A Weekend Away, Twilight, and Christmas Lights

A week ago Seth and I were lucky enough to get away for the weekend to Park City. (There really wasn't this much snow, but I love this picture) :)

Hillory and Grandma were sweet enough to watch the girls so we could have this last time to ourselves before things get topsy turvy with a new baby. Unfortunately my camera died 1/2 way through the trip so I didn't get pictures of the resort/spa we stayed in, but I found some pics online of it.

We had a great time being together without kids, exploring, relaxing and shopping at the outlet malls. One of my favorite things was when we went out on an adventure to find the hospital my great grandma Lennie use to own in Park City. She was a nurse there and ran it for nearly 15 years (through the 50's to 1963). It was built in 1904 for $5,000 and when my great grandma sold it in 1963 she sold it to one of the doctors for $60,000 who promised to keep it as a hospital, but sold it a year later for around a million and later it became a library. What I love about her is that she felt no anger towards him. She had received better offers, but chose him for what he promised. As far as she went, she felt she had done the right thing and what he did was up to his own conscious and so it didn't have any effect on her. I think she so cool to not harbor any hard feelings. I grew up with framed photos of the hospital on the walls of my home and heard stories about her, her hospital, and Park City through my childhood. My mom spent a lot of her younger and teenage years with my great grandma there. The building was white back in the day, but has been restored beautifully I think.

It has been a library since and is currently a Municipal Building. It has been moved from it's original location to Park Ave., but after calling my dad on my cell he was able to direct us right to it. It's just beautiful and so special to feel this connection to my mom's childhood. She use to play in that top room of the highest window. That's exactly where I would want to play too I'm sure. There was a plaque on there with no mention of my grandma, but mentioned other people who have owned it and it's history. My mom has sent them newspaper articles and proof of my great grandma's ownership and basically it has come to the point where they will redo the plaque to commemorate my great grandma as well if we pay them for a new one (about $1500) I feel this is worth it. I think I'll try to round up some funds from family to get this done. I just feel it's important. I feel a special connection to her because my mom loved her so much and spent her happiest years with her. She's who I was named after and I want to do this for her memory.

This last weekend was fun too, even though it wasn't quite as relaxing. :) A big group of 15 of us went to see the Twilight movie and out to lunch. I considered a midnight showing, but realized that I would probably sleep through it then with all the wacky things going on in my body with this baby. I went with no expectations so that I wouldn't be disappointed. That was the thing to do I think because I ended up really enjoying myself instead of getting angry that it wasn't good enough. Seth took the girls and some of their cousins to see Bolt at the same time.

The rest of the day we spent getting our house ready for baby Penelope coming and putting up Christmas lights. (We have to get the lights up a bit early here because if we wait till after Thanksgiving the roof is most of the time too icy to get up there at least that was the problem last year) Here's some pictures of that.

Of course some things the girls did weren't so helpful in getting ready for the baby like this...

I feel very blessed this time of year and am happy to be welcoming a new baby into our kooky, fun and crazy ways. Hope she's has excited as we are. ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS!