The Young and the Restless

Life's a beach.

Ahhhhhh. That is the only way I can describe my girls trip to Florida this past weekend. It was a blast getting together with my best friends from high school (and Tasha brought a friend along too, so it was great to meet her. We missed you, Kelly, if only you weren't busy giving birth soon then you could have joined us too!). We're spread out all over in New York, San Francisco, Utah and Phoenix so it's not very often that I get a chance to see them. It was especially fun because 3 of us were pregnant so it was great swapping stories, sharing Tums and complaining about pregnancy sickness and exhaustion together. We decided on Florida because the weather would be great (which it was), but we didn't want to go someplace to "Spring Breakerish" (the wet T-shirt contests just really aren't our thing), so we picked a beautiful beach front resort in St. Petersburg which is by Tampa Bay (the view was gorgeous, but I think that the pictures on the internet of the hotel were a little deceiving). I knew we wouldn't have to worry about the party scene as we were driving through the town and the corners were filled with funeral homes, retirement centers and a place advertising "colon therapy". I asked my shuttle driver if they saw much action during spring break and he replied, "only if the kids are here visiting their grandparents". We didn't mind being the youngin's on the beach and we always got a kick out of everyone's response when they found out that we were pregnant. They all thought we were so young and it was always entertaining to see their reactions when we told them that most of us had multiple children at home as well. When Jason asked what we were going to do the whole time I told him that we were going to be laying on the beach (or for a little variety we might go pool side) reading, sleeping and doing absolutely nothing. He thought it sounded kind of boring, but boring is something I don't get to experience much in my life, so I welcomed boring with open arms. It really was sooooo relaxing and I loved every minute of it. We did venture off the sand a little bit and had fun renting bikes and riding down the beach (okay, so the boardwalk was really like only a half mile, so we mostly ended up dodging traffic and trying not to get lost through the back streets of the city); going to a chick flick (we saw "Miss Pettigrew lives for a day". You can't get any chickier than that. We all agreed that our husbands would have walked out after the first 2 minutes); going souvenier shopping for the kids (and husbands :) and making sure we ate our share of ice-cream atleast every day. We packed so many fun memories into those 4 days like: the magic chocolate pill, staying up all night laughing about anything and everything (my favorite is still Nicole's story about the little "surprise" waiting by her desk), the Blue Fugu and the best fried rice ever (I've eaten lots of fried rice, I should know :), Wes' sparatic sunburn, Wes covering up every square inch of her body when she got in the sun, Nicole dropping the towel on someone else's balcony and then trying to retrieve it, eating breakfast on the balcony and watching the sailboats, the ATM guy, baked potatoes, Tasha's obsession with the sunset (me throwing up in the bathroom during the only sunset we saw), and so many more. It was definately a much needed and relaxing vacation (although I could have done without the nauseating, turbulant filled, long delayed flight home), I totally missed my kids and Jason but I came home feeling refreshed, rejuvinated and re-energized. Thanks girls for an amazing weekend and thanks so much to everyone that I pawned my kids off too--Mandy, Chelsea, Sheba, Andrea, Nicole and Julie, I totally appreciate it!! Thanks also Jason (I feel like I'm giving an Oscar speech or something), I know the kids had a blast hanging out with Dad. He did an awesome job playing Mr. Mom after a full day of work and managed to get homework done, get them to bed at a semi-decent hour, feed them somewhat edible meals (I'm sure TV dinners have some nutritional value?), get them off to school and church on time (it makes me smile trying to picture Jason picking out Kylie's clothes and doing her hair), keep them entertained with neighborhood carnivals and Chuck E Cheese and even had the house cleaned when I got back. What a man, what a man, what a mighty fine man!