Relief Soceity Retreat

We had our annual Relief Society Retreat last night. I am on the planning comittee and some of you will remember my griping and moaning about the experience last year. We had meetings on almost a weekly basis for 5 months fighting over what to eat, how to decorate, what kind of activities to have, what the theme should be, and anything else that could be fought over. Our ward had two Relief Societies each with about ten members on the committee so we could never come to a consensus on anything. I was all about doing things as quickly, cheaply, and easily as possible, but my vote apparently didn't count. The retreat was held at a cabin at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The cabin is huge and beautiful, but it was a really tight fit for the 150 people who showed up. Dinner was absolute chaos and we worked feverishly all night to feed everyone and get the place cleaned up.

This year we had only one meeting, which was fabulous. We now have 3 Relief Societies and basically the presidents got together and planned the whole evening themselves. We were asked to be at the cabin as early as possible to help with set-up and preparation. I chose not to take the day off work and I got up there at 5 p.m. I'm not sure why things were so much easier this year, but everything was done by the time I got there. I asked if there was anything I could do and I was told that I could dump a couple of bags of salad into 2 big salad bowls which took me about one minute to do. Then I made my way over to a corner where two teachers from Davis were sitting in the comfy chairs and we chatted for about 2 hours until dinner started. One of the teachers was freaking out that she had to administer the ACT test this morning and she couldn't find anyone to help her with it. Apparently 2 adults are required to be in the room during testing, so I volunteered.

After dinner and a very short speaker the gathering broke up. I helped with clean up for a few minutes but I felt like I was just in the way. I figured since I spent hours washing dishes last year someone else could do it this year, and I was out of there by 9. This morning I headed over to the high school and got paid $75 to read a book for 4 hours while the students took the test. My only assignment was to gather up and count the 29 booklet when the test concluded, so all in all it hasn't been a bad weekend.

This is a picture of the cabin. It is more impressive from the other side, but it is almost completely obscured by trees. It is probably almost as big as the Heritage, but it only has one big gathering room and more bedrooms. Unlike the Heritage it is absolutely gorgeous. The owners are also the owners of Modern Display, so it is beautifully decorated.