Boys Weekend 2010 !!!

Last year Pancho took the boys on a "Guys Trip" down to Southeastern Oregon to go mining for sunstones.  They had so much fun and talked about it all year, so this summer, they decided to do it all over again!

This is one trip that I am more than happy to leave up to Pancho.  It is a combination of many of the things I don't like . . .  dirt, sleeping on the ground, intense heat, bugs, dead animals and a long drive.  All of these things add up to the perfect "boys weekend" for the males in our family, they were so excited to go!

The vindictive side of me (yes I admit, there is one) was anticipating watching Pancho have to pack for a "camping like" trip on his own.  I usually do 99% of the packing and unpacking whenever we go  family camping (which adds to my dislike for camping), but this trip was all Pancho.

I watched in awe (and disgust) as Pancho waited until about 10 min. before they were scheduled to leave, and handed each boy a plastic grocery bag.  Then he said, "Boys go put a pair of underwear and a pair of socks in this bag" and they each grabbed a sleeping bag and walked out the door! (change of clothes? sunscreen? bugs spray? toothbrush? medicine? pillow? food? . . . aren't these necessities?)

They always stop at this little store out in the middle of nowhere  for supplies.  Why? because it is full of dead animals of course!  I always get to hear about all of the mounted cougars, deer, elk and even a bear.  They love it!

Pancho says that you see this view for about 4 hours straight!

My poor mini-van. 

Pancho couldn't wait to run it through his car wash when he got home.

Max loves mining.  They brought home about 200 sunstones and 2 of them were quite big.

Sam found this walking stick that he is still walking everywhere  with.

Sam, showing off one of the tiny sunstones that he found.

Pancho and the boys actually sleep in this teepee.

Last year, they had kangaroo rats crawling around in it, this year it was windy, so when they lit a fire, it filled up with smoke!  (There is NO WAY I would ever do this, this is just reaffirmation for me that Dad's serve a  very special purpose in a boys life!)

The boys collecting sunstones off of the conveyor belt with a few of the people who live there and actually do this for a living!

So what DID Lucy and I do on our weekend without our boys?

We had a "Girls Weekend" of course!

I didn't take many pictures other than this one, but Lucy and I had so much fun together.

First, we painted pottery (Lucy painted a cupcake, I painted a purse).

Then we went shopping, then we had lunch together!

Saturday night we got invited to a pool Party at Sheri and Keith's house.  Lucy had a blast swimming in the pool all evening and Natalie and her 7th grade girlfriends were so nice to include Lucy in everything.  She felt like such a big girl.

I enjoyed visiting with Christy, Teesh and the other ladies as the sun went down, looking at Sheri's beautiful view of Eugene from high up on the hill. (I wish I would have taken a picture of the beautiful sunset)  I LOVE summer evenings).  All in all in was a very nice relaxing quiet weekend spent with my favorite girl in the whole world!!!

The best part was when the boys got home on Sunday night, and we all wrapped up in blankets on the couch and shared the stories of our weekend adventures with each other!