An Afternoon with Friends

Today a few of my girlfriends and their little ones made the drive up from Phoenix to come hang out with Henry and me. We had big plans: a pizza lunch at Bill's, running around the square, and hopes of ending our afternoon with cupcakes. We somehow managed to accomplish everything on our to-do list and also fit in a stop for some coconut iced tea (my favorite).

The kids range in age which is a lot of fun- Henry is the youngest at 18 months, Layla the blondie is 21 months, curly-headed Lola Birdie is 2 1/2 and then handsome Dillon is 3 1/2! They're all so cute together but Lola and Dillon are especially darling and hold hands everywhere they go.

Today's weather was absolutely perfect- it was sunny and a bit breezy, around 70 degrees. I couldn't think of a better day to have my hot-weather Phoenician friends come up and escape their rising temperatures! I always wish all of my girlfriends lived in one place, but for now I'll settle for frequent visits like today's- we had such a great time.

Here are some photos from our afternoon -

LA Girls' Trip

I spent this past weekend in California with two of my favorite girls and had a wonderful, fun, and relaxing time. We stayed at the Thompson Beverly Hills, and after a weird "your reservation was somehow canceled by someone" situation, it turned out to be a great hotel (although they handled the situation very strangely...but that's a story for another day). Anyway, Anita, Andy and I flew into LAX and met at our rental car place before heading over to The Thompson, and it was so fun to have a reunion, since the last time the three of us were together was Las Vegas back in October when we took a girls' trip with a few more of our friends. I talk to Andy and Anita every single day- they have both become two of my closest friends and it was fantastic to be able to spend the weekend catching up in person.

After we got to the hotel and got settled we headed out to Real Food Daily for dinner. I've heard so much about this place and I was really excited to try it. I ordered the BLT wrap (all of their food is organic and vegan) and it was SO good. Really, really delicious and we all loved our meal. I highly recommend it, and I was so sad Hank and Henry weren't there to enjoy it too! After dinner we drove around LA and Hollywood for awhile; we did the Walk of Stars, checked out all of the touristy stuff, and oohed and ahhed over the beautiful homes up in the hills. We ended our night at Sweet Lady Jane's, a Hollywood bakery, and ordered a ton of desserts to split. The best of the group was the Key Lime tart...it was to-die-for.

The next morning we woke up and went to Toast for breakfast. It was also really, really good. We spent the rest of the day shopping in the rainiest weather and although we were soaked to the bone it was a fun time. After lunch I had a little meeting regarding some blog business, then later in the afternoon I started to feel really tired so I napped for a couple hours while the girls stayed out. They came back later to wake me up before dinner, and we headed out the door to El Cholo, our Mexican restaurant pick for the night.

(Are you noticing a theme here? Shop, eat, shop, eat! It was my kind of trip!)

Dinner was traditional Mexican food and my favorite part was probably the guacamole they made right at our table. We all loved it, but Andy started to feel a little sick afterward so Anita and I dropped her off at the hotel and headed over to Magnolia to pick up some cupcakes to go. We'd both experienced Magnolia in NYC before and weren't the hugest fans, and these treats unfortunately proved no different. I really love cake, but Magnolia has disappointed me a couple of times. We did get some cookies though that were great. We spent the rest of the night girl-talking and hanging out, enjoying our last night of vacation together.

The next morning we went to Swingers and ate great diner food, then did Fred Segal and a few other shops, and ended our afternoon with In-N-Out since Andy doesn't have one up in Seattle.  My flight home ended up being canceled due to the crazy snow we got, so I got on Anita's flight and we flew home to Phoenix.

I can't say enough how much fun this past weekend was. I feel lucky to have such wonderful girls in my daily life, and I also feel lucky to be able to have weekends away like this. And as much as I love going on fun trips with my girlfriends, nothing beats coming home to my boys.

Here are some random Instagram photos from the weeekend.

Sick day!

my dearest girlfriends for 10+ years, celebrating on Saturday night: Autumn, Erin, Shirley, me, and Alana.

I think sick days should be outlawed on Mondays. Poor Hank...we had the best weekend but then last night around 7pm his stomach started bothering him. We made it home, but around 1am the throwing up started. Yuck. I feel terrible to see him sick, but luckily he was able to stay home today and recuperate. Needless to say it's been a long day taking care of my two guys but now both of them are napping and I thought I'd take a moment to type out a little update.

The weekend was great, and we got to celebrate three of our friends' 30th birthdays on Saturday night. Erin and Alana had a joint party that started in Scottsdale with a scavenger hunt all around town, complete with Hummer limos.  Hank and I skipped that activity in favor of stopping by the party later in the evening (we're such old people sometimes) but it was fun to hear all about the wild day our friends had. After leaving Alana's house we went over to Canteen on Mill Ave. in Tempe to meet up with Sarah and friends, and we had a great night celebrating her as well!

It was weird because earlier in the day I popped over to CVS to pick up some cards, and found myself looking at the "sweet 16" cards in serious amazement. I've written about turning 30 probably more times than necessary, but I don't think it was until Saturday afternoon that it really hit me. For some reason those cards made me realize just how long ago my "sweet 16" actually was, and I think I probably stood in that section of the cards for 20 minutes too long, staring wistfully off into space, remembering my 16-year-old self, my sky-blue VW Passat, and how I thought I knew everything. It's insane that was over 15 years ago. Where did the time go? I swear, sometimes I still feel like I'm a teenager and I don't even know how I got here. Deep thoughts from the card aisle, I guess.

But anyway, yay for birthday fun. But not yay for me not taking any photos the entire night with my regular camera. So in lieu of those I have some iphone photos to share from the weekend, as much as I hate to share yet another IG collage. I prefer real, pretty photos to the washed out graininess of phone pictures, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. ;) I'm happy to at least have these.

I hope you had a great weekend! xoxo

Henry kills me with his cuteness // family photo // a delicious. super healthy pizza at my Mom's // Sar and me //

Auntie Lo and H. shopping at Whole Foods // heading out on Sunday morning // Sunday dinner - garden

fresh veggies and quinoa // some of my favorite people - Nat and Sar // Grandpa, Grammy and Henry

Girls' Christmas Party/Sleepover

Last night was our first annual girls' Christmas party sleepover!  It was so much fun, and I was pretty sad today to say goodbye to all of my girlfriends.  Nat and I decided to plan this little event a few months ago, and we had a lot of fun putting it together.  We decided to do a potluck, so each girl brought one or more dishes to share, and we had everything from vegan oatmeal cream pies to cucumber sandwiches, goat-cheese stuffed mushrooms to mini red velvet cupcakes. We also decided to do an ornament exchange, so each girl brought an wrapped ornament, we chose numbers, then picked a box. It was so fun to see what ornament everyone brought and received. Since we are going to do this party every year, I think it will be a fun tradition to have a little collection of ornaments as the years go by.

It was such a fun night, and it was another one of those times where I just had to pause, look around, and feel so thankful for all of this love in my life.  To have all of these girls from all of these different parts of my world in one place, all having the best time was pretty awesome. We went out downtown for awhile to look at the pretty Christmas lights and dance for a bit at some of the bars, and we ended the night in our pajamas, talking until 4am in my kitchen.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the friendships I have with my girls make my world go 'round and last night was so special. I already can't wait until our Christmas party next year.

Today was a great day too- we all slept in a bit, then went to lunch before the girls all left.  I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling being weirded out out about being home alone (what to do with all of that me-time?!), but then got into watching Water for Elephants and the day went by pretty quickly. Hank and Henry got home from Phoenix an hour ago, and I don't think I've ever been so excited to hear our garage door open. I missed them so much.

I'm off to bed now, but I wanted to share some photos. I was having too much fun to focus on taking many with my normal camera (next year we need a proper photobooth!), but here are a few via my iPhone and instagram that capture the weekend.

What happens in Vegas...

...stays in Vegas, right? I kind of feel that way because I don't really even know how to begin summarizing this past weekend, but I'll try my best! It was so, so much fun. Friday Anita drove up from Phoenix and picked me up, and we drove the three and a half hours to Vegas. The drive was quick and I don't think we even had a pause in our conversation. It's funny because Anita and I have been acquaintances for almost a decade- we go all the way back to livejournal days. It's only been in the last year or so that we've actually been hanging out...about time! ;) So yes, we had a great trip up there, and when we arrived we were greeted by Brittney, Vanessa and Andy. Interestingly enough outside of Anita and me, this entire trip was all based off knowing each other online. Brittney and I met from blogging years back, Vanessa and I the same, and Anita and I met Andy on Instagram. However, we all know people and have mutual friends from "real life" too...talk about a small world. All of us ended up walking across the street to Fashion Show Mall to shop for a bit, then we came back to the hotel and got ready for the evening. We ended up eating dinner at Holstein's. I got the vegan burger and it was really delicious but fell apart a little too easily. But besides that pretty great. Afterward we headed over to the Marquee in the Cosmopolitan, but not before admiring the Chandelier Bar, pictured below. I pretty much fell in love with that place. We stayed at the Marquee for a bit, but then decided to get a little crazy and venture off the strip to a local dive bar (via a cab with a driver that sounded EXACTLY like Larry's bff Jeff from Curb Your Enthusiasm), and afterward found ourselves dancing until 3:30am at Piranha, a gay club across the way. To say the night was insane was an understatement. My calves are still sore today from the 3-4 hours of non stop dancing. It was really one of my most favorite nights out I've ever had, and I'm still smiling about it today.

The next day we slept in for awhile, then headed to lunch and ended up shopping well into the evening. Saturday night we found ourselves at TAO, but for a short time. I think at that point we were all sick of being hassled about our tattoos (drunk people + a group of heavily tattooed girls is a recipe for annoyance on our part), so we ended up going back to the hotel and hanging out for the rest of the night. I slept in Brittney and Vanessa's room the first night, and then Anita and Andy's the second, and that night the three of us ended up talking until 5am! I kept thinking that I should probably try and get some sleep, but it was just way too much fun staying up like we were 12-year olds at a sleepover.

The next morning the other girls headed to the airport, and Anita and I eventually headed home. I can't even explain how amazing it is to see my sweet Henry after being away from him for a couple of days. I swear he was bigger and he was definitely making some new little noises. I sure love having fun with my friends, but nothing beats coming home to my boys.

Here are just a few photos from our trip. I'll tuck the rest away into a "what happens in Vegas..." folder on my computer, and look at them from time to time when I need a laugh. ;)