Girls Trip 2014

Girls Trip 2014 was our 11th annual girls trip, and our very first non-beach girls trip! Each girls trip has it's own special memories, but this is probably one of the most special trips because we were attending Angela's wedding in Canada! We were so excited to get to celebrate with her as she married her dream man, Charles.  It was so great to get to know him a bit, and we are looking forward to getting to know him better next year on our Girls Trip (with husbands tagging along)…

We started out by Ash, Melissa, and I flying into Montreal, renting a car, then driving the 2 hours south to Ottawa. We had a yummy dinner, complete with Poutine (YUCK!):

On that Friday, we headed out for some breakfast and coffee at a local cafe:

Then we went to see Ange and meet Charles.  Ange put us to work (well, Melissa):

just teasing.  Melissa totally volunteered.

We spent the rest of afternoon in downtown Ottawa, and it was beautiful.  We had high tea at the Chateau Laurier:

That's the Chateau Laurier in the background.  It's one of the most beautiful hotels!

the 2 preggos (due 1 week apart!)

We got pedicures:

This is Parliament.  SO beautiful.

I sure do have beautiful friends.  :-)

And we ate Indian food for dinner that night, in our hotel room, in our comfy clothes…because we are wild, party animals:

The next morning was the wedding, and it was absolutely perfect, but we expected nothing less from Angela!

All of the wine bottles had a significant location either to Charles, Angela or both.
It was such a great idea!

First in line for appetizers! 

After the most beautiful, fun wedding celebrating Ange and Charles, we headed off to Mont Tremblant about 2 hours north of Ottawa. Dave had been there before and said that we just had to go visit- and we were glad we did.

But on the way, someone got a little sleepy:

Mont Tremblant has a gorgeous walking village, and we stayed at a hotel right in the middle of it. The weather was perfect!

We started our morning off right with a Canadian donut: the beaver tail.

In the winter, Mont Tremblant is a ski village, but in the summer it's perfect for hiking.  We took the gondola up to the top of the mountain for a day of hiking.

You can see the village of Mont Tremblant in the background

As you can see, the views were amazing.  

After a day of hiking, we headed to the beautiful city of Montreal for a little bit of European flair.  Unfortunately, it rained one of the days we were there, so we were stuck enjoying the sights from our car.  But we still managed to eat lots of yummy food, enjoy each other's company, and laugh lots.

What food for my soul to spend 6 days with these ladies! And what a blessing to have the very best friends a girl could ever ask for.  As always, I'm already looking forward to next years' trip!

Quick weekend getaway

The last weekend in June my mom, Tasha, Lauren and I dashed away for a quick getaway just south of Austin for a little girl time.  We stayed at an amazing B&B (which also included lunch and dinner):

We ate lots of yummy food, had a few spa treatments, went hiking, visited a winery and a brewery, shopped our hearts out at the outlet mall, and spent lots of time together visiting.

I am so thankful that these ladies are not only my family, but also my friends! Here's to making this a yearly tradition!!!

Celebrity Sighting alert!

This summer my work trip was in Portland, Oregon.  It was a jam-packed week of work, with not a whole lot of sight seeing or opportunity for leisure.  We did stay at a really nice hotel downtown, and we had heard that Michael Jordan was staying there as well.  Thinking he would keep a low profile and not enter the public areas of the hotel, I didn't really think that I'd brush shoulders with him. As we were relaxing in the bar one afternoon, I was facing the entrance to the far, and low and behold, in waltzes Michael Jordan.  I recognized him as soon as I saw him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't signing autographs or taking pics with fans.  I was pretty bummed, but I understand.  He did take a few minutes to chat with us and was super nice.  Look how big his hands are!!

New Neighbor!

Right after we got back from Mexico, my grandma moved in to the nursing home about .5 mile from our house.  It was very sad to see her move into a nursing home, as she likes to think of herself as totally independent.  But, her dementia was getting to be too debilitating, so it was time to get full-time care.  It is an amazingly nice facility, and we have been able to see her several times a week, which my kids (and I) absolutely love.

Rewind back to May...

It was one of the busiest summers in the books for us, so blogging took a backseat.  Now to play catchup.

As soon as we finished our camping trip, we did laundry, re-packed our bags and headed to Mexico for a week.  It was a fabulous vacation- not only because of the amazing beach, beautiful water and pure relaxation, but also because we vacationed with our friends Nick and Molly (and their daughter Audrey).  We rented a condo on the beautiful island of Isla Mujeres, just a short ferry ride from Cancun.

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Ready to fly!

Visiting the Turtle hatchery.  SUPER cool.

17 weeks pregnant

We had a wonderful time relaxing and hanging out as a family and with friends.  It was the perfect start to a busy summer!