Girls Weekend Away!

"Princesses"

and

"Color Me Beautiful"

For all you old-timers out there who remember the Color Me Beautiful book...

this was our theme for the weekend.

While we all know that real beauty comes from within and that a very 'beautiful' woman can appear as very unbecoming if she has an ungodly character and 'common-looking' women can appear so beautiful when they glow with Godly character, sometimes I fear we have neglected to allow ourselves to enjoy womanly beauty, in fear of becoming proud.

In hopes that we used it in balance, we had a delightful time exploring our colors: 

are we springs, summers, autumns, or falls?

Let us begin.  We sponsor ladies were planning to leave several hours ahead of the girls to prepare their rooms and get ourselves settled in before the girls arrived.  To our surprise, when the girls found out we were leaving early, they asked to come, too!  We didn't mind at all so all who could get off work early left around 3:00 p.m.  Our standing joke rule was that the 3:05er's would be coming with the 6:00 load.

We loaded up and arrived at Hampton Inn. 

Four girls to a room kept our prices very reasonable.  We assigned everyone to their rooms earlier that week so everyone knew ahead of time who they would be rooming with.  We also assigned a group/room devotions person for each room to be in charge of  a time of sharing and prayer in each room.

We made the girls stay in one room while we went into each room and added some special touches.  

By each pillow we put a personal size sparkling grape juice bottle, 

a small goblet filled with chocolates, and a glittering princess stick. 

We had a weekend of many 'blonde' moments!  

The first began when we got in the elevator to head for the third floor.  Chatting excitedly we waited and waited for the doors to open and let us out.  Alas, one of the girls finally asked if anyone had pushed the button.......No, no one had so we were still on ground level waiting to go up!  Had this happened once, no problem.....but I know of at least three times that this exact incidence happened!  Now I will try to be very discreet with names here, so I won't get in trouble for identifying which age group had the most problems with remembering things!  I did see one age group stand at the elevator doors for awhile waiting, then they knocked to see if it would open.  I also saw a  person try to open a motel door with a remote from her car keys.  I also saw tears rolling down several people's faces as they laughed themselves silly.

Bob Evans was within walking distance of our motel so after some of them swimming, cleaning up, etc. 

we had a good dinner at Bob Evans Restaurant.  

The 6:00 group arrived and settled in and by 8:30 we were ready to start our "Color Me Beautiful" session.

We purchased 1/2 yard pieces of fabric ahead of time and had four samples of each season plus a few more.  We had each girl take a turn setting on a chair in front of all the others while we held different colors of fabrics to them and enjoyed seeing the differences it made in their skin tones, eyes, and hair.  I won't show any pics of them because most of them didn't turn out too flattering! 

The first thing to discover is whether you look better in warm tones (golds, creams, etc.)

or cool tones (silvers, whites, etc.) 
 By the way, only winters can truly wear black.

The motel staff treated us very well and allowed us to use a room they normally wouldn't have allowed people to use other than for breakfast.  

We soon discovered the motel was quite understaffed, well, actually, we discovered that most of Brandon is understaffed!!  We waited and waited and waited everywhere we went.

Yep, 16 girls........one room!

We took time out to watch the high wire walker walk across Niagara Falls.

Saturday morning after waiting and waiting on breakfast...........

we left for the mall.  We shopped at Ross first,
 then Homegoods, then Brandon Mall.

So many stores........so little time!

We ate lunch together at the Food Court then spread out through out the mall until a designated time.  
Then we got lost, got lost again,
 made some loops around parking lots, 

I guess that's letting out enough secrets about how 
directionally challenged we were...

and then on to Ikea......or wait, we thought we were.....
okay, we tried.

Finally, a younger member of the group took the lead in our caravan of vehicles and at last, we see Ikea on the horizon, right off to our side, all we needed to do was exit off the express way.

How we bragged on her until...........

she flew right past the exit......... so the caravan followed!!

No problem though, she just flies right on to the next exit, makes some turns confidently(the caravan questioningly follows) 

and back on the expressway we go.

At last, we really did pull into the parking lot of Ikea.

Again so much store.....so little time!  :) 

Most of the day we ran at least three hours behind our
 suggested schedule but no one minded. 
 It was a very relaxed and flexible time for all of us.

After shopping til we almost dropped

we went home to rest just a bit before our evening dinner out.

Need I tell you that we had a fine looking bunch of young ladies

all dressed up for dinner at Olive Garden?!

Look at them in their "colors"!!

Our beverages appeared........

But because Brandon is "under staffed".....

..... later our breadsticks.......

and quite awhile later our salads........

and awhile awhile later our dinners!

One dear soul was o so hungry, she ate before she prayed!

Much chagrined at herself she quickly prayed before the next bite could jump in her mouth!!  :)

Now the stories being told at this table are all under lock and key!!

Nope, no telling!!!

Next on our 'schedule' was foot soaks and scrubs for everyone!

By this time it was about 10:30 p.m. 

and most of the girls were very tired!

Us 'older' ladies thought maybe we should just save 

the soaks and scrubs for another time 

but the vote was "No, let's do them tonight!"

Uh-huh.........16 of them!!

So after changing into p.j.'s.........

the pampering began!

Tubs filled with hot water, scented epsom salts and scrubs, 

heated rocks, warm towels......

they really were princesses!

Armed with their goblets of sparkling grape juice 

our room began to fill up....

(are you serious?! some of you knocked at the wrong door?!)

Good evening, princesses! Welcome to our salon!

For your epsom salt soak, 

would you like the eucalyptus scent or the lavender?

For the scrub, you may have your choice of lavender 

or sweet jasmine scent...

A couple of them took the 'princess' thing to heart 

and even began to demand for refills!!

Oh well, let them be real princesses for the night!!

What a sisterhood they had!!  

When the tickle became more than one could bear

all the others shared her giggles and one even held her hand!!

"....Ahhh, I could get used to this!"

From Station 1 where they got their soaks and scrubs

they moved to Station 2 where they got their feet lotioned!

and Station 3 was shoulder massages...

...and from there this zombie look came over them 

and they looked so relaxed!

Our room smelled like a salon all weekend!! 

Sunday morning we all moved down to an end room 

and two of the girls were in charge

of our worship and sharing time.

Wow!  What a time we had!  

How would I ever describe it in words?!

Wish you could have been there!

Music that gave you goosebumps.......

Prayer....

Sharing from the hearts....

more prayer and sharing....

Crying...

(out of Kleenex's (understaffed) so used a roll of toilet paper)

Hugs....

Smiles...

Love....

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together

with cords that cannot be broken!

And then it was time to clean up, pack up, load up, and leave.

I was so blessed by the girls who left tracts 

of "Steps to Peace with God" in their rooms

 along with hand scribbled Thank You notes 

and chocolates for the cleaners!

All weekend we were aware that we were not there

by coincidence but by appointment.

We knew that from staff to clerks

we were there as Christ's ambassadors.

We had lunch at Applebee's, 

one stop at McDonald's for ice cream 

and then the journey home!

I love each one of these ladies who were along this weekend

and pray God gives them the desires of their hearts 

as they continue to SEEK God and

FOLLOW Him with all their hearts!

(and by the way, they voted in the foot soaks 

and scrubs as an annual thing!)

....and as you can clearly see.......

....their behavior began to rapidly deteriorate as time went on!!!!

Time to get them back home to catch up on their sleep!!