The best weekend of my life

I feel like I should say something incredibly profound about my college roommates and how deep our friendship runs.  About how when I said, "Hey girls, let's get together for a weekend" they were all down, no questions asked, no matter the cost or the inconvience.  Court (below) hopped on a plane at 5 am followed by a 6.5 hour drive to show us her shining face.  These girls mean everything to me.  I feel like God looked down on me and thought, "You know what?  I'm going to throw some stuff that might be a little tough for you.  At times you might feel like I'm being totally unfair to you and you might even be mad at me.  So to make it up I'm going to give you the best group of girl friends a gal could ever ask you.  They'll help you through it all and keep you grounded and safe." I love these girls like sisters and know they feel the same.  

And now, without further ado, I present to you our weekend.

We got to St. George about 1:00 on Friday and it was party time from the first second.  Can't you tell how absolutely delighted we are?!?

I realize now that I didn't get any pictures of the condo decor.  It was atrocious.  It was like space age meets grandma in the 1980s.  Somehow we loved it.

After we stuffed our faces with Cafe Rio (Hello!  Sal and Court were coming from out of state- you know that means we had to hit Cafe Rio at least once a day), our next destination was the pool.

The five of us laid out in a row to see across the pool from us, a line of boys laid out all in a row.  We yelled over, "ARE YOU ON A BOYS WEEKEND?!?"  "YES!" They yelled.  We yelled back, "WE'RE ON A GIRLS WEEKEND!"  They then invited us to the "rock pool" later that night with them and we said, "Oh, we're flattered, but we're married, thank you very much."  But you know what?  It's nice to know you still got it!  (We wanted to send Mandy, our only unmarried bestie, out with the boys (1 to 6 ratio- HOLLER!)  But she refused.  Missed the boat on that one, Mand!)

After the pool it was shower time so we could hit the tennis courts.  Naturally, we all just hopped in together.

Next up was tennis and there's not much to say about that except for that Amy beat me every time and nothing makes me more mad than being beat by Amy.  I shall have to practice more, my friends!

Dinner was at Larsen's.  While eating I noticed a man spending a lot of time trying to get a stuffed animal from the machine.  I cheered him on because I like to flirt with creepy old man.  When he actually won the stuffed little guy, he gave it to me.  My friends forced me to take a picture with him and I was kind of scared.

Dinner was followed be about six hours of the card game, Bang.  I kid you not.  We are vicious with that game and could play until the sun came up if our bodies didn't beg for sleep.  I am competitive as they come so I was absolutely furious with every single one of my best friends for at least ten minutes during the night, but isn't that what having best friends is all about?

DAY 2
First stop:  The pool.  Naturally.  The weirdest thing happened at the pool.  We were playing and jumping in and being wild and crazy like you should when you're with your besties at a pool on a Saturday afternoon.  The lifeguard kept rolling his eyes on us and trying to sleep.  Finally we yelled to him, "WHY DO YOU HATE US!?" To which he replied, "You're just really annoying."

I'll be!  A seventeen year old telling ME that I'm annoying?  Talk about a role reversal, my friends!

Next stop: Cafe Rio.  I wasn't joking about the eating there every day thing.  For you folks that aren't from Utah, if life ever calls you to this great state make sure you stop at Cafe Rio at least every 24 hours.  It's probably the best thing going for Utah.  The sweet pork is the sweetest, most delicious meat you will ever put in your mouth.  I could eat there every day and never get sick of it.  When you visit Utah email me and I will tell you exactly what to get for a party in your mouth.  Heck, I'll even meet you there to eat with you!  And Utah people, if you don't get to Cafe Rio at least twice a month you are not showing your gratitude to that great establishment!

Next stop:  Hiking and exploring in caves.  One thing I love about my group of girlfriends is that we are all high energy and love to move and play.  Since we were in desert land we thought it only fitting that we take some time exploring like the true little kids we are.  We took glowsticks in the pitch black caves and splattered those bad boys everywhere and then played hide and seek.  If you put the glowsticks all over the cave walls and all over your bodies you can blend right in with the scenery.  It was crazy fun.  If you are ever in St. George you have to do this in Snow Canyon.  Best. Activity. Ever.

I look like a serious midget and I have no idea why Amy is sticking her leg in between mine...

Side note... somehow Amy and I ended up dressing alike for almost everything we did.  We're basically the same person except for I have a slightly better filter than she does and I am not currently breast feeding.

The night ended with Papa John's pizza and dirty Dr. Peppers (coconut Dr. Pepper- have you had one?  They are to DIE for!) and more hours upon hours of Bang!  We only stopped at midnight for our pazuki tradition.  We stopped playing around 2 am and then laid on the bed and talked until 4 am.  Going to bed meant leaving in the morning, and gosh darn it, why can't we all just live together again?

So grateful for these girls- they are one of the biggest blessings in my life.  Can't wait for next year's trip!

And Vanessa, you were so missed!  But I know that little baby dying to come out of your tummy will be worth it!

You want someone to work for free at your wedding? I'm your gal!

This weekend I flew to Mexico.

I mean New Mexico.

It's all the same, right?

My college roommate and best friend, Courtney, was sealing the knot.  Or so she said.  I refused to believe she would actually get married until I saw it for myself.  

And then I did see it.

And now she's married.

And on her honeymoon.

Anyone else jealous?

The weekend was more than fabulous.  I left Hubs at home, not by my own volition, but because he had commitments he couldn't get out of.  So I kissed him goodbye at 4 am on Friday morning (Yes!  4 am!) and was off for Mexico.  Or New Mexico.  Whatevs.

The first main event was the bachelorette party.  We held it in as public a place as possible so that Courtney could get real embarrassed when we made her open the lingerie and display it for all to see.  We all told Courtney why we loved her and gave her some advice in the marital ways.  I told her to always carry a knife on you because you never know when your husband is going to turn on you.

I kid.

I kid.

The best part of the wedding may have been getting together with all my college best friends again.  I haven't seen Sally (peach sweater) since my own wedding a year and a half ago.  We haven't all been together since Sally's wedding two and a half years ago.  Naturally this makes us all wonder how in the world so much time has passed and has it really been three years since college and when did we all grow up?

Saturday morning brought the temple festivities.  The temple ceremony was absolutely beautiful and reminded me of all the reasons marriage rocks and how grateful I am to be with Hubs forever.  Maybe one day I'll write more about Mormon marriage temple ceremonies, but for now it sufficieth to say that they are pretty dang awesome.

After that it was back to the house to get everything ready for the reception that night.  Courtney's family is so ambitious.  And talented.  And completely out of their minds.  They did everything for the wedding themselves.  And I mean everything.  From sewing table runners to designing and making the dress to the photography to the flowers to the mounds of food, there wasn't a thing they left to the "professionals".    What this really meant was that for anyone semi close to Courtney, we would be spending the hours of 2-7 pm slaving away like some kind of modern form of indentured servants.  I considered complaining, but I was with my best friends in the whole world and the weather was absolutely perfect and Courtney was happier than I'd ever seen her.  Who can complain under circumstances like that?  

And then, it was reception time.  I spent most of the time following Vanessa and Sally around and trying to get them to laugh at my mediocre jokes.  The rest of the time was spent eating.  There was a ten minute period of time there where we hunted Courtney down and made her take a bunch of obnoxious photos with us, just like the good old days.  Oh, and we also had to patrol the smore station because there were little rugrats burning up marshmallows and launching them into the garbage cans.  I had just been thinking what an awesome idea that was when Vanessa started yelling at the kids.  She told them to cut it out and they were going to burn the whole reception down and didn't they know anything?!?  She has a child so she knows that kids aren't supposed to be doing that kind of crap.  One day I'll have my own kid and I'll also know that throwing flaming marshmallows isn't okay but for now I am totally ignorant in the ways of marshmallow burning and throwing.

And that's it, folks!


Oh... we might have found a couple of minutes to decorate the car.

Isn't Courtney so lucky to have us?!?

On a total side note, I puked on the airplane on the way home.  It was stormy and there was turbulence the whole way.  Bad turbulence.  I just leaned over and barfed right into that little barf bag of mine.  The girl sitting next to me shot me some nasty looks as if she was positively disgusted by me.  Now, I know that no one wants to sit next to a barfer on a plane, but is it too much to ask for an "Are you okay?" or "Do you need anything?"  instead of a dirty sneer?  Please, woman, I didn't choose to throw up.  If I did choose it I would have done it all over you.

And that's all, folks!