 this year) go on a retreat to Mo Ranch in Hunt, TX. There are no televisions, no cell phones (no reception at least), no children (unless babies) and no husbands. The trip gives us an opportunity to get to know each other... and it is often the only time we get to see each other in a year. Here are a few of the great moments of the trip:

I got to ride down with my cousin's wife (Brooke) again this year. We got to Tuscola and saw this cute little convertible bug and Brooke suggested that we turn around and go get her Dad's porche. Who could say no to that?! It made the trip even more fun... driving down the road in a black, convertible porsche. We cracked up as we looked through her Dad's CD collection... one of the CD's had "Your so Vain" on it. So fitting as we drove down the road in the porsche. At least we knew that the people looking our way were looking at the porsche and not us!

This is the first year that we went in May... which means it was the first year that the water was warm enough for us to go. Mo Ranch has this huge slide... 38' high... that we stare at each year and say we want to try. This year we had no excuses... we did it. Well... only 6 of us did it... but I was one of the 6. It was awesome! Glad we did it... won't do it again. I hate the feeling of water going up my nose and I think half of the river went up my nose as I skidded across the water on the little board. You can see the slide at moranch.com... its called the MO-Slide! HA

We sat around both nights until midnight or later. It made for great conversation! I learned so much from these women that I only see once or twice a year. I got great marriage, parenting, and spiritual advice from women who have done it before and were very honest about their own screw ups! Our new motto... what happens at Mo Ranch stays at Mo Ranch! One of my cousin's was telling us that as she loaded the car her husband said "all ya'll do is talk about us"... if he only knew!

Our retreat is in honor of my great grandma... Maggie... and we refer to ourselves as Maggie's girls. Great-grandma was a women we should all strive to be like. Family was important to her, and before she passed she made her children promise to continue having family reunions. The women in the family took her idea a step farther and started this retreat. We have done it for about 6 years (I think!). Our motto for next year is "we take the party with us" so... that should tell you what our trip is like. Can't wait until next year!

The pictures below are of the different generations.