Girls Only Getaway

This was my GIRLS GETAWAY TRIP!!!! My best friend, Mari, and I had been planning a get away with eachother since last year. She's about 20 weeks pregnant now and trips to the library for a little peace and solitude weren't enough, so I decided it was time. My road trip with the kids began early one morning at about 7am. In order to make this getaway happen, I had to first drop the kids off at my mom's in North Carolina. It was the only way. Thank goodness she's only 8 hours away from us. Driving with kids, however, makes it 10. Ten wonderful hours. : ) Surprisingly, the kids did really well up until the last hour. By that time, I was just like, "Hey, you go ahead and let it all out. You earned it." We made a few stops along the way though to ease their burden. This picture was taken at a beautiful rest stop in West Virginia. I thank the Lord for rest stops. They made the trip very bearable. This is the little face that greets me everyday. He is a beautiful little angel.

Before I took off to D. C. to see Mari, I stayed with my mom for a couple of days. Not only would she be watching my kids, but she was also currently watching two of my sister's kids: Carson and Noah. They're much older than mine, but they had a great time playing together.

Swinging in Nana's backyard. Swings are the trick to any childhood ailment.
Just check out these smiles!

Eating some yummy yet greasy food from Mickey D's. It was so nice having my mom help out. She and I have about the same limit on our stress levels, but she was all smiles just having more of her grandchildren together. She's a trooper! I love you, Mom! You rock!

I have a mental block when it comes to taking pictures of family when I'm around them! I completely forget. I got a few though. Carson is my sister's little girl. My nephew, Noah, was also there, but I failed to get any pictures of him. Sorry, Noah. Next time....4th of July. For sure!!

Eventually, I left for Mari's, which is about a 5 hour drive. Not too bad at all when you don't have to worry about somebody's binky dropping or diaper needing to be changed. I arrived at Mari's in the evening around 6. After she went to a meeting for her calling at church, we went out to eat at Noodles and Co. SUPER good. I ate the Japanese Pan Noodles and was pleasantly pleased. : ) The next day, Mari had to work, so I slept in til 10am (Whoa baby!) and then rode the metro into D.C. I'd been thinking about visiting the Holocaust Museum ever since our last trip to D.C. in December.

I stayed at the Holocaust Museum from about 12:45pm to 5pm. The permanent exhibit is HUMONGOUS, so if you ever want to see it, don't take your small children and plan to be there for at least an hour and a half. And that's if you walk pretty quickly through it. I enjoyed it IMMENSELY. "Enjoyed" may not be the right word since it is full of sorrow, but I felt more at peace with having acquired more knowledge about it. And it left me wanting...for more love in the world, I guess.
Once I got back, Mari and I took off for our getaway! Woohoo! To kick-start our evening, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY. This is us waiting to be buzzed in. And it was such a BEAUTIFUL evening that we ate out on the patio. I don't know why, but little things like made my weekend better than amazing. It was PERFECT.

THE BEST CHEESECAKE is the Red Velvet Cheesecake. It's DIVINE. We also got the chocolate cake cheese cake. That was awesome too, but not as good as the red velvet.

As we were walking back to our car, we heard fireworks and could seem them lighting up over the mall! It was THE perfect evening.

And this is where you will just have to imagine, because I didn't take any pictures while we were in the hotel. I'm still waiting pictures from Mari. We were SO crazy though! I felt like a teenager again. First, we had the best time joking about our non-existent PLATONIC relationship with the desk clerk, Ronnie, who was a girl. (Trapper said that sounded confusing) so let me try to explain that better....basically, when we were checking into the hotel, Ronnie, the desk clerk, said we could call her if we needed anything. She was a really sweet girl, so we almost did it a couple of times just to be like, "Hey Ronnie! How are you? That's all...See ya later!" haha It was ridiculous. So, the whole night when we needed ANYTHING, or we couldn't find something at walmart, we joked that we should call Ronnie. ANYWAY.....lol Stupid, I know... So, yes, at Walmart, we bought matching nighties that had a picture of Betty Boop and said, "Girls just wanna have funds." We also bought treats and a magazine to gossip about all the celebrities. Then, we put on lavender smelling face masks and ate way too much sugar while we looked through our magazine. And after that, we watched "When in Rome" on t.v. and were sleeping by 2:30am. Before I could even enjoy the few hours of peaceful sleep, it was morning.....

And what's a girls only weekend without a little shopping at the mall!? We moseyed along to different places like The Yankee Candle, Victoria's Secret, Nail Pro, and Claire's, but that was mostly just for laughs. It's all teenager stuff and we're most definitely too mature to be teenagers... ; )

Sexy

This is just after our pedicure. Mari did her toes in red (being more mature and womanly) while I did mine in purple (doing it more wild).

After our shopping excursion, we went home to Mari's husband. He was just about in tears he was so happy to her home again. haha J/k. But he absolutely adores her, and at times I felt like a monstrous third wheel. We were the "Three Musketeers" though. We picked up a few provisions (ice cream and movies) and then we played "Settlers of Catan." Ahh, the joys of "Settlers." haha We had a really fun time together. I hope we can do it again soon!

I stayed at Mari's until Sunday afternoon. I wanted to hear her Relief Society lesson. She, of course, did a fantastic job, as I knew she would. : ) And her little baby bump in her cute skirt was poking out for all to see! She's still in the early stages, but I consider myself an aunt to Baby Kjar, so I'm extremely excited.

Mar was so sweet to make me a "Kjar" package for my drive back to North Carolina. It was a Sunday and I didn't want to break the Sabbath for anything, so she gave me a load of goodies, and she even made me a cd full of MoTab and piano music and a talk from Elder Holland. She's always been so thoughtful like that, and that's one reason why I love her so much! I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful friend, and the weekend was unforgettable. I hope to make it an annual event!