One Jam-Packed Weekend

The Schilling Family drove down to join us this weekend to participate in about 36 hours of fast-paced fun.

First up on the docket was Stephie, Michele, and I finally making it to see this- 

Yes, we are "Twilight" fans - we've seen all of them together so far and were bummed we had to wait so long to see this final one.  But, it was well worth the wait to be able to make it happen for all three of us simultaneously and Friday night was the first opportunity we had that we could make it work.  

We all enjoyed it the most out of all of them - definitely a satisfying wrap-up of the three book, four movie series.

Meanwhile, over at Camp Harlow, "Phineas and Ferb" (and "Perry" too!) were hanging out with many of their summer staff friends at the annual Christmas-time reunion.  It was fun to cruise through Facebook and see someone else post these two pictures, the first of Brayden with Dave and the second of the morning worship time they had. 

On Saturday, we were able to sleep in (oh, that's what that feels like!?!) - and then John, Travis, Michael, and Brian (the "Civil War Quartet") were able to attend the Duck basketball game against Nebraska.  Our next door neighbor knocked on the door a couple of days ago with four 100 level tickets and a parking pass he was eager to give away.  =)

Meanwhile, Michele and I ran all over town to complete some final pre-Christmas shopping and get groceries for the Riley Family Christmas on Sunday.  It was cold, slightly rainy, extremely crowded, but I crossed a ton of things off my list in a hurry.

At 4:20, we got the whole family back together again to go see "Wreck It Ralph"-

It was "Round 2" for my family, but I missed the original viewing due to a migraine.  The Schillings had yet to see it.  If you are counting, yes, that's three movies in the span of four days....a lot of movie theater popcorn.  I've been a happy person.  =)

Because of all that popcorn, I ordered nothing but a beverage when we arrived here after the movie.  Both of our families had been given gift certificates to dine at "Outback Steakhouse" so we figured Saturday night was as good as night as any to use them up.

Unfortunately, we weren't all that impressed with our experience there.  The food was lack-luster and the place lacked atmosphere.  Fortunately, it was free. 

This morning, I will admit, was not the most pleasant atmosphere at the Riley home either.  We were working hard to get 9 people out of the house by 8:30 - looking "Church Program Ready" while simultaneously trying to prepare for the Riley side of the family who would be showing up at our house as soon as church was over, at 11am.  I don't think we did a very adequate job preparing the kids for what our expectations of them were in the morning (and certainly, they didn't do an adequate job fulfilling those expectations!).

Eventually, we were all able to find some seats before the service started.  Sadly, due to his not-so-hot meal the night before, Michael stayed home as he'd been up much of the night with heartburn....

The girls...

Our guys...

Mom, Michele, and I...

And Mom and Dad...

I was trying to take pictures without flash as the program was about to begin, so forgive the blurriness of the pics.

I was super impressed with the program.  This year, the narrator was actually a gentleman who is a poet.   Much of the script that he wrote and memorized was put to rhyme - and it was amazing just how enthralled we all were with the words he chose to use and therefore the message.  Combine that with a very talented group of soloists, musicians, and choir - and song choices, that while eclectic, spoke to the heart - and I walked away very thankful that we made such an effort to "hurry up and get there".  It was very much worth it.