I Have Lived "The Pottery Barn Life"...Well, For One Night!

The other night, we had a "reunion" with some of my best friends on the planet...my Sparks Apt. 18 college roommates. So, where does Pottery Barn fit into this? Well, one of my roommates, Elizabeth, married an Ashton. For those of you who don't know, the Ashton's founded Word Perfect, then sold it to Novell when it was at it's peak, took the money & made Thanksgiving Point (a beautiful area with shops, gardens, convention & reception centers, a dinosaur museum, a petting zoo and a megaplex theatre). Obviously, they have a little bit of money. :) So, they took some of this money and bought 500+ acres in Wallsburg (a small town right by Deer Creek Reservoir) and built their own little family resort. This place has it all: a "summer home", a "barn" (pictured above--it's actually another house inside...complete with multiple bedrooms & bathrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen with Wolf & SubZero appliances, a huge chess set, a little school house for the kids to play in, etc.), tennis courts, basketball courts, a $25,000+ playset from Backyard Adventures, a man-made lake (compete with a dock, paddle boats & canoes), plus two zip-lines (one for the kids & another for the adults that goes out over the lake). It was one of the most impressive places I've ever seen.

Anyway, we had a blast! The night started out with a tractor ride for the kids. Connor thought he was in heaven! Then, we munched down on some barbecue for awhile & then it was on to the REAL entertainment...the "water slide". Brigham (that's Elizabeth's husband) pulled out this monstrous tarp & rolled it down the hill that goes between the summer house & the barn. Then, he hooked several hoses to it and...voila! We had ourselves a pretty cool water slide! All the kids (I'm including Mike, Neal--Jackie's husband--& Brigham in this group) had a blast! We held several contests to see who could go the furthest...but Mike didn't represent very well. Sorry, Mike, guess you're just to muscular! :)

After everyone had had their fill of the water slide, we moved on to the lake. The three big kids (and they know who they are) took a couple rides on the zip line. Unfortunately, Mike--forgetting that he's not 18 anymore--got brave on his second trip down & decided to do a back flip into the lake. Well, he ended up hitting the water wrong, and his neck hurt for about 24 hours afterwards. Connor got brave too and, after a little coaxing from Elizabeth's two boys--Samuel & Matthew--he went down the kids zip line. Unfortunately, the zip line jerked him at the end & he fell right on his nose. After a few cuddles though, he was feeling fine!

We ended the night with a couple paddle boat & canoe rides around the lake. Connor had an unfortunate run in with the lake though. He was leaning over the dock to look at something in the water & fell in for a brief moment. Luckily, he was wearing his life jacket at the time. Overall, it was a great night! I was so happy to see all my girls--Jackie, Elizabeth, Danielle, Kristy & LeAnn (along with all their cute families). We missed you Melissa and Courtney! Thank you to Elizabeth & Brigham for letting us use their little "heaven on earth". I really did feel like I was inside the pottery barn catalog! --Lindsay