A fun, very fast, and fabulous forty-eight hours in Utah

It was a fast and fully-packed 48 hours to Utah.  I arrived on Thursday night and stayed up WAY too late talking with my sister.  The next morning we (including my friend Danee) went to breakfast with my grandparents, brother, Nathan and his girlfriend, Alyssa, and her darling little girl, Bentley.

 

  I have been so excited to meet Alyssa and Bentley!  You see, I had her soon to be engagement ring in my possession!  It was my job to get it from my sister and get it to Nathan without her noticing.  We did it without a hitch, no pun intended.  Breakfast was delightful.  We visited and I too fell in love with this darling girl that Nathan has found.  I am so excited to have her in our family.  We are also so excited to get a little cousin!  The kids and I had made Bentley a small book with their photos and some things about them, what they like to do, etc.  We had such a fun time making it and Bentley loved it. 

 After breakfast Danee and I packed up our things and headed to Summit Park where our weekend retreat would be at Richard and Linda Eyre’s home. 

It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of new snow, making everything so pretty (I can say that because I don’t have to drive in it very often).  After years of reading several of the Eyre's books and blog, admiring the children they have raised (especially working with Saren and loving her sisters blog’s) being at their home was almost unreal.  It was so fun.  Their home is gorgeous and as you can imagine, big enough to host a large group (they have nine children). Here I am with one of my "Mother Heros", Linda Eyre.

  We helped get some things set up and I helped shuttle women from the parking lot two miles. It was fun to chat with the Moms who came and feel of their energy and excitement.  Charity (the youngest daughter and retreat "go-to girl") was so cute coordinating everything and was really fun to get to know a little. Here she is greeting everyone with her big sign and even bigger smile.  She's single and if one of my brothers don't marry her, then she's available and a REAL catch!

 Next we all gathered to hear a seminar on Mind Organization for Moms by April Perry  This is a great time management and organization help (based on David Allen’s book, "Getting Things Done") specifically for Moms.  She did a great job presenting this and I’m excited to dig in and get my paperwork set up with a better system.  She finished at 4:00 and I drove Danee back into Salt Lake to meet my sister. I headed back up for our Power of Moms dinner and board meeting.  I had a wonderful night with these AMAZING women.  

 We sat around for a few hours and it was so incredible and inspiring.  Power of Moms is growing quickly with many programs underway and more on the way.  It was so powerful to be together in person and bounce ideas off of each other and learn ways to better support each other in our specific roles.  We were up late talking and getting everything ready for the next day when 100 women were coming for the Power of Mom’s retreat.

               I stayed the night at the Eyre's home and was up early (beating the shower rush) and helped get ready for the Saturday retreat.

It was such a fantastic day!   

 We heard some wonderful and inspiring presentations from Linda and Richard Eyre, April Perry, the Eyre daughters (Saren, Saydi ,and Shawni),  Allyson Reynolds, Amanda Wilkinson.  I hope to catch up on a few posts and then share some of my notes and thoughts.  Until then, all of them have posts on their blogs to check out.  Being with these women was so fun.  

We heard some words of wisdom from Richard Eyre (great tips for sharing this info with husbands) and I loved watching him watch his girls and wife with such admiration.  He sat here on his little perch (balcony off his bedroom) and occasionally add his opinion and validation to what was being said.  It was so cute.

I got to take a small part in the day and lead a lunch time discussion on finding "joy in motherhood".  Yes, all mothers are different and have different situations, strengths, challenges, marriages, children, etc., but I was so inspired by their desire to find happiness in doing the most important work of mothering.  (Here I am on the right, next to me is the darling Utah Young Mother of the Year - good thing I didn't know that until today, ha ha!)

Before I left I got a quick picture with Saren and April, the founders of Power of Moms.  It was so fun to meet them in person.  They truly are awesome, powerful women.

 I left with pages full of notes and my mind swimming with thoughts and ideas.  I was inspired and motivated.  I am a deliberate mother and will never be the same.  

P.S. Thinking of going to a retreat?  There is another similar one in May, here is the info.