Summer Social Retreat '09

MMB was invited to attend a Summer Social Retreat. (yeah. we know it's fall now) The event was hosted by April of Living the Sweet Life. It was a fantastic event and was held in the beautiful Heber Valley at Solider Hollow.

all images courtesy of fotohok

Mombabe who lives in Virgina was unable to attend, so Motherboard flew solo.

Due to being a mother first, I missed the day events that had been scheduled. Some of the day events included a Heber Creeper Train ride, a cowboy train robbery and wagon ride, horseback ridding and fly fishing. Listening to everyone discuss the fun that was had during the day, I wish that I would have been able to attend it all.

After all of the fun daytime events, which I'm still totally bummed I missed, everyone headed back to Soldier Hollow for a dinner catered by Shirley J's and dessert by The Chocolate. The table decorations were so simple-- crayola crayons.

The effect was incredible... simple, fun and yet classy. That idea was filed away for future events that I might be planning!


Dinner, catered by Shirley J's was simply delish! We had a fantastic shredded BBQ sandwich, green salad with strawberries (which was the hit-- there were no left overs!) and fresh fruit. Drinks were Chocolate Soda from The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and ice cold water.

I didn't know what to think when they introduced us to Shirley J's, as I had never even heard of them. However, I am here to tell you that their food is incredible! We were all given a sample of their cream soup base/sauce mix and my kids have gone crazy for it!

Shirley J's is a total hit in my book!



The Chocolate was our sponsor for dessert... oh. my. sweet. heaven. I still dream about those mint brownies. We were able to try pretty much one of everything-- Isn't that every woman's dream? Permission to have one of ALL the desserts! Girls, the desserts from The Chocolate are incredible. If you ever have the chance to get something sweet from them, do not walk... RUN! Their desserts are a taste of sweet, sweet heaven!

April introduced all of the incredibly generous sponsors, and then talked to us about "the miracle jar". You write down the one thing you want to happen in your life-- a miracle if you will-- and put it in the jar. It was beautiful to listen to her describe all of the things that she and her children have put in their Expect Miracles Jar and the fact that all of their miracles have come true.

April asked us each to write down one of the miracles we were wishing for on a piece of paper with our name on it, and she used those to draw the winners for the enormous prizes that she had to giveaway, including Sorel boots.

While the prizes were fun to get, hearing the wishes for everyone was what I found truly inspiring. MMB asked April to write a guest post about her Expect Miracles Jar. Look for that guest post soon.

The swag that was presented to all of us was incredible. There was entire skin care lines from Skin Care RX (which i LOVE), one of the MMB sponsors. There was body butter from Nu-skin and drinks from Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory. We all got Lip gloss from Yes to Carrots, which has quickly become one of my favorite lip glosses.

However, my all time favorite swag item was the doTerra essential oils. I personally love doTerra oils, and was thrilled when we each received our very own bottles of Lavender, Peppermint and Lemon.

The other amazing thing about this event was the fact that we got interact with so many incredible bloggers. Truly, I was in awe and a little star struck with all the incredible bloggers that there are out in blogdom. A lot of the women present that attended were registered with MMB, so it was fun to put faces and voices to blogs. (they even got to know my real name!)

April planned an incredible event and we ate incredible food. We learned about incredible products and we got to meet incredible women. Thank you April. Your effort and hard work was greatly appreciated!