Girls Weekend 2016

Before we even left Shreveport last year, plans were already in the works for Girls Weekend 2016!

Last year's posts can be found at the following...

Girls Weekend 2015-Part 1 

Girls Weekend 2015-Part 2

We knew it would be in October, just like last year. And had planned on it being during Taron's fall break again. But by the time we started discussing dates, Josh already had a trip planned to go to Utah the same weekend as her break. So it was back to the drawing board. Taron and I talked about a few options and I came up with the idea to have it in El Reno and all of us just stay at Mimi's house together. This way Taron could go back and forth to school as she needed (and we could all get together on Thursday instead of Friday evening), and then we could put the money that we would have spent on a hotel room towards a plane ticket to fly Aunt Bit to Oklahoma! The plan sounded like a winner to Taron and I, and we ran it past Aunt Susan, who agreed it sounded great! And when I was in Oklahoma in September, we ran it past Mimi and she was IN! The only thing we had to do was figure out a way to get Bit to Oklahoma. So we started looking at flights, and Aunt Bonnie graciously offered up some of her frequent flyer miles to us! YEA! So we booked the flight....THEN we called Bit to tell her! :) ha! We knew she wouldn't want us to do all of that unless it was already done! And finally it was all set and ready to go! We just needed time to hurry so that we could ALL be together!

Weeks and DOZENS of text messages passed and it was finally GO time!
I had my snack basket all packed and ready to go!

And by 7:30 am, I was on the road and headed north!

Because you can't take a road trip without a selfie to send to everyone!!
And without caffeine...

Caffeine and a monogram...my Aunt Bit was so proud.

I finally saw the Country Club Rd exit about 11:30. Just the sight of that sign made my heart warm. I was only minutes from my happy place! And I knew that my Mimi, Taron, Aunt Bit, and Aunt Susan were there waiting on me!
The first thing on our agenda was SIDS. We are Johnsons and we had our priorities in order! And you can't go to SIDS without taking pictures of your food and super awkward pictures of yourself putting bites of food in your mouth and sending it to the rest of the family! It's a rule.

Mimi looks a little concerned that we have started with the selfies so very early in the weekend...

See? Awkward eating selfies. It's like I forget who I am when SIDS is involved.

This face? I have no idea. But I love her anyway!

I love my Aunt Bit with all my heart.

 Next up was a trip to the grocery store so that we could get what we needed for the weekend. I had given Mimi specific instructions not to go buy food and stuff because it wasn't her job to feed us all weekend. I'm not sure she listened completely, but she did listen some!(I'll take what I can get). So we all headed into Wal-Mart. Since popcorn and movies were on the agenda, Taron and I picked up an important staple...

We thought everyone ate pickles with their popcorn....we soon learned the rest of our family thought we were nuts.

Our grocery run consisted of way more laughs than I have ever had inside Wal-Mart. I'm telling you, there is never a dull moment in this family. While discussing our evening plans, there was talk of tattoos, if Mimi should get one, and WHERE she should get it! (I won't even tell you WHERE she thought she should get it....) Y'all- I laughed until I cried in the check out line! And the fun had only just begun!
We got home, unloaded the groceries, and quickly all voted that it was time for pajamas! I mean, it was 3 pm and all.... and a movie was about to be started!
After much discussion, Driving Miss Daisy was our first movie of choice! And it was a good choice for sure! Aunt Bonnie arrived about mid way through our movie, and quickly jumped on the pajama bandwagon and took her place in the recliner and joined us for movie night.
During one of our intermissions from movie marathon, our world got a little shaken. A phone call revealing some very upsetting news was received. And through the uncertainty and pain that followed, I was reminded what a blessing this family really is to each other. We quickly rallied around Aunt Susan and prayed. We prayed from the bottoms of our souls and with everything we had in us. We cried together. We hugged. We supported. Most of all, we were there for her and for each other, as we would continue to be in the weeks ahead. And while all of our worlds were a little shaken, we didn't let sadness and worry overtake us. How? Because of FAITH. Faith in knowing that God is in control. Faith in knowing that He will take care of us. Faith in knowing that no matter what obstacle is thrown your way, you have a family that is always in your corner to fight your battles with you. And you know what else we did? We laughed. A lot. It's what we do. And when have you ever not felt better after laughing?? Never! And even though it was hard, we carried on with our weekend of fun confident in the fact that God had placed us all there together at that time for a reason.
We passed out the gifts we had gotten each other. We never discuss gifts, some of us just find things that we want us all to have. This year I put together a little bag that had a box with a cute saying and a plastic cup that said "Girls just want to have fun".

Aunt Bit got us all princess party hats, and Aunt Susan got us all crown charms!

We watched another movie (or 2), ate dinner, and just enjoyed being together that night. It was great. Aunt Susan chose to go home that night to be with uncle Dave, which we all understood, and Aunt Bonnie turned in for the night while Taron, Bit, Mimi and I all stayed up for another movie. Pretty sure that late night was Mimi's idea. She's always a bad influence on us. Won't let us get our beauty sleep. Or maybe she's just a good sport and doesn't want to miss out on any of the fun! It's one of those things for sure....
On Friday morning, we took it slow. I asked Mimi several times if we could stay in our pajamas until noon, and she assured me we could! We got up and got the coffee flowing. Priorities people. Priorities.

Aaahhhh....my happy place.

We all sat around and visited over coffee and breakfast and more coffee. Aunt Susan finally returned to the party, so we were just waiting on Kellye. Taron had to go to class that morning, so she got dressed. Bit dressed and went with her. Finally about 12:30, Mimi and I decided we had met our goal and it was time to face the day and get dressed. I honestly think one of my favorite parts of being at Mimi's house is the fact that there is no hurry for anything. We do what we want. Such a change of pace from my normal, and it is wonderful!
I think this may be the best photo I captured of the weekend...

When you get a new selfie stick, you gotta try it out!
After Kellye arrived, and Taron and Bit returned, we all set out for some SHOPPING!
For some reason, we let Aunt Susan be our chauffeur despite her challenge with directions.

The back seat crew.

But we couldn't leave out the front seat crew! Selfie Stick time!!

Eyes on the road Aunt Susan! But be sure to lean in and smile!

My beautiful Mimi.

While we were texting Dad, we mentioned that Aunt Susan was driving. He asked if she had any idea where we were going or how to get there.
I sent him this picture and told him not to worry! We were headed West from ElReno to the City!

I said "Look scared!" Mimi nailed it!

And before we could embark on a fun afternoon of shopping, we must commemorate the event with a SELFIE!!

This picture cracks me up because I had no idea until I posted it on facebook that there was an armored money truck in the background! ha! But I do believe that the smiles on these faces shows just how much fun we were having.
This was another "Kodak" moment.....

Kellye Dawn trying to show Mimi and Aunt Bonnie something on her phone. We are always giving Mimi a hard time about not having an iphone that she can text on or look things up on, and Kellye trying to explain something to these two on her phone was priceless!

And we were the onlookers to the whole "phone" scenario!

We enjoyed a fun afternoon of shopping the outlets. We all started out together, but soon decided to divide and conquer. I got some great stuff for the kiddos, and I think everyone else scored a few deals as well! But half of our crew quickly grew hungry. And the one thing you never want to mess with is a hungry Johnson/Bullock/Rowe girl! SO- we loaded up and headed to Ted's to eat some Mexican food! When we walked in, we realized it was about a 45 minute wait. So Taron, Bit and I jumped back in the car and headed back to the mall to check out the Vera Bradley SALE! I was disappointed that I missed it the first time, and Taron and Bit didn't get to look quite enough. So we hit it up again! I managed to score some super cute Christmas presents.....but I may or may not have eventually decided to keep them for myself.... OOPS! Oh well, I still scored some great deals on MY new Vera Bradley!

And we still made it back in time to wait 20 minutes with the rest of the crew for a table.

After dinner, we headed back to Hotel Mimi and quickly put on our pajamas again! (If you can't tell- pajama time is my favorite time....except for coffee time)

This was before these two put on their jommies...

Aren't they the cutest sisters you've ever seen?? I do believe Aunt Bonnie was cold though...

 Not to worry, they were in their jommies a few minutes after this photo. Mimi never misses an opportunity to wear her jommies either!

Taron and I wasted NO time putting ours on!

Lily was glad we had returned!

I was so happy that we were ALL together this night. We felt "complete". We each grabbed our blankey and curled up for a movie. I believe our first movie of the night was "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2". It was hysterical!!! Even though I may have been the only one that hadn't seen it yet.... We watched the first one last year in Shreveport, so we knew the second one was a must! We all laughed so hard.
Between the first and second movie, we popped popcorn! And Taron and I introduced everyone to the greatness that is pickles and popcorn!

They turned their noses up at first, but once they tried it, they were in love!

Pickles, popcorn, cokes, movies, people I love dearly.... Pretty sure we could have done this all weekend and I would have been happy!

I think our second movie was Father of the Bride, once again because we watched it last year. And we laughed just as hard this time as we did last time!
And just the same as the night before...we stayed up late because Mimi made us. Yep- that's our story and we are sticking to it!!!
And because of our late nights, Saturday morning was a little rough....

As depicted by my Aunt Bit drinking her coffee with a straw as it comes out of the Keurig! HA! (in truth- it was about to overflow, so she was doing damage control). And yes- that is TWO Keurigs we have going at the same time. Don't judge us.
We sat around for a bit enjoying our breakfast and coffee and making our game plan for the day. There was a junk gypsy show in town, which is like an antique show that is outside. Aunt Susan and Kellye had been before and were eager to introduce us all to it this year.
Since the winds were blowing like 106 miles an hour, we all did a quick clothing change and called it good. Hair was a lost cause.
It was a lot of fun to walk around and just look at everything! They had some really neat stuff. But several of us soon got hungry (food, it's what we do), and decided this was a great opportunity to sneak off to SIDS one more time! Aunt Susan and Kellye were in their zone, so we left them there to continue shopping, and the other 5 of us headed for burgers! It's a good thing we took two cars over there!
This is a visual of the wind that day...

After lunch, we headed back to Mimi's and just hung out and visited until Susan and Kellye finally came back. We had considered sending out the search parties  couple of times, but alas they returned to us! Only a little wind blown...

And it's a good thing we left them with the Tahoe....because they managed to FILL IT UP!
We then sat around and visited and eventually all showered for "dress up night". It's fun to get all dolled up and go out to eat somewhere fun. It doesn't have to be too fancy, just a nice sit down dinner at a place we wouldn't normally go. Last year it was the Cheesecake Factory, and this year it was Carino's!
I couldn't resist capturing a picture of Taron doing Aunt Susan's make up. We all know that Susan doesn't do make up. She claims it's her Alaska upbringing...but make up isn't her thing. So Taron made sure she was all dolled up for our night out on the town!

But before we could set out to eat, we had to get some pictures since we were all dressed up!

The Rowe sisters. So many wonderful years of experience and wisdom in one picture.

Mimi and her two daughters...the original Johnson Girls!
These three women mean more to me than they will ever know. They love me, support me, and make me laugh. Three of the most beautiful people, inside and out, that anyone could know. And I am blessed to call them mine.

While we waited on Taron to finish getting ready, I took a selfie with everyone.... not sure why, but I'm glad I did! Some amazing women right here.

Mimi kept trying to move around and leave "the picture spot". So we instructed her to STAY PUT! And she did!

Such a good girl! Doing exactly as she is told.
There's a first time for everything!

Taron soon emerged from getting dressed and we started with the granddaughter picture. It was one of my favorites last year, and I wanted another one this year!

And due to watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 the night before, we all decided to hold each other's neck to pretend to get rid of the wrinkles! Not sure what Taron was doing to me! 

And something, not sure what, led to the picture below. It could have been the picture above, but I'm not sure. All I know is that this is my favorite picture of the whole weekend. 

Mimi's smile is priceless.

And finally- our group!

Two different angles....because we are THAT cute!!

Dinner was fantastic! We all ate too much, but isn't that pretty much a requirement? 

And when we got back to the house, Taron and I finally got our selfies!!

We started with this one, but decided we looked like we both needed to pee! Nope! Photo fail!

The next two were way better! 

I just love this cousin of mine! She's funny, smart, beautiful, encouraging, and always up for spending a weekend at our grandmother's with me just hanging out and having fun! I treasure the times we have together!

Lily didn't want to be left out of the picture fun! I've seriously never seen a dog with such a ticked off face before! But Lily has it mastered!! You can't help but love her, grouchy face and all!

We decided that cards (in our pajamas) was in order since we hadn't played yet. And cards isn't Bit's idea of fun...but we convinced her it would be fun to keep score for us! Pretty sure she won't fall for that again.... 

But the laughs that erupted when Mimi emerged wearing this t-shirt were endless!!

The In-Law Gang! LOVE IT! I had never seen this shirt before, and it started a lot of talks about taking the picture and when and where it was done. I loved the stories! What I would give to have traveled with this group. I can only imagine the fun that they had! 

Cards was a lot of fun, as always! But Kellye had to eventually leave and head home for church the next morning. So we said our good byes to her, and all settled in for yet ANOTHER movie! I haven't watched this many movies in this amount of time.....well....ever! And I'm pretty sure it was approaching 2am by the time Mimi finally let us go to bed. But it was totally worth it!

The next morning, we started with coffee....

And eventually got packed up and loaded up. I decided to stay around until after lunch since Josh and the girls were gone to visit his Granny for the day. We met Erin and Kyson in Yukon for lunch. It was great to see them both!!! And I got to enjoy one last lunch with my peeps!

But as soon as we got home, it was time for me to say my good byes and hit the road. Even though we had 3 1/2 days together, it still wasn't enough. I always leave craving more TIME together, and this trip was nothing different. I had to make a quick exit to keep from bawling before I left. The time we had together was so great, I didn't want it to end. 

I treasure every amount of time we get together, and every memory we make. Time is a precious thing, and I never take it for granted. 

Girls Weekend 2016 may be in the books, but Girls Weekend 2017 is already in the works!!

Random October Happenings

October was a crazy busy month in the Pool house! Some events require their own post, but here are just some of our random moments worth remembering!

Macie Claire drew this family portrait and it cracked me up!

I love how Jake got a name, but the cat just gets called Cat!

I took Brenna, Macie and Maylee to visit the Central Christian Church Pumpkin patch one Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Nikki and Tia were working it, and it's a tradition for us to go and visit them while they work there. And it's always a good opportunity for a photo! Or 6....

I love these two besties! 

2 sets of lifetime friends!

Friends since 2008!

These 3 love each other like sisters. Maylee is our 3rd child!
 And I am pretty sure Brandi feels the same way about Macie.

My LOVES!!!!!

These 3 cuties- man on man! I love the bond they share! And the memories they have made together and continue to make!

And because I love a good Now and Then picture....here is the same shot from 2015!

They have grown so much. Melts my heart, and breaks it at the same time!

We did a little painting outside, and MAY have gotten carried away with the leftover paint on the plates.... Brenna would not let me take her picture, but she looked equally as crazy as her sister!

Face paint by Mommy!
I obviously shouldn't quit my day job to pursue a career in face paint....

Both Weatherford and Peaster celebrated Pink Out day to support Breast Cancer Awareness. I wore my shirt, and the girls wore theirs. We proudly support our favorite Hero/Angel! 

I, along with my FCS team and our amazing deaf ed interpreter took our FCCLA kids to the State Fair. It was a fun, but HOT day! 

Me, Carolyn, Hailey, BJ, and Heather

I was scrolling through facebook one day, and suddenly I stopped in my tracks and thought "that was my MAMA!" I have kind of let me guard down to seeing unexpected pictures of her like that. So it shocked me. Her friend Eddie had shared this memory from one of the days they were out fishing. Mom had cast her line and managed to get her lure tangled in her HAIR! Only my Mama! But I loved it! I didn't know there were any pictures of her that I hadn't seen, so this was a sweet and welcome surprise.

School Pictures!!! I'm always cautiously optimistic when it comes time to get the girl's school pictures pack. You just never know how they will turn out. Did they smile right? Did their hair stay put from the time they left the house to the time of the picture? You just never know! But this year's turned out pretty cute! Brenna's eyes are a little big, but she get's that from her MeMawMom. Mom's eyes were either shut, or HUGE! Never an in between.
I love these two babies with all my heart!!

Last but not least, the girls got to come and hang out with me after school one day. I had to pick them up during my conference, so they got to come and do bus duty with me. Macie was glued to my side, of course. But Brenna wanted to read her book. That girl and her love of reading blows me away. Macie loves to read too, and is VERY good at it, but she's not as independent as Brenna in her reading yet.
I loved seeing this sight. Reading while Mom does bus duty....Teacher kid probs! ha!

September Happenings

Just some random other September happenings.
Macie Claire came in and asked to borrow my phone one Saturday morning. These are the things I found on it.

A photo op with Lindsay and her beanie boos. It appears that she is teaching them or reading to them.

Selfie with her favorite baby- Lindsay.

The girls and I went to shop the JBF half price sale one Friday evening. Macie looked too cute in her shades and purse, so I asked her to pose for a picture. And all was well until Brenna walked up behind her and tried to put her arm around her sister....

Sisterly love at it's finest, folks! As my facebook post said..."just keeping it real". And this scene above is real life. It's not all cute smiling children who are loving on each other and happy family selfies. Yes- those make the best pictures and are the ones who get put on social media most often. But this scene right here is what about half of our pictures look like!

Luckily, I separated them, and managed to get some of those sweet smiles that I prefer!

Brenna had a great volleyball season. It was full of ups and downs with a new team and coach, but she made the best of it and came out on top because of it! She worked so hard! And we couldn't have been more proud.

We went and hung out with the Riley's one Saturday night. It was great to catch up and just enjoy our friends!!

I do believe these kids enjoyed each other!

And maybe they enjoyed each other a little TOO much....

Carter claimed that this was Brenna's idea, and that she and Macie did this TO him and he had nothing to do with it. HHmmmmm Who pulled out the trundle? Who got out the tape?? and WHO sat still enough to be taped down by two little girls who aren't nearly as strong as he is??? I smell something fishy with your story Carter Riley! haha!

And these two bff's were happy to be reunited as well.

Crack head and Crack head jr! ha!!

We had a great night of just being together and catching up! And the next morning it was rainy and drizzly and we caught the kiddos sitting outside and just chatting. Melted my heart!

I introduced Macie to "standing in the sun roof"!

She thought it was pretty awesome! (and note... we were in our driveway.... no harm done)

These hands!! 

Macie Claire loves the monkey bars!! (as did her sister) And these hands are the result of too much monkey barring! I have to tell this child that she MUST take a break from the monkey bars! If my hands looked like this- no one would have to TELL me to stay off the monkey bars! I would voluntarily walk away and never look back! Not her. She tells me "It's a habit and I can't stop." Oh dear.... really Macie??

The girls got out of school early one Friday and after we ate, we stopped by the Central Christian Church pumpkin patch to see Mrs. Sara and Mrs. Prissy, who were working it. The girls took my phone and took each other's pictures. I was pretty impressed! Those crossed legs just kill me!

And the best way to end a week in the fall? A fire in the fire pit with my loves!!

Family Time! El Reno Edition

Towards the end of the summer, the girls began reminding me that we hadn't been to Mimi's house since school got out. We had all kinds of intentions of making it happen, and even had intentions of getting her here for a week just like last summer....but best laid plans, right? Yep! Something always seemed to get in the way. SO- we put a weekend in September on the calendar and MADE it happen!
On Friday, I left work as soon as my conference started and went home to load the car and wait for the girls to get off of the bus at 4. And as soon as we all grabbed a snack- we were North Bound 35!

Every road trip starts with a selfie- it's a requirement!
We had a good trip and only had to stop a couple times and got to Mimi's a little after 8. We were so glad to be together! And we had to send Graddy a picture!

I can assure you that Macie was telling her Mimi something very important before I snapped this picture. That girl loves to talk and she loves her Mimi....which is the perfect combination for getting your word quota in!
Taron and Nolan and Aunt Susan came over shortly after we got there and we all enjoyed just hanging out and visiting. It was great!!
The next morning we took it slow and enjoyed our coffee and cinnamon rolls. Mimi ALWAYS fixes cinnamon rolls for the girls. She knows they love them, and she aims to please!! And she always has vanilla cappuccino for Brenna. It melts my heart that Brenna looks forward to her coffee at Mimi's house as much as I do. She gets cappuccino on occasion at home too, but she knows that at Mimi's it is a given that she will get some each morning! Pretty sure for Brenna that it is just about the cappuccino still.... for me it's about what happens because of coffee..... TIME. Time to sit, relax, talk, and most importantly...LISTEN. I've learned a lot of great things and heard some wise words over coffee. I don't take it for granted.
We eventually had to dress because.... SIDS!

Nice photo Brenna Grace. Oh well. We were there. Together. That is what was important. Well, that and the coney with extra slaw!

Johnson's can take over SIDS faster than you can realize! And this was a small group for us!

When your onion rings are shaped like goggles, you must not pass up the photo opportunity.
After SIDS, we went back to Mimi's to sit quietly and rest and enjoy some peace and quiet.
HA! Just kidding! We made PIE!

I love watching her make pie. I can make the same pie at home using the same recipe. But it just doesn't taste the same. I think it's just something about your grandmother making something...you can't duplicate it. My Mamaw made the best sweet tea. Nina's homemade mac and cheese can not be beat! And Mimi's cherry pie just tastes better when she makes it!
While we cooked (ok- Mimi cooked. Taron and I added an ingredient here and there, and did the dishes) Brenna and Macie taught Nolan how to make rubber band bracelets!

And he pretty much worked on his bracelet the rest of the afternoon! Even during cards! That's dedication right there!
Check out this yummy goodness right here!

But don't be fooled- as soon as it cooled enough to not melt our teeth, Taron and I dug right in with a fork! Mimi's cherry pie- No Plates Required for Granddaughters!
However, we did use a plate later when we decided to add ice cream! You know- to cut down on the sweetness.

We enjoyed a family dinner later on with Aunt Susan. She was packing for a trip, so she wasn't with us as much as we would have liked. But we totally understood. She and Uncle Dave were leaving that Monday for Branson!
But we got a game of cards in with her for sure! Priorities people.
And we even introduced Mimi to SnapChat!

She's such a good sport!
We were up WAY past our bed time. The 3 grand kids were all dragging a little, but Mimi kept us up until early morning at the card table! Waiting for me to say "just kidding!"? Nope! Not this time!
On Sunday we got up and went to church, ate lunch, and headed back south. After our usual 3 night trips during breaks, this trip felt really short. But it was worth it to spend some time with family! Laughter was plentiful, love was abundant, and memories were made. That's what really matters!
The trip home was long, as it always is. But we had one more thing on our weekend agenda...Memaw's birthday!!!!
Josh and Mike went to the Ranger's game, so the celebration was pushed back a little which gave the girls and I time to get home and change clothes since we were still wearing our church attire. And we all gathered at Pops and Memaw's for pizza, cake and family time!!

These three love their Memaw so very much! And I can't blame them!! She is pretty awesome!
It was a busy, but great weekend. I wouldn't trade a moment of it for anything!