Girls Just Wanna Have FUN!

I was blessed with some amazing friends.

My parents built a new house and when we moved in

I was 12 and starting the 7th grade.

Stephanie and I didn't go long before connecting with these

3 girls who lived down the street.

Right off the bat we became instant friends, soul sistas!

We were probably the most immature girls, ever!

We didn't care.

We knew how to have a good time.

Boy bands of any kind, Spice Girls, Lifehouse, Weezer, 311 on repeat.

Laying out on the top of our parents roofs since nobody had a pool.

We had a boom box and spray bottles to keep us from not frying to a crisp up there!

Eating, lots of eating!

Goldfish crackers, picnic in a bag (bagged caesar salad kits), happy hour wings at Applebees,

lemonberry slushes from Sonic were some of our favorites to eat endlessly! 

I honestly don't know how we weren't severely over weight!

Cruising around in either Jessica's Corolla or Jenni's green Dodge truck nicknamed "the green bean" (we were lucky to have friends with cars).

Making up words to communicate with, like Narnie.

 "don't be a narnie"

??

Did I mention we were immature!

I remember popping lots of popcorn and hanging out front under the stars on blankets, talking the night away.

Goofing off in aerobics class at Mesa High

Too many girls camp adventures with high pitched squeals and contraband.

One time we really wanted to watch the live NSYNC concert and non of us had cable.

We drove to the cheapest motel we could find, which of course was in the sketchiest part of town.

We all pitched in and reserved a room so we could watch it on HBO!

When it was over we all drove home and slept in our own beds.

Of course without our parents knowing!

California beach trips after graduation.

YSA dances at Rockin' R Ranch

From left to right:

Jenni, Jessica, Stephanie, LaRee, and me

This was at the Snowflake temple open house.

I love that Travis is in the picture.

Funny how the boy that lived down the street, who also put up with us crazies,

ended up marrying Stephanie and is now my brother in-law!

I love that the trend for clothing at the time apparently was khaki!

And bob haircuts were all the rage!

Jenni was the first to get married.

This was at my bridal shower.

The clothing trend must have switched over to pastels:)

I also love this picture because it shows us in that first "adulting" phase.

We had it all covered: new mama (Jenni), prego (LaRee), newlywed (Jessica),

engaged (me), and dating (Stephanie)

 Dental school took a couple of them away for a few years.

Now we all live in Mesa or Gilbert!

We are good to stay in touch.

We like to get together for birthday lunches.

Here was one of our recent lunches.

We sure have dwindled down to just a few kids joining us!

Back in the day we had about 2 each running around.

Joe's Farm Grill is where we usually go, for that reason.

Lots of open space for kids to play while the moms chat away:)

The only down side is that we never have enough time to catch up!!

Once we get into a good conversation we either need to take a child to the potty or 

 leave to pick up the older kids from school.

At our last lunch in October I mentioned we needed a to do a girls weekend so we could

truly "hang out", like the good ol' days!

We all agreed and somehow we managed to find a weekend to slip away from mom life!

We started with shopping at Fashion Square Mall.

That in itself was a treat!

I cannot remember the last time I had a couple of hours to myself to shop.

Or even the last time I walked into a mall, to be honest!

We were sitting at this bench towards the end of shopping when we looked up to see

some familiar faces!

Travis took the kids to meet his friend who had driven down from Gallup for the weekend.

He had no idea we would be there!

Nothing like a happy reunion after 2 hours of being away from mom, lol!

It was like they had been away from her for days.

We ate dinner at the Thirsty Lion.

This might be a new favorite restaurant for me!

I wish you could see our food, but fitting the faces in the selfie was more important.

After dinner we went back to the cars and drove over to The Duce!

I had been to The Duce a few months back with Casey and other friends.

I knew we HAD to go.

It is hard to explain what this place is.

First off, it is in the sketchiest place in Phoenix.

You pull up to what looks like a sheet metal building surrounded by barbed wire fences

and homeless folks. 

If I hadn't gone with other people that had been before I would have never gotten out of the car!

However, once you get inside you are pleasantly surprised!

It is decorated in the cutest shabby chic décor.

And it is a party I tell ya!

It is not a club.

Just a really fun hang out spot.

They have foosball, and cornhole.

You can order food.

And the best, in the bar area there is a DJ and a dance floor!!

That is what we came to do...DANCE!

I sent Casey this picture saying I wish he were here!

Since he had the pleasure of coming last time and loved every second (sarcasm).

He instantly replied saying, wish I could be there, with a thumbs down.

dancing the night away!

Hula hoop contest!

About midnight we figured we better skidaddle and get some use out of our 

hotel room!

We still had a 30 minute drive to get to the Princess resort.

Once we got there we were pretty slap happy and could NOT find our room in the humungous 

resort!

We decided to turn around and use valet.

Which meant we got to be shuttled around in the golf cart, so VIP!

Of course after more talking we didn't fall asleep until 2:30 in the morning!

We had originally planned on going to a boot camp exercise class, ya we were too tired.

We slept and chilled in the room until it was time to start our Sparty!

Yep, I day at the spa was just what these old moms needed!

With the Sparty we got a free lunch before our massages.

Then it was off to the most heavenly day.

I'm pretty sure I'm sold on the spa.

You get to wear fluffy robes...

lounge on pool pillows in the heated roof top pool...

sit in the sauna, steam room, inhalation room, plunge in the cold tub then hop in the hot tub.

And we can't forget the massage you wished lasted another hour!

After a few hours of that we walked down to the beach pool at the resort.

I was the towel girl. You can never have enough towels!!

The weather that day was incredible.

I believe it was high 70's, in January!

I love you Arizona.

What is a girls trip without food?

We sat and ate.
Talked and talked (uninterrupted).
So much so that Jenni and I lost our voices!
It didn't help that we had colds.

The sun was starting to set.

Jenni and Jessica needed to leave.

I couldn't believe it was already over!

We said our goodbyes then Stephanie, LaRee and I went back up to the spa 

for more steam room and hot tub time!

We were getting in all that we could!!

After a stop at Sweet Republic for ice cream (yolo), I made it back home around 10pm

to the best hubby ever.

I was grateful he took time off of work to hold down the fort so I could relax with my friends.

It honestly was something I needed, but didn't know.

Friends are everything, and I sure have the best!

And I'm pretttty sure this will be a new tradish for us!

(had to say tradish, it is appropriate with this group:)

Hello 2018!

New Years Eve was on a Sunday this year!

We ate dinner at my parents house then headed back home

for a party on the street!

Our little cul-de-sac is so fun.

Lots and lots of kids and good grown up talk:)

between all of us families, we had some good fireworks going on!

She conked out around 11:30

ALMOST made it.

The next morning we went out to the desert with the Bartons!

This girl always needs to get warmed up to anything involving

strangers, quads... basically anything out of the ordinary routine.

The last hour she finally was willing to go on a quad ride with her dad.

Next thing I know she was driving it all by herself!

Baby steps with her.

But I was proud of her!

And now we need another quad.

1 between the 3 of them isn't working out so well in the sharing department.

Zoo

With Christopher and Jael in town for Christmas, and nobody pregnant, my mom

scheduled family pictures!

And it was exactly the title of this post ... a zoo!

With driving out to Timbuktu, a slight hike, jumping cactus and wandering children, an

emergency #2 in the portable potty right when the sun was setting perfectly, its a miracle these turned

out so amazing!

It continued with a day trip (yes, a solid 6 hours) at the zoo!

Snowboarding!

The boys got a snowboarding trip from Santa!

With Arizona's not so white winters, I was worried there wouldn't be anywhere to go!

I saw on the news that Snowbowl was open and making their own snow.

Casey took the day off of work and we headed up the day after Christmas!

The girls weren't invited on this trip.

Alison spent the night so she wouldn't have to get up at 4am to drive to our house.

She is the best babysitter, ever!

We woke up bright dark and early.

The lady on the phone said they were expected huge crowds,

being first in line would be best.

They opened at 8, ugh!

With a 2.5 hour drive, we had no choice but to leave super early.

Our timing was spot on!

After a quick breakfast and potty break at Jack in the Box,

we pulled at the base of Snowbowl right at 8!

We hurried and got dressed in our snow clothes.

I practically made them run to the lodge... to find us first (and the only ones) in line, lol!

The early bird gets the worm!

We rented our gear, put our stuff in lockers and off we went for a day of fun!

They had a deal where you got 2 free hours of lessons with the purchase of a lift ticket.

Casey was skiing for the first time, and I hadn't been since I was 12.

So we took advantage of that.

We paid extra for the boys to be in all day school.

It ended up being the BEST decision!

Ain't no way I was going to teach them!

They were mad at first, but at the end of the day admitted they had fun

and were glad they had an instructor to help them.

Here they are walking off with their instructor.

They only had one other boy in their class.

Which left us two!

It felt like a date since we had no kids to deal with:)

We ended up with an amazing instructor who was super helpful!

There were 3 others in our class.

Here we are at the bunny hill

The 2 hours flew by quick and it was already time to pick the boys up for lunch!

The lodge food was actually pretty descent.

They had a green chicken chili soup  that was yumm-o!

As we wolfed down our food, I kept reminding the boys to drink lots of water instead of soda.

Getting dehydrated is no fun.

They basically rolled their eyes at me and said they were.

Hmm, we'll see about that later.

After lunch we dropped the boys back off to their class while Casey and I hit the real slopes!

Another 2 hours flew by and we went down to the bunny hills to see how they were doing!

Their instructor informed us that he was impressed with both of them!

They were getting their heel and toe side down really well for first timers.

I'm pretty sure their ability to ride the swivel board helped them.

We bid farewell to Brian 

We did a few more runs with them.

This moving sidewalk lift was cool.

Snowbowl blew me away, it was so nice and updated!

I was expecting a run down ski resort.

Quite the opposite!

Then it was off to the big leagues!

I was nervous about getting them off and on the ski lift.

But with their new ski lift it went easy breezy!

You can barely see Lane standing up getting ready to go down his first big hill.

Rusty took off with Casey and I stayed with Lane.

He had a couple big biffs and I could tell he was starting to feel defeated.

I kept encouraging him to get up and that it was ok.

I'm pretty sure in his mind he would be able to sail down no problem.

Snowboarding is not that way, at all!

We were half way down when I got worried he would give up right then and there.

Luckily an instructor could see him struggle and stayed with him the rest of the way.

I don't know what he did or said, but it clicked and he made it down with a smile.

I asked if he wanted to go up again and he said yes!

Casey and Rusty had already made it to the top so we hopped on behind them.

This next run was night and day difference.

He was carving and barley falling.

At this point dehydration had hit Rusty and he was DONE.

Lane was itching to get as many runs in before it closed.

I took Rusty to the lodge to rest and get water.

I tried to take a good picture of him before we went up.

He was spent, and not willing to smile.

Poor kid.

Lane ready to head back up!

We spent the last 30 minutes with Rusty laying on a picnic table

while I video tapped.

He walked up to me to watch for a bit.

The sun setting looked so pretty.

The pro!

Why do kids pick up things so much faster than adults?!

Casey did awesome with skiing!

I don't think he fell once!

On our way down the mountain, Rusty was miserable!

His head was pounding and said his stomach hurt.

We pulled over to let him barf.

Instantly he said he felt better!

Definitely dehydration.

I had heard about an amazing pizza place in Flagstaff called Fat Olives.

Yep, it was mighty tasty!

We ate every single bit of food you see in this picture.

And you cant see the Caesar salad we already ate as an appetizer.

Can you say famished?