Dolls and ladies weekend

What a week! First of all, it has been almost solid rain! After the post on Monday that E and I spent some time in the garden, it rained and rained and rained. When the big thunderstorms moved in, it was fun, but for the most part, feeling cooped up in the house in June is not a fun feeling.

Last week I added a tenth and final doll to my American Girl collection. For years I've been wanting American Girl to make a Jewish girl and they produced Rebecca. Rebecca is a second generation Russian Immigrant that lives in the Lower East Side of NYC in 1914.

I have been saving for Rebecca for four months. I've been setting aside my "fun money" and I also set aside birthday money and money I earned helping house-sit for my Grandma. Rebecca arrived and she is everything I hoped she'd be. I also ordered her six book set, read all the books within a couple of days, and loved every page.
In addition to my new doll, I've met some of the most wonderful people on the American Girl message boards, and two of these friends wanted to plan a ladies weekend in Utah. I was looking forward to meeting an online friend from Colorado named Rebecca . Caroline, a friend from Utah, and I thought it would be so fun if Rebecca (the woman, not the doll) could fly out for the weekend and we could spend our time getting to know each other better and enjoying all that Utah has to offer.

Finally the ladies weekend arrived, and it was perfect. We scheduled it on a weekend E was going to be out of town due to Ben's bachelor party in Vegas. So, on Thursday I headed downtown to meet Caroline, Rebecca, and Rebecca's four year old daughter. We explored Discovery Children's Museum where we also met Caroline's sister in law and two nieces. That afternoon all the ladies and girls came to my house where we played in the doll room, had some time to open presents, and relaxed and got to know each other. That night E and I hosted a BBQ, and of course, it was raining! E grilled hamburgers in the rain, but we had a pleasant time inside.

This is my friend Rebecca and her daughter getting their own Rebecca doll. Look at those smiles! Too cute!

That night Caroline, Rebecca and her daughter stayed at our house as guests. The next morning we woke up to some sunny skies (yea!) and headed to This is the Place Park where we looked around all the pioneer homes. Rebecca's daughter was thrilled to pretend to do pioneer laundry, card wool and even dip a candle. Rebecca's daughter kept saying the cutest things the entire day like "this is a fabulous day" and "when can we come back and do laundry again?"

Hazel joined me at This is the Place Park, here she is doing some gardening.
Afterwards we dropped of Rebecca's daughter at Caroline's sister-in-laws so the adults could go to high tea at Grand America (read about it here). The day was wonderful, relaxed and so tasty.

That night we headed up to Heber to spend the rest of the weekend at Caroline's sister-in-law's cabin. The cabin in in the mountains east of Heber in a beautiful wooded spot. On the way we stopped at Dairy Keen and got dinner. I ordered a hot turkey sandwich with fries and a slush, it was perfect.

When we arrived at the cabin we were surprised to find all sorts of little doll scenes set up all around. Caroline had come earlier in the week and set up a school scene, a modern scene, a pioneer scene, etc. for the little girls to find when they arrived. Caroline's two nieces and Rebecca's daughter were thrilled to see all the little scenes and outfits each girl was wearing. After staying up way too late playing dolls, we decided to call in a night.

The next day was rainy (again) so for most of the day we stayed in doors playing with the little girls, watching the rain, and talking. I learned so much about Rebecca and Caroline, we had some really interesting discussions. Later in the afternoon we decided to make the trek back to Salt Lake to visit Gardner Village for shopping and dinner. The rain and cleared a little, and when we arrived it was mostly gone. We shopped at the candy store, the doll shop, and a few others before stopping at Archibald's for dinner.

That night, again, we stayed up way too late talking about life, marriage, children, and our favorite members and albums on our American Girl Boards. The next morning I packed up, had a little breakfast and gave my new friends a hug. Thanks for the wonderful weekend!

The cabin was huge and so cozy on a rainy day. As you can see, the girls are thrilled to have so many dolls to play with.
On the last day the sky cleared long enough for Caroline and I to get a few photos of Violet and Mari.
This is where I slept, isn't it awesome? The room was huge, and each bed had its own reading light.