Childfree Nights & Firsts

Steve and I got to go up to Edmonton this weekend. My mom is a saint for taking the girls all by herself while my Dad took my brother down to school and picked my sister up. Overnights when you're outnumbered are sometimes really scary, but I'm so thankful that the girls behaved and that Mom survived!
Friday night some of my girlfriends got together and we enjoyed a night of freedom from our kids. We purposely met at the food court and enjoyed not sharing our food, then we perused the mall without any little people running away/throwing a fit/trying to escape from strollers. It was a great contrast to the previous day when Steve had the idea to take a family trip to the mall and well... it didn't go so great... Anyways, it was almost sensory overload for me, since I had nobody to focus on I had no idea what to focus on. Scary mall place. We decided to stop at claire's and goof off there, since it's perfectly acceptable to try on giant football sized flower headbands and giggle like teenagers in that store. It was great start to our evening. After that we headed home to hang out in the basement and eat junk. That was pretty fun too, interesting how the conversations have changed since we were teenagers though. It was also great to get some insight into what was really going on sometimes, in those years when we weren't all as close, etc... It gave me a lot more of an appreciation for the women these friends have become in spite of some really big trials and triumphs. I love those girls so much and although it was a really late night, I'm so glad that we spent that time together, it was 100% worth it.
On Saturday Steve and I got to enjoy going to the Edmonton Temple with his family- Megan gets married next weekend so this was her first time. It was such a perfect day and I felt like heaven was so close while we were there. It was pretty neat. It's not very often that Steve and I get to go, but even more rare that we get to go with grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc... I may or may not have been slightly emotional, but that visual makes it really hard to want to strive for anything else but that happy heavenly reunion with the people that were physically and spiritually present that day. That overwhelming feeling of love is something I wish I was more constantly aware of, and is something I really hope my children feel from me.
The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying family and friends at the bridal shower and hammering out plans for the coming week. I love wedding weeks, the excitement and anticipation leading up to the big day. People doing so much to help make your day special, etc... There's just so much love and once you've been on the receiving end of that, it's so fun to be able to be involved with creating that feeling for someone else. We are really looking forward to Friday and to welcoming another great "in-law" to our club.