Fort Week

This was my 3rd annual fort week! Which kind of turned into a little over 2 weeks. It just keeps getting longer. This first time I did it, I only left it up for the weekend. Last year I left it up for a week. This year, I only intended to leave it up for a week, but it ended up staying up for 2 weeks.

It is funny because last year I was so excited to put the fort back up. I was so excited that I even announced it in the good news minute in Relief Society. However, only a couple of my friends were into it. People probably thought I was a super geek. I don't care, I slept in it every night. This year, before I even put it up, I was getting excited about fort week and would tell people it was coming up. To some I talked about it for months. I even created a facebook event so that a lot of people could be involved in fort week. Not only did people think it was cool this year, but they were excited about fort week. In fact, one guy told me that Fort Week and Mario Kart live is the highlight of my personality (Thanks Dave). People could not get enough of fort week(s).

And so Fort Week began. Let me share with you what went down during the week.

We kicked off with the traditional friday night movie with my homemade pizza which I have made every year in the fort. We watched Joe vs the Volcano. After that Oliver wanted to watch another movie so just he and I watched the Goonies after.

Next night I had my roommate fort night. I made homemade pizza again (different kind) and we had popcorn and donuts and we watched 27 Dresses.

Next I had a special fort night with Rich and Jay... because we are all buds and I had been talking to them about fort week for a long time. We were not going to watch a movie though, we were going to play a Star Wars Super Nintendo game (appropriate don't you think?) that Rich had (although he doesn't have a super nintendo, so he just left the games with me). I also had snacks for them. Funny story... when telling Jay about fort night he told me he had high expectations for my fort. He also mentioned that unless it involved pillows in the building process and you had to crawl in to the fort... it wasn't a real fort. When he said that I thought to myself... snap! I will have to make some adjustments before he comes over. So I did. I made a special entrance just for Jay. He loved it and approved. PS we were up until almost 3am playing that Star Wars game... and we didn't even beat it.

Next I invited the girls over to watch The Bachelorette in the fort. I even taped up pictures of all the remaining guys in the show. Sara and I are pointing to our favorite guy... Arie. We like Jef too, but Arie first. :)

The next day, I had a post date in the fort. After going to dinner and hanging out with another couple... we hung out in the fort until midnight. It was fun. He also approved of the fort and told me that I should have it semi-annually instead of annually. I will consider that suggestion this next Winter. I don't want it to because less special by doing it more often. We shall see. He also gave me ideas of how to improve for next time.

Thursday night I was going to take down the fort because it would have been a week since I had put it up... but instead, Megan and Steph wanted to spend the night in the fort and watch a movie. I can't argue with that... especially since last year I slept in the fort every night and this year I had not yet. We had a great time. We fell asleep to "While you were Sleeping".

I then went out of town and the fort stayed up. When I got back, I didn't want to take it down. I told myself I would take it down the next day... but then my roommates were gone all week long, so it was really easy to just keep it up. We ended up watching the Bachelorette again in the Fort. Megan and I wanted to do another sleepover, so we did, and this time Liz came because she couldn't last time and this time Steph was out of town. This time we fell asleep to 'Sleepless in Seattle".  Before Megan and I fell asleep to the movie, we put Liz to sleep by singing to her and playing guitar.

The rest of what went on during week two of fort week was a blur. Except Thursday's music night. Nate Lowe and Jason Gardner usually hold music night at their house, but when they found out that the fort was still up, they asked me if I could host. I of course said yes. What really made me laugh was the email that he put out to the ward. The email was titled "Fortnightly Music Night in the Fort" and it said this:

"If you've ever taken a Book of Mormon class at BYU you may have learned about Chiasmus, a writing structure used by the Hebrews which crops up a few times in the BoM,  It's built kind of like a palindrome, such that the first and last ideas are the same, then the second and penultimate, etc., and the culminating point of the work, the most important idea to remember, is placed in the middle of the structure for emphasis.  Why do I mention this, you ask?  Take another look at the subject line.  Mind-blowing, I know.

Yes, our very own Tracy Mills has joined forces with us this week, which means Music Night will be held in her awesome fort!  Cozy!  So, here are the details: Tracy's place (1462 E 1370 S) on Thursday, June 28, at 9:00 PM.  See ya there!"

I have NEVER had that many people in the fort at one time before. It was kind of an awesome feel for music night though. It was a good time. My friend Matt Brewster even came to this music night and played his violin. It was great.

The rest of fort week(s)... this is pretty much went down. A lot of video game playing. Mario and Star Wars. It was good times, but it was time for the fort to come down. I was surprised how sad people were when the fort was gone. I'm just so glad that people appreciate fort week as much as I do. I think it is such a fun summer tradition. I want to do it forever... when I'm married and have kids... my kids will probably be so embarrassed of me. ha ha.

Until next fort week...