Wow.

How often do you get to go away to a gorgeous cabin, get pampered, scrapbook, and hang out with amazing women? The only word that really describes it is WOW.

The place that I’m talking about is Mountains and Memories, a bed and breakfast type cabin in Estes Park that offers scrapbooking weekends for women.

Here’s my plug for anyone who scrapbooks: Ladies, you don’t have to lift a FINGER to carry any of your STUFF inside! Wow that’s enough right there right? I bring a LOT of stuff to work with, and I didn’t carry a thing. You get generous table space, a cup holder, constant snacks and drinks, Cricuts to work with, a little store just in case, and various tools to use. Oh, and meals prepared for you!

Here’s my plug for anyone who doesn’t scrapbook: Ladies, you don’t have to lift a FINGER to do anything for yourself! Well, except shower and such. For mommies out there, that pretty much says it all right – someone doing things for you instead of the other way around?

First of all, Estes Park is gorgeous. I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful state, and Estes Park is like walking straight into a Colorado brochure! I know that I’m the person that everyone else rolls their eyes at, but I stopped on the side of the road to take a picture of the sign as I was driving in. Oh yes, I’m THAT girl. For real people. I was only sorry that because I had so much scrapbooking stuff, I opted not to bring my CAMERA for the trip. I just had my little point and shoot, instead of my CAMERA. And for the photographers out there reading this – you understand the difference between your camera and your CAMERA.

I’m a Colorado native – a rare breed – and I have seen the mountains almost every day for most of my life. But I will never, ever get tired of this view. Don’t worry, I wasn’t driving – I pulled over!

Amazing right? So I drove around for a bit, had lunch at the Egg and I (YUM!) and went to an adorable little scrapbook store in Estes called Rocky Mountain Memories. A DOG greeted me. Oh yes, a dog. So of course, I was immediately in love with the place. How could you not love a store with a doggie doorman?! I wish I would have taken a picture of him, but I left my camera in the car. The owner was so nice, very knowledgeable and so personable. Smaller scrapbook stores have all but been completely swallowed by the giants, and sometimes the ones that are left kind of get lost in the clutter. Sometimes they’re a little behind the times… not this one. Rocky Mountain Memories had the most up to date stuff, including Tim Holtz (yay!) and other really cool stuff. So I spent some time there, spent money on more scrapbook stuff that I don’t need (but we really DO right ladies!?) and then drove up to Mountains and Memories.

Basically, here’s how the weekend worked. I ate, laughed, drank coffee, laughed, scrapbooked, laughed, made new friends, laughed, scrapbooked some more, and laughed some more. This weekend was a much needed refresher, and a jump back into my favorite hobby. Mountains and Memories is run by Phil and Becky, an amazingly wonderful couple who are so incredibly nice. When I drove up, I was the first one there, and Phil was outside to greet me. He told me to grab my overnight bag and he would get the rest – without realizing what “the rest” really meant. I think he was definitely a little… surprised by how much I had, but he insisted that I go inside and get the grand tour, while he brought everything in.

I walked into a gorgeous cabin that was open and spacious, but super comfy and cozy.

Becky showed me everything – the huge living room with huge fireplace, my room, bathrooms, anything you can imagine in a fabulous bed and breakfast, was available. I walked around, in awe, imagining myself living in a beautiful place like this. Then, she took me downstairs to the scrapbook area. Wow! Tools everywhere, tables, lights, snacks, and anything I could possibly need. Like I didn’t bring enough already, right? I sat down and started working, and then the other women started to arrive.

Now I was kind of nervous about all of this. You never really know who you’re going to be spending a weekend with, and believe me, there are some snotty scrapbookers out there. I know from personal experience! So when everyone started trickling in, and started laughing and joking with me right away, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. My beautiful friend Dulcey arrived and we were thrilled to see each other, it had been entirely too long! We started scrapbooking right away, and heard the dinner bell ring. We went upstairs to a wonderful dinner, and relaxed for awhile.

I have to admit, I was nervous without good cell phone signal. What if something happened? What if someone needed me? Could the WORLD survive without me for a weekend?! Yes, moms, you’re with me right? The men are wonderful to us, but we kind of keep everything going, ya know? Tom did an amazing job of holding down the fort while I was gone, so my cell phone withdrawals started to ease after dinner.

We scrapbooked into the wee hours of the evening, woke up to a fabulous breakfast and get this – scrapbooked A L L D A Y L O N G. Even for you ladies that don’t scrapbook, can you imagine doing something you love, all day long, with no one interrupting you other than to cook your meals and make you lattes? Flippin’ awesome.

I’ve said far too much in this post already, but I really have nothing but wonderful things to say about Mountains and Memories. I just can’t say enough about it.

This picture doesn’t really have anything to do with scrapbooking, bed and breakfasts, or pretty much anything else – but I took it because it reminds me of what this weekend was for me – peace. Calm. Relaxation. Letting someone else take care of me for a change – which was hard, but wonderful.

Saturday afternoon Phil came to get us with the declaration “I don’t know if you consider this wild life, but there are deer outside.” I don’t know if you could tell by my previous posts about the doggies, but I LOVE animals. I just HAD to go upstairs to say hello. They came fairly close to us when we went outside, I expected them to run away. They were interested, but as soon as they discovered we didn’t have food, they sauntered away. Hey there pretty girl, how’s it goin’? ;)

The scrapbooking supplies spread out further and further as the time went by… notice the stack of pictures? I haven’t scrapbooked in almost two years, I was just a TAD behind.

For some reason, several of the women that I met this weekend were quite taken with Jim Carrey’s Grinch character. “But WHAT would I WEAR?”

Dulcey and I were both Mountains and Memories newbies, and we really, REALLY enjoyed ourselves! It was good to reconnect with each other, and to meet new friends.

Again… one word for this weekend stands out above any others – WOW. Becky and Phil, you guys do an unbelievably amazing job. You made me feel so welcome and loved, even though I had just met you. Becky, we had a few conversations that were a little more than surface level. I know that I don’t really KNOW you, but from what we talked about, I am so very glad that you have found your happiness in Phil. You deserve a man who will treat you like a queen! And I stand by my statement that you definitely do not look old enough to have adult children! Phil, your lattes are SO yummy, I was spoiled to have one made for me whenever I wanted it. You ruined me, now I want one at work every couple of hours!

On the last day, I spent all morning just relaxing. I read by the fireplace, and went for a little walk, where I captured this photo. It was a truly wonderful weekend, and I will definitely be going back soon!