Girls Weekend 2015

I feel like twirling and singing and skipping and laughing and dancing and all of the things you do when you're carefree. I just spent a weekend with some of my sweetest girlfriends and it was so, so, so, so good for my soul. 

Last year, me and these 5 fabulous friends of mine met up in Fredericksburg for a weekend of unwinding and talking and eating and also talking and also eating. It was amazing and we vowed to make it a yearly thing. It's hard to accomplish. We became friends when we all lived in Houston, and now the 6 of us are scattered across Texas in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fredericksburg. 

We don't get to see each other that often, but we do have an all day, every day running text conversation going about motherhood and family life and venting our frustrations and "Diagnose this rash on my kid, please" and "Which outfit do you like better?" and "WHAT DO YOU DO FOR TEETHING PLEASE HELP ME"  and things like that. They are daily life savers, these girls.

Since last year's weekend, 2 more babies have joined us.  If you include the babies in the tummies, we have 11 children between us. It takes lot of planning and the cooperation of the schedules of all 6 of us, plus our husbands (and sometimes grandparents!) to make this thing a reality. 

We call it the Whine Free Wine Weekend. Whine Free meaning we won't have our precious, adorable, amazing, God's-gift children requesting things from us. Wine meaning, well, wine. 

When planning this little wonder weekend, we realized that we would be leaving our husbands for Valentine's Day. I told Grant that nothing would be more romantic than me having a weekend off. I mean, for real. Romance changes over the years!

So this year, we gathered at the condo in College Station. When we arrived there was lots of squealing and hugs and hellos and words and "you look so skinny!" and "I miss you!" and "I love your earrings!" and things of that nature. We had agreed, since it was Valentine's Day and all, that we would bring each other a little Valentine, a five dollar limit, for each of us. It was so fun to see our "happies" on the table. 

And yes, we made shirts.

Our annual mirror pic! Liz, Trish, Liz, Me, Sarah, and Hayley. And there are 2 babies in this pic as well. Can't wait to meet that little boy and little girl.

To kick things off, we loaded in the car and turned on the Taylor Swift album and headed to The Dixie Chicken, otherwise known as The Chicken.

The Chicken involves Tijuana fries and fried pickles and chips and queso and feeling elderly because of all the precious little hot thing college girls walking around. But we had a blast! And the food was amazing.

When we got back home, we got in our pajamas and settled in to the living room, cozied up on the couch with blankets to start the proceedings: THE TALKING.

Here's the thing. A lot has happened to this group in the last year. We've had new babies and losses and deaths and drama and job changes and moves and new houses and renovations and heartbreak and great joy and we needed to kind of discuss some of those things. From the silly to the mundane to the tragic, we said it all. Most of it was playful and hilarious. But I do love our more tender moments. These ladies are some of the most encouraging and edifying I've ever known. We stayed up till 3am. Not the usual, but much needed.

Saturday morning we woke up to find sweet Trish making us breakfast. After we enjoyed our coffee, we most certainly put on matching shirts and scarves (BECAUSE WHY NOT) and headed to Celebrity for pedicures and massages.

Hands down, one of the best massages of my life. Seriously. It was amazing. In fact, at the point in the massage when you flip over and lay on your back, I actually said out loud to the masseuse "I'm so happy right now." 

And then we got pedicures. 

This is my super, super relaxed face.

Then we piled back in the car and headed to lunch at Madden's, which was heavenly. (Y'all, how did we not get a picture there?!)

Then it was back to the condo where we rested up and Facetimed with our kids and made homemade pizzas and continued with the talking and the solving of the problems. There was even some cathartic crying and some prayer. Good for my soul, I'm tellin' ya.

This morning we got up and got ready and cleaned up and packed up and hugged and sent each other on our way.

I came home feeling replenished, thankful, happy, loved on, and blessed. And encouraged and validated and all of those things. 

To the Whine Free Club, I love y'all to the moon and back. Y'all are JEWELS. Absolute jewels. I miss you. Y'all come visit me in the new house.