What I Did on My Autumn Vacation
by Kris

I took a rare weekend away from the shop.
I went to Roaring River State Park in Missouri
with  13 other Dickerson folks.
We had fun.  It was pretty.

Here's what we did there:

We ate constantly.

Here we are stuffin' it in as fast as we can.

Kelley brought campfire cupcakes: tootsie roll logs roaring with pink fire,

 teensy little marshmallows roasting on pretzel sticks. They were so cute and tasty,

we wrestled each other for them.

Ok, not really but try to visualize it anyway, if you have a strong stomach.

We took fly-fishing lessons

from my nice cousin Rob, who's an expert.

Everyone else caught on immediately.

 I had fourteen thumbs and got knots in my line and caught a bush and a tree and a rock.

Rob was very patient. 

I was very bad at it.  I gave up. 

I am a quitter.

My brother David in his official fishing duds and my Dad's old hat.  

Tony and my niece Sara and I took
 a short 30 minute hike.
 It turned into a very long hike.

We weren't exactly lost because we thought we were still in the United States of America
but it took a while to find our way out of the woods.

 Like 3 hours.
 I had an owie on my foot so Tony and Sara

were always about a mile ahead of me.

"If we pick up the pace, I think we can lose her for good."

 Sara and Tony are very fit. I'm old and fat and slow. 

 Plus I am distracted by things like very tall trees.

And beautiful scenery.

This is the Lodge where we stayed.  I thought we'd never see it again.

We saw caves with bats and signs warning us not to come in.

As if.

We finally found our way out of the woods

and shuffled another 4812 miles back across the park.

This time we went around the foot of the mountain instead of over the mountain. 

 Muuuuuuuuuuch easier.

We also played Nature Bingo

at the Lodge one night with a lot of  smart little children. Unlike them,  I didn't really know what a Yellow-Bellied Missouri Skink or a Purple Feathered Watamajiggy looked like, so I ate most of  my Skittle candy  Bingo markers instead of marking the Bingo squares with them.  I did accidentally win one game and came home with a Bass Pro Shop Bourbon glass.  I was so proud.  One Dickerson (who shall remain nameless but you know who you are) cheated and "won" a camoflauged ballhat as his/her prize.

  He/she's a very bad, bad boy/girl.  Aren't you , Kelley?

We watched

 my great-nephew Noah single-handedly redirect Roaring River by throwing in three tons of rock, one piece of gravel at a time. It's fun to be a kid at Roaring River.

It's fun to be a grown-up there, too.

 

Girls' Night Out

It was a warm morning in August.  Me and Julie from Kitchen Gallery and ShopGirl Extraordinaire Kristi.  We needed a theme for our Fall party.
We were stumped. I stared at Julie.  She stared at me. Julie sipped her coffee. I chewed my straw.
 Julie flipped through her calendar.  I scratched my ankle. 

Kristi said, "How about Soup and Soul?"

 Perfect! She's a smart girl, that Kristi.

So here we go again:

Girls' Night Out... Soup & Soul

Thursday evening, October 21

5:30 'til 7:30 pm inside Fairlawn Plaza Mall

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's always a party: there's a bunch of laughing going on and wonderful music and all kinds of sips and samples and fun folks to talk to. 

Mingle on the mall and wander in and out of the shops: I'll bet you'll see people you know.

Here's the Soup part:

Julie has invited bunches of the Kitchen Gallery vendors in for the evening to demo gadgets and serve all kinds of goodies. The feast of samples is amazing: soups and breads and dips ... all the comfort foods of fall.
Kitchen Gallery expanded this summer to include a cozy new demo kitchen and a whole room full of Polish Pottery... stroll through and see what wonders the KG staff has wrought.
And of course, Julie will setting up her infamous
Girls' Night Out Wine-A-Rita bar! WoOOoOTTT!

 

Our new neighbors at Sweet! Cake & Candy Supply are loaning us their beautiful kitchen for a

6:00 pm Homemade Soup lesson.
And all evening,  Cindy and Susan will demo oh-so-clever ideas for all things sweet for the holidays comin' up. (Seriously, people, have you been in there yet? It's a visual treat: I love the rows and rows of sprinkles all lined up...and that wall full of cupcake papers might even turn ME into a baker.  Maybe.

Why are you smirking?)

At Dickerson's, we're moving into Christmas mode; come in for a sneak peek that night and have a cup of Aspen Mulling Spice while you wander. You'll need a drink: YUM Bakery and Cafe will be serving up samples of Kelley's homemade chili --- she likes it HOT and so do we! It's the perfect bowl of chilly-weather chili --

makes steam come out of my ears.

Lots of other Fairlawn Plaza shopkeepers will be at Girls' Night Out to strut their stuff, too.

Come by and chat 'em up.

And here's the Soul part:

 Please-- won't you bring a canned soup for the Salvation Army Food Pantry? Or bring six!

 It will warm your soul to share a blessing.

Bring a friend and spend the evening with us...

We'll be looking for you!

Give us a holler if you want more details:
Julie at Kitchen Gallery 785.273.6436     Kris at Dickersons 785.273.1845