A WICKED girls trip!

This past weekend was our "Wicked" girls trip. It was a blast! We left early, about 7:00am! Leslie drove and Olivia, Erin and Nicole and I rode together on the way there. We had a fun time talking about anything and everything! Great therapy!! We got to the outlet stores, right out of Palm Springs, around noon. We shopped, had lunch and shopped some more. I went to the Coach store with Nicole and wasn't able to maintain much self control. I don't know why I'm obsessed with those dumb purses!! I ended up getting another purse. It was white, so I was trying to justify that it was for spring/summer. Luckily Ben bought Play Station 3 while I was gone, so once I found that out he didn't have much to say. I finally found a nice sweater jacket at one of the stores there, and it went perfectly with my outfit for the show. That was all I bought at the outlets, for myself. I found some other things that the kids needed, and just enjoyed running around with everyone else. I was just enjoying shopping with girlfriends, without the kids!!

Erin, Olivia, Leslie and I at the Outlets!...Thanks Nicole for taking the picture!

We got to the hotel around 5:45. Leslie, Erin, Nicole and I shared a room. We all hurried to freshen up for the play, and headed out for dinner around 6:00. We ate a nice little Italian restaurant a couple blocks from the theatre. We were all at different tables, because they didn't have one for all of us. Nicole and I sat together at a two top right next to five other girls. It was nice because since there were only two of us at the table, we got everything really fast!! The food was very good, and the service was friendly. One of the waiters kept calling one of our friends "bella" (beautiful, in Italian)!

The show started at 8:00, and we made it there in plenty of time. While we were waiting for it to start, there was a couple in front of us that was quite entertaining. The girlfriend blindfolded her boyfriend to surprise him. We were all wondering how excited he would really be about the whole thing. We all thought it would be a much better surprise for a girl than a boy!

When the lights went down and the music started, I was so excited!! The play was great! The singing was a little better the first time I saw it, but it was still wonderful. It was hard not to sing along this time!! Everyone loved it, but how couldn't they? I'm excited to see it again with the kids!

After the play, we were all pretty tired. We headed back to the hotel, and Erin wasn't feeling very well. She went right to bed, and we followed soon after. I took and Ambein to make sure I wouldn't have problems sleeping. I warned the girls that I would knock out in the middle of conversation. Apparently, another room called and I answered and talked to Trina and Karolyn for about 15 minutes. I didn't remember doing that! I don't think I'll be taking one of those on a plane, EVER!

Saturday morning we left the hotel around 9:30 and headed over to the Beverly Center (a big mall). We all had breakfast there, which took about an hour. It was just a little shop in the food court, and I don't think they are used to 11 orders all at once. So it took them FOREVER to prepare our food. I got an omelet, which was yummy. I think at that point, anything was going to be good! LOL After breakfast we all headed to H&M to do some serious shopping. I bought a few things there, but really scored at Forever 21. After shopping at the Beverly Center, we split off and one car went home and ours stayed for some shopping at the District (It's like Tijuana)! Nicole was a saint to do all the downtown driving, and helped us find our way there. It was much better than I imagined it too be. Quite fun, actually! There was defiantly some interesting stores, like this formal store. And many interesting people and merchandise! There was also some great knock offs!! I ended up with a cute travel bag. If there was more room I would have bought Aubrie a cute brown and pink polka dot suitcase, for our Carolina trip. If I could go back I would have bought a Tiffany silver necklace I kept looking at! I'm sure Ben is glad I didn't!! We left the district around 4:00 and headed out of LA. About and hour out, we had dinner at Chevy's. We ended up getting home around midnight! I was so tired, but it was a great drive. Just 6 solid hours of girl talk, uninterrupted!!! It felt like my college days, again! It would have been fun to have them as roomies!! The whole trip was so wonderful. I'm already thinking about what we can do next year!! How about a weekend cruise!!?? LOL

Saturday night, Aubrie's ear was hurting her. Sunday, it was worse! How can my kids keep getting sick every weekend. If people didn't know us better, they would think we were purposely trying to ditch. I'm just feeling so frustrated that they keep getting sick. I'm going to start washing bedding every other day! (OK not really, becuz that's CRAZY!) But come one...will it ever end? I guess I can't complain, they could be getting sick with something much worse. So I'll count my blessings and name them one by one. Anyway, Ben has already missed Elders Quorum the past two weeks, but I didn't want to miss out on a song the YW were doing in sacrament and Erin's YW lesson. I realized they really didn't need my voice that bad, and new Erin would do a wonderful job without me, so I told Ben he better go, especially since he didn't know if he had the lesson...silly boy! Actually he can teach at the last minute and still do a great job. LUCKY! The rest of the day was pretty laid back becuz Ethan and Aubrie had to relax and get better.

Today the kids had their first day of Spring Break. Boston slept till 8:45 and Ethan slept until 9:30! Too bad Sophia got up at 6:00!!! They started their day with chores and then the boys played outside most of the day, while Aubrie stayed in and watched The Little House on the Prairie shows. My Mom bought the first season, and Aubrie has been loving them! I'm loving that she loves them. They teach such great lessons, and I actually have seen a difference in her since she started watching them. I think she is trying to be like Mary, her and Bostons favorite character. Boston like her because she has pretty blue eyes. The shows are also getting her excited to read her Little House on the Prarie Books. She stared one tonight! I hope this will get her more excited to read! Today I took the kids to Target really quick, for some much needed groceries and Easter stuff for friends. While we were there, I bought a poster board for each one of the kids. The kids wrote Ben a note on each one of them and put them in his office. He was having a bad day, so we wanted to cheer him up. It worked and the kids had fun doing it.

For dinner, we went to Texas Road House. We told them it was Ethan's birthday, and they tried to get him up on the saddle and sing to him. He was too shy! Funny kid! He wasn't too shy to eat the ice cream, though! For FHE I did the Easter egg kit, I do ever year, on the Resurrection. This time I hid the eggs in a room and had them look for them. Then the kids would open their eggs in order. It was a fun to do it that way, especially since Aubrie and Boston could read their own! They also helped one another get the same amount of eggs. That was refreshing!! Of course, that was after I talked to them about how brothers and sisters are gifts from Heavenly Father and compared that to how do they treat worldly gifts. They got the point, I think!

BUBBLES....Sophia's newest favorite thing! It's funny because she tries to eat them!