Ladies Weekend!

It's Deer Hunting season, which means The Great Hunter (aka my husband) was gone for the opener this past weekend. He takes a few fishing and hunting weekends each year, which gives me the chance to get some house projects done, spend some time with girlfriends and family, and watch MY TV shows. :) Of course I miss him when he's gone, but last weekend I was luckily so busy that I didn't have the chance to be TOO sad about his absence!

After work on Friday I was a busy little bee finishing a few small house projects, like:

• Organizing our kitchen desk area (usually a catchall mail and junk spot) by clearing out the junk, hanging some mail pockets, a weekly calendar, and a few other organizational items to make it more functional and look better:

• Hanging some framed "getting ready photos" from our wedding in our master closet:

Next up? Replacing that prickly light fixture...

• Adding a few new photos to our framed photo gallery wall:

• Hanging shelves and a new mirror  (not pictured) in our master bedroom, and putting out a few more framed wedding photos (long overdue!):

• Dusting and cleaning the entryway and giving it a complete overhaul - that gets it's own post soon! :)

Once I was all done with that around 9 PM, I sat down to eat the final leftover pastie and watch the Say Yes To The Dress marathon on TLC. I managed to get a few hours of sleep before getting up early Saturday morning for the Duluth Ladies Shopping extravaganza! Every year during hunting opener, the ladies on Joen's (Tyge's mom) side of the family gather in Duluth for some shopping and fun girl time together. I've only gone once since Tyge and I have been together, and this year Bridget came with me as she was a deer hunting widow as well! First we dropped Miss Keely off at Callie and Dave's to play with them and Diesel for the weekend.

From our house last time we watched Diesel - they love each other!

We were on the road early in the day and had a nice ride up - we even took a wrong turn because we were talking so much! Luckily we didn't lose too much time and made it to Duluth around 11:30 where we met Joen, Jill (Tyge's aunt), and cousin Travis (the lone male in the group) at the mall. We had lunch and proceeded to shop until we were truly ready to drop! We had fun getting Christmas presents, I had my entryway project in mind to shop for, and Bridget has an upcoming trip to get warm weather clothes for.

This is my, Bridget, and Joen's haul in my trunk (a large Acadia, mind you). And this is only from the first day. ;)

We checked into our hotel room and walked across the street to Outback for dinner! There were 17 of us ladies around the table and it was really nice to catch up with everyone over some good steak. We went back to the hotel after dinner and everyone congregated in the breakfast area to play some games, and chat as ladies tend to do!

The group (holding signs for a sick cousin who was not able to make it)

Me and B - who says you can't drink red wine from plastic hotel cups? :)

We had a great time playing Catchphrase and The Chick Game, which is a game my mom got me in high school that is just a bunch of cards with questions ranging from surfacey to deep - it's kind of turned into a joke now and my friends always ask me to bring it on girls nights!

The Chick Game - Girls' Night Out in a Box!

 

 

This turned into storytelling of when the ladies were young, and we had a lot of good laughs! We finally turned in around 11 and spent another hour talking in bed before falling asleep. Everyone woke up around 6:30 AM, which was actually 5:30 AM due to daylight savings. These ladies are morning people, I am not. :) We waited a bit and went down to breakfast where we said goodbye to everyone before heading out to shopping day #2!

Me and Bridget ready to get our shop on!

Me and Joen (not the best pic but the only one we got!)

We hit up a few more stores and drove home after lunch. I picked up Keely girl then put away my loot once home. I also put the finishing touches on my entryway - I can't wait to post the finished product! All in all, it was a nice weekend and so good to spend time with Tyge's mom, Aunt, and the ladies in the family. I'm also so glad Bridget got to join! It is nice to spend time with the girls, but I also can't wait for my Great Hunter to return home!

With last year's deer, now affectionately named Bucky and hanging in our basement!