JCrew Weekend

***Warning***

Really long post full of LOTS of journaling, very few pictures.

Last weekend was sooooo fabulous. In college I was blessed to have the BEST roommates EVER. We all met freshman year (thanks to David John Hall) and we were roommates throughout college until we started getting married. Since we all had J names, we were quickly dubbed the J-Crew. Last weekend the last of us was sealed in the Seattle Temple and what a great reason to get together :)

I flew out Thursday evening (Feb. 11th) and when we were 15 minutes from the airport recieved an automated call from Southwest letting me know my flight was delayed. Thanks, Southwest...great idea, but 30 minutes earlier would have been even better :) I just hung out at the airport, extremely grateful I was traveling withOUT kids (can't remember the last time that happened!). I grabbed a bite, a diet coke and started into a new book...and was UNinterrupted the until it was finally time to board my flight. That's when I knew my vacation had begun :)

The only bad thing about being delayed was that meant by the time I arrived in Seattle and then made the 1 hour drive to Olympia, I wouldn't get "home" til almost 10:30 pm. I had told my parents I could stay in Seattle that night (I have a sister in the area), but my mom still insisted my dad would come get me and boy was I glad. I only had that one night in Olympia, but it was sooo nice to be home and also to get to see the changes my mom has made to the house, and to spend some time with my dad, as I wouldn't see him the rest of the weekend.

Friday morning my mom and I headed right back up to my sister's house (she lives 10 minutes from the airport!). I got to check out Jennifer's "new" living room and the plans for what her "new" kitchen will look like, see her 4 kids, and then we spent the morning furniture shopping (not for me, unfortunately, but does it matter what you are doing when hanging out with your mom and sister?!) Then we ate lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant. I didn't need to be anywhere til 6:30 that night, but Jennifer had to start teaching piano at 2:30. Bummer. My mom and I stayed at her house for a bit while she "taught" her first couple students - hey, she did warn them when they first arrived that she may be a little distracted as her sister was visiting!

Then my mom and I drove to JeVonne's parent's house (they just happend to live about 10 minutes from Jennifer). After my mom headed back to Olympia, we just chatted and chatted until it was time for dinner.

Friday night we headed to Jeanette's parents house in Issaquah. They were doing a soup and pizza dinner and it was great to get to see her family, visit, meet her husband Zach, and spend time together.

This picture is so fitting. I can't even begin to recall how many times the 4 of us were situated on someone's bed talking late at night while at BYU.
It was close to midnight by the time we left Jeanette's house, and by the time we got to JeVonne's house, we were ready for a snack. JeVonne's sweet parents asked us what we wanted and after a simple request, they whipped up the grand-daddy of all midnight snacks. Fresh fruits and veggies, cheese, crackers, hummus, juice. Wow. And of course since there was this fabulous spread in front of us, we had to stay up eating. Until 3:30 am!!! This was the beginning of our un-ending eating that weekend. Seriously. I think that was all we did :)

And do you know what the greatest thing was??? No kids. No one coming in at 4 in the morning because they had to go to the bathroom. No one waking me up at 7 am, ready to start the day and needing me. I slept til 10:30 am!!!! Fabulous.

After a shower, and a HUGE, gourmet breakfast at the McDonalds, we were headed off to the Seattle temple to be there for Jeanette and Zach to be sealed for time and all eternity. I never get tired of attending a temple sealing. It is so special and such an incredible blessing. But this one was a little different and I don't think I'll be forgetting it. It was the first time I was introduced at a sealing that wasn't my own.

The sealer happened to be JeVonne's fabulous, oh-so cute grandpa. Think President Hinkley. Apparently when we were in college he LOVED that we were all J's and so as things were getting under way he mentions to Jeanette that she has some special guests there. We're thinking he's going to say parents, siblings, grandparents...but no. He says, "I hear there are some pretty special J's here." What? He didn't really just say that, did he?! But sure enough, he then proceded to have her introduce us. Crazy.

JeVonne, Jeanette, Jamie, & Julie - the JCrew :)

Jeanette looked absolutely stunning. What a beautiful bride!

After pictures, etc...we headed to eat, of course. JeVonne's parents had told us they wanted to take us out to eat wherever we wanted, and so we chose the Cheese Cake Factory. YUM. I kid you not when I say we planned our weekend around when we would have the most time to eat out :) After much deliberation, (not kidding at all!) we decided between the sealing and the reception.We were at the restaurant until it was time to head to the reception...a DINNER reception. The 3 of us were the "greeter/seaters" and led people to their tables. Thankfully, although the reception started at 6:30, dinner didn't start until 7. And then we were the last table to eat. We were all still full though, but that didn't stop us from ALL coming back with full plates. We had to laugh about that AND that all of our plates were mostly empty by the end! I wish I had taken pictures of the reception. It was at a stake center, but seriously they did the BEST job of making it look more like a reception hall. It was beautiful. We had so much fun dancing the night away and laughing with each other. I'll be completely honest, by the time the reception was over, I was exhausted!!! What a great night though.

Sunday we got up and cleaned Jeanette and Zach's new place while they were at church. Jeanette is the most fabulous person and has so many talents. But organization and cleaning is not one of them. And unfortunately it stresses her. After finishing there, we rushed off to church and then back to Jeanette's parents for brunch. This was our last little bit of time for the 4 of us to spend time together and I'm so thankful for every second we all got to spend together. It was also really, really great to be able to get to meet and know Jeanette's new husband. Because they had been married 6 weeks earlier, the entire atmosphere of the weekend was different and although there were some stressful times, the bride and groom were overall more relaxed and had more time to focus on visiting and spending real time with friends and family.

It was a fabulous weekend that could NOT have happened without my wonderful husband being with the kids all weekend. And my awesome neighbors watching the kids on Friday while he was at work. Like I said in my last post, a little get-away at 34 weeks is a GREAT idea. The only downside is that it has taken me ALL week to recover. I have been so tired, it's ridiculous!

Thanks so much girls. Love you to pieces and it's time to plan our next get-together :)