FORKS 2011 - Let the Recovery Begin

I have to say that this recovery may take longer than usual.

It isn't just the hangover that lingers, nor the aches and pains from beautiful hikes and my sweet dance moves.... no, this recovery is deeper than that.... it is that small piece of my heart that breaks leaving that amazing place and more importantly, the amazing people!

Last year I only stayed one night and the connections I made were incredible... This year, I stayed two night and had the most amazing time. The memories and friendships will last....

Where do I begin....

The drive and ferry trip was beautiful! The sun was shining, my music blaring and I enjoyed the trip, even though I was missing @Lorabell who joined me last year.

I arrived Friday in Port Angeles for Bella Italia with some of the group.

Then it was off to Forks where I quickly changed and we went to the Elk's Lodge where the Twitarded Party was getting started.

My roomies were @red_bella @defenderofmice @starlitviolets and we had a blast..... our room was HUGE... it was a suite with two beds in the room, another bed in the living room and a full kitchen and bathroom.

It was a rather tame first night after a long day of travel and a busy Saturday ahead of me, but we visited, danced, giggled and caught up with old and new friends.

Despite my lack of social skills that evening, I did get to chat with @17foreverlisa - love that girl!

There was a photo op station and I let Eddie wear my Canadian beads to show his support.

Karaoke was in full swing and I have to say that there were some awesome singers... regardless of the skill level we had a blast singing and dancing the evening away.

There are more pics of this "Bloward" doll... he has a peen... and it came out.. a lot... I posted those pics on FB (Mandy S Mind)

There was corn on the cob and salad and pasta and other great food, but I had eaten at Bella Italia so I didn't get any... I heard it was delicious though!

I missed the shuttle home and got a ride with @Trixieandtess @allthingsHHH and @JiffSimpson who were heading to the bar.

I was sad to be so tired that night because it meant I didn't go to the bar to socialize more, I didn't really talk to many people that night and sadly some people were leaving... in particlar @misstejota but the good news is I did get a quick visit with her, got her the abduction t-shirt she won on my blog AND arrange BD tix for NYC this November... score!

When i got to the room I was exhausted and it didn't take long for me to crash - hard!

Saturday I planned to sleep in, but my body wouldn't allow it. I woke up and we went for breakfast. Here are my fabulous roomies:

Then we drove out to the Hoh rainforest (yes... the "ho" ) where we took the "Hall of Mosses" trail... absolutely stunning!

Again, I have many more photos of trees and moss and the beautiful trails on my FB album

After that @red_bella and @defenderofmice went shopping while I trained @starlitviolets on the art of jello shot making (she aced it by the way!)

then I went to do a bit of shopping before the Twilight Tour with Travis. Let me just say, last year we did the drive on your own tour, which was cool.... but Travis is so hilarious and informative... I highly recommend paying the money to take his tour! His humour and knowledge was so great. He had theme music, random Forks and Twilight facts, trivia, jokes, and even Quileute words.

I took a ton of photos on the tour here are a few...

I could do a whole blog JUST on the tour (maybe I will) but trust it was great fun and well worth the trip!

Forks 2010 Photo (with forks) on my phone...

I had a water bottle with me for the tour... only it wasn't water, it was Bacardi Strawberry Daquiri and I drank it all... so after the tour when i stumbled back to our room I was feeling pretty tipsy!

I was anxious to see if jello shots were ready.... they had been ready... and had been consumed... and had been ditributed door2door at the motel.... This made me sad because there was only one peach jello shot left... my fave flavour *gasp*

To be fair, I didn't ask them to save them for me, but that was because I didn't think they would be ready before I got back... ah well.. I gave @Starlitviolets shit... and plenty of it ha ha!

After far too many jello shots we shuttled to the Elk's for round 2 Twitarded Party... pizza, nacho-bar, salad, we snacked and danced and mingled and... drank.... a lot....

What was most awesome was that everyone got a string of tickets for prize draws (which when dropped on the floor apparently resembled a red snake.... ready to attack *ahem* anyways..) the amount of donation of prizes was epic.... unfortunately that meant we spent a shitton of time drawing prize winners... instead of dancing.... c'est la vie!

I am not complaining, I won a ton of cool stuff.. the trick was to put your tickets in the Jacob stuff because hardly anyone wanted that stuff tee hee... well a few of us did!

I won a diary tin box, the jacob barbie (which I really wanted for my daughter), mascara (which I didn't even realize I entered to win make-up), then @mama_cougar had to leave, and everyone else who left had given her their tickets so she passed them onto me and I got some comics (which I may use as a giveaway in the future)

Anyhow, after what seemed like hours of giveaways it was time to clean up.... @Starlitviolet is so sweet she collected all the helium filled balloons....

then....

SHE POPPED THEM!

@alltwiedup has a great photo of my reaction to this horrifying occurence... Posted the photos from @alltwiedup... I wanted to bring them all in the shuttle home to our room... what a party that would have been... oh wait.. it was a party.. but I will get to that ;)

Anyways, @alltwiedup and I sucked some helium and talked dirty about beanie Rob... tee hee

Thanks @alltwiedup for these pics

I hopped on a shuttle and was educated on the fact that FSE is not an STD, but in fact an abbrieviation for "Full-Size-Edward" (almost lost my e-card for that epic fail - thanks @lindsayrae114)

Went to the room where I popped @ChloeCougar and @LoriAnnTwiFan jello-shot-cherry

Slowly more people arrived by shuttle and/or from their own rooms to our room. Since it was a Suite, and at the end, and had a fridge of jello shots... it became the go-to party spot and we had people coming and going all night... such fun! the majority of those photos I can't post... we were all intoxicated and there are some not-so-flattering-drunk-pics as well as some awfully-drunk-or-i-wouldn't-be-doing-this pics and the internet is simply not the place for some of those photos ha ha. Oh and @norcaltwitard said she would kick my ass if I posted some... ha ha

Speaking of... she @amandakmelby and me did some loving walkie-talkie style messages to @twikiwi50 Needless to say there was a lot of alcohol consumed and laughs had... It was awesome getting to know more people better and enjoy the last night.

My drink of choice was Orange Soda with Whipped Vodka, though I ended the night with Orange soda and cake vodka... ha ha...

By the time everyone left it was just after 4am and we slowly crawled into our beds to crash...

This morning I woke up hungover still drunk.... so I had some water and went back to sleep... the second wake up was not much better, but I had a shower and packed up then we went for breakfast before saying our good-byes.

There were tears and hugs and love all around as people left... such bonds formed amongst all the ladies... I drove home my mind full and heart heavy after such an amazing experience over the weekend.

No words can describe how AMAZING some of these women are... I only wish they all knew how absolutely beautiful they are inside and out....

So as Forks 2011 comes to an end (though some lucky ladies are still there a day or two more) the recovery begins... while the hangover and exhaustion will probably fade first, my full mind and heavy heart will last... I FLOVE THESE BITCHES!

MORE PICS ON FACEBOOK Mandy S Mind!

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Besides the mumerous wonderful people I already mentioned above, here are some other shout-outs:

Obviously @JennyJerkface @SnarkierThanYou @LatchkeyWife @Myg

@Jaymes805 (awesome chikita!!)

@DangrDafne (who I got to give her abduction pposter prize too finally)

@muffintopped (party girl)

@fatgirlslimmed

@Vitaminr70 (epic Rainier beer box hat)

@Twi_Lin (who made scrabble letter Rob pins that are awesome and I won't put in the wash this year)

@Double_Dippin (who was hair molested)

@tattoomickey (who organized a great bella italia trip)

@Rikki_DD (who has an unhealthy obsession with Michael Bolton)

@donnersun

@thePPMonster (who put me in my place when I made fun of my husband for pre-ordering an xbox game... "um, you are in FORKS right now" ha ha point taken!)

@LCM174EV

@twipolar_wife

(who has a master plan to be my bff and while i distract Rob with petty convo she indulges in other parts of him) @musingbella

@livingWEdward

@Sweden_Anna

@SwedenSara

@TheRugbyMom (who discovered "someone else's thong" ont he sidewalk this a.m. ha ha)

I am missing a ton of people... but I am horrible with matching twitter names to real names to faces... typically I can only get two of them not all three... add the amount of booze and hilarious incidents as well as how tired I currently am... yes, this list will be updated...but first.. I MUST SLEEEEEEP