A few months ago my friend Colleen invited me and several other college friends down for a weekend at her grandparents place in ...
Naples, Florid.
You've never heard of it?
Everyone was quick to jump on the invite but I was like, "eh." I mean, I do have a weirdly high standard of living and am accustomed to some pretty palatial surroundings ...
... but Simon was so kind and generous and switched call weekends with someone and gladly volunteered to watch the kids over Halloween and the dreaded DST (oh, have you not happened upon the parental complaint heard round the net? wink) so, twist my arm.
And I guess our digs weren't awful ...
... touring the grounds while Grace dabbled in a bit of photo journalism, aka snapped phone photos for her professional website, aka her mom blog.
It would do.
But, really. It was such a wonderful weekend and I was completely spoiled and did not deserve a single second of the fun or the glorious, GLORIOUS uninterrupted hours upon hours of sleep.
Here we have the three married ladies on the trip. They were affectionately dubbed, "the washed up old hags" of the weekend by the non-marrieds of the crew.
... and Saturday night {formerly known as} live. Please tell me you can tell that I curled Colleen and Caitlin's locks (the ladies to my left, your right)? Because I did.
After dinner on Saturday, Colleen got my dancing shoes' hopes up by really talking up a super fun bar across the street that. She claimed it was great for dancing.
Imagine my surprise and delight when we strolled in to find this wild scene ...
... this is fun, hear it roar.
We waited it out and watched as a crowd of very spry 50-70 year olds got down to the kind of music that you typically hear the first hour of a wedding (We Are Family, lots of Michael Jackson, etc) and bug-asked the deejay if she might indulge us in a current ditty or three to which she said, "look at the crowd I'm working with ... " fair enough.
But eventually she delivered.
A real bride. Not a day late costume, I eavesdropped on her conversations to make sure.
The girls were super supportive of my Whole30 lifestyle and even let me tag along on their trip to a little shop by the name of, "Serious Cookie" ... I can still smell every single one of them.
Day 14. I will survive.
The one teeny tiny little snag was the apparent cold snap that Naples was experiencing. It was mostly gorgeous and sunny but the wind did flare a few times ...
We went for a walk on the beach and encountered this seagull unable to take flight because of the crazy gusts and when he/she finally got up the wind carried the helpless gull backwards and far, far away.
I hope there was a happy ending there.
Back at the Camp, St. Simon weathered "11834349048 fights" (his words) and took the kids trick-or-treating around the block and did loads upon loads of laundry, and left 3943984209348 Crock-Pot recipes open on the computer for me to find when I got home. Not on purpose, I'm sure.
The time spent with friends and our friendships that transcend time and moves and marriages and kids was way too short but the time away from Simon and the kids was way too long so I think it all balanced itself out in the end.
And no, I would never ever do it again. ;)
Naples, Florid.
You've never heard of it?
Everyone was quick to jump on the invite but I was like, "eh." I mean, I do have a weirdly high standard of living and am accustomed to some pretty palatial surroundings ...
... but Simon was so kind and generous and switched call weekends with someone and gladly volunteered to watch the kids over Halloween and the dreaded DST (oh, have you not happened upon the parental complaint heard round the net? wink) so, twist my arm.
And I guess our digs weren't awful ...
... touring the grounds while Grace dabbled in a bit of photo journalism, aka snapped phone photos for her professional website, aka her mom blog.
It would do.
But, really. It was such a wonderful weekend and I was completely spoiled and did not deserve a single second of the fun or the glorious, GLORIOUS uninterrupted hours upon hours of sleep.
Here we have the three married ladies on the trip. They were affectionately dubbed, "the washed up old hags" of the weekend by the non-marrieds of the crew.
... and Saturday night {formerly known as} live. Please tell me you can tell that I curled Colleen and Caitlin's locks (the ladies to my left, your right)? Because I did.
After dinner on Saturday, Colleen got my dancing shoes' hopes up by really talking up a super fun bar across the street that. She claimed it was great for dancing.
Imagine my surprise and delight when we strolled in to find this wild scene ...
... this is fun, hear it roar.
We waited it out and watched as a crowd of very spry 50-70 year olds got down to the kind of music that you typically hear the first hour of a wedding (We Are Family, lots of Michael Jackson, etc) and bug-asked the deejay if she might indulge us in a current ditty or three to which she said, "look at the crowd I'm working with ... " fair enough.
But eventually she delivered.
A real bride. Not a day late costume, I eavesdropped on her conversations to make sure.
The girls were super supportive of my Whole30 lifestyle and even let me tag along on their trip to a little shop by the name of, "Serious Cookie" ... I can still smell every single one of them.
Day 14. I will survive.
The one teeny tiny little snag was the apparent cold snap that Naples was experiencing. It was mostly gorgeous and sunny but the wind did flare a few times ...
We went for a walk on the beach and encountered this seagull unable to take flight because of the crazy gusts and when he/she finally got up the wind carried the helpless gull backwards and far, far away.
I hope there was a happy ending there.
Back at the Camp, St. Simon weathered "11834349048 fights" (his words) and took the kids trick-or-treating around the block and did loads upon loads of laundry, and left 3943984209348 Crock-Pot recipes open on the computer for me to find when I got home. Not on purpose, I'm sure.
The time spent with friends and our friendships that transcend time and moves and marriages and kids was way too short but the time away from Simon and the kids was way too long so I think it all balanced itself out in the end.
And no, I would never ever do it again. ;)
I love this. We need a break. We need to remember a smidgeon of life pre-kid. And just laugh with our girlfriends--not just over late night texts. Beautiful ladies! So glad you got to go!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is DST??? Now I'm scared.
Daylight savings time, when they jack the clocks and your kids are up even earlier than normal.
DeleteDuh!!! Hahaha my three have been terrible, of course.
DeleteLove that you got to have that time! Time with girlfriends is so rejuvenating! But, anywhere, Florida is always fun! And, anywhere that lets you have uninterrupted sleep is gold, beautiful, perfect, and amazing! :)
ReplyDeleteYes - what is DST? Sounds like an awesome weekend!
ReplyDeleteNaples is so pretty... I love when we get to (very rarely) visit our family down there. Glad you got to have a fun getaway weekend with friends!
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing!! You totally deserve a weekend or a week of uninterrupted sleep! And did you say DST? Guess that explains why I missed a few things. Throwing pregnancy brain under the bus...for sure! Glad you got a girls weekend though!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like fun! Color me VERY impressed that you didn't take a break from Whole 30 for the weekend...
ReplyDeletenot dst, it's standard time that is ruining the sleep of parents everywhere. we turned dst off which is why it will now be dark by dinner. grrr. i hate standard time.
ReplyDeleteSo very happy you got to get away, sleep and be renewed in your lifelong friendships. Sounds like a lovely weekend indeed. Yay for husbands willing to hold down the fort to allow a Mama to rest. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like the old hags had loads of fun ;). Actually, I had to laugh at the bar scene, Naples is KNOWN for their very large retired population...one of the many reasons I've told the hubs we are moving to Marco island once the kids are out.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a gloriously fun weekend! Aaaand I as well had no idea what DST meant. You kids are too hip for me.
ReplyDeletesoooo that "club" seemes kind of fun. I dig wedding music. lol
ReplyDeleteAhhh, weekends away with friends are the best kind of weekends! My 4 girlfriends and I getaway for one whole weekend every year (girls weekend...holla!) and it is pure bliss and I always leave excited about the next year vacation!!! Looks like you girls had a great time!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a weekend of bliss. :)
ReplyDeleteYou guys (girls) look like models.... how does a whole group look so good when they aren't chosen like a cast on a TV series?
ReplyDeletedid a double take--your table and my table, well I don't know how to say this, but they're twins and must have been separated at birth! OMG to see the cereal scattered I had to laugh because we're kind of beyond that and on to more dangerous stuff like MODEL glue and (FML) perler beads but those days of edible table messes were, in retrospect, kind of nice because they wipe off.....
ReplyDelete