Book Club Girls' weekend getaway

 Last weekend got to have one of my favorite times of the year, the annual Book Club Girls' Weekend Getaway! And since no nursing babies this season in the group, and ability, we were able to go for 2 nights!!! One of our former "members" (aka friends) had moved to Chicago several years past, and she had invited us to stay at her house for the weekend and go see Hamilton which was in town. I was the only non-theatre person in our group, but was up for a group outing, so that's what we did this year. A bit different from our usual going to the coast and enjoying beaches and small town shopping, but it was really fun. 

Before getting ready and going out to the show we did walk around the Morton Arboretum, it was beautiful and could've spent a lot longer there walking all around. 

Then we got ready, had an amazing dinner at Gio Mia in my friend's suburb, and then went down to the show. 

(that's a light reflecting purple on my friend's hair, but it looks pretty cool :))

So apparently Hamilton was started in 2016, and I'd heard of it before, but really had no desire to see it. I have to say it was pretty good. My friend and I had watched a bit before on Disney + to prepare and we didn't like it, but it was pretty good in person. (And I think our friends playing it in the car nonstop on the drive to Chicago helped a little, lol), The music is really good, and I am amazed the whole thing was written by one man. Wow, such talent!

The next morning after a nice breakfast we walked in Waterfall Glen and then began the trip home (listening to Hamilton most of the way home again, I have to admit a lot of those songs are pretty catchy!)

Such a great getaway, a time to talk and have fun together, so thankful we can do this every year. 

life lately

Boat weekend with our friends a couple weeks ago. Didn't get to do any water sports (😞) but swam a bit, boating, and watched friends ski and surf behind the boat. And of course, visited with our friends!

Met my friend Jill for our August birthday dinner. So nice to see her, and have a girl's night out!

Speaking of girl's night's out, the book club girls had our annual getaway. This year we stayed close and went to Ann Arbor. Did some eating out, downtown shopping, and hanging out at our airbnb. It was relaxing and nice. This year a few girls had last minute things pop up like family baptisms and other church obligations, so a couple had to leave early. So that was a bummer, but it was still a really nice weekend. 

While I was gone Doug and his friend had a daddy and kiddos day at the Renaissance Fair. They had fun!

Otherwise just snuggling with my babies and trying to keep things tidy and organized before baby comes. Waiting to see if this one will come on its own, or will be evicted like the other two! 😆

book club girls weekend

Finally all 7 of us were able to go on our book club girls weekend! We are mostly a group of 6, since one member moved to Chicago, but we have an annual one night away and miraculously all the calendars aligned. This year we didn't want to spend as much time in the car so we stayed a little closer to home in Bay City. One of the girl's parents lives there and has a new house with a huge basement, so instead of staying at a hotel or B & B, we stayed there. Which not only saved us money, but was super flexible and ended up being a great option. See ya next year parents ;)

We spent time in nice restaurants, hanging out at her parents, we made ourselves an amazing breakfast with freshly laid eggs, and then we went and did a canopy walk at Dow Gardens. It was beautiful. All in all lovely, but too short, time together, good talks, and actually got 5 hours sleep straight since I was baby-less (!) and only woke up once to pump.

Good times. So blessed to have these Godly women in my life and to get together every month so faithfully for our bookclub, going on 10 years now!

"Missouri Jill" visit

Last weekend I got away, by myself!, for a quick visit to see my friend "Missouri Jill". Since I already have a friend Jill, this other friend Jill had been referred to by the state she lived in. I met her in Oklahoma ("Oklahoma Jill") some 15 years ago when I was down in Tulsa doing a year-long internship for a missions company and she and I volunteered in the youth group together. Later she moved to Kentucky for seminary school and became "Kentucky Jill". And then 3 years ago she got married and moved to Missouri, I hadn't seen her since her wedding and wanted to take advantage of this small window where August is a little bigger and the new baby hasn't come yet.

So anyway, flew down on Friday. Jill picked me up, we went on a little nature walk in the area and then back to her house. Her husband made this fantastic pot roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. We got MI-3 (or was it 4?) from the redbox and relaxed and talked.

The next day Ryan made us fried eggs and hashbrowns, and we had a nice lazy morning of watching a marathon of a (new to me) show Blacklist on Netflix. The filming I think is weird, but I like the show. It was snowy and icy out so it was a perfect day for laziness. Then Jill and I went out to the Wonders of Wildlife museum and aquarium.

It was a wonderful exhibit, and huge! We spent several hours walking, talking, and looking around. The only bad thing was their penny press was out of order and that is my all-time favorite souvenir. So bummer. That night we got pizza, and Ryan made salad and brownies. We watched some more Blacklist and played some trivia games.

Sunday I joined them for their small group Bible study, church, and then it was time to go already! We had some quick leftovers and stopped at this 'famous' custard place on the way to the airport. Yum.

I did have to take 2 flights, which always stinks, but before I knew it Doug and August were picking me up and time to go home.

It was over too soon, but it was wonderful to see her and catch up.

And August had a nice weekend with daddy too, including a couple play dates Doug set up with a couple of his friends. So that was nice they did just fine without me, (I probably missed August more than he missed me!), and good daddy/son time for the two of them. I'm thankful for good friends and for a husband who lets me see them :)

girls weekend!!

Last weekend was the annual bookclub girls getaway. And it was wonderful. This year we went to Ludington, and it was great. Although a bit of a far drive for just a Saturday/Sunday.

We arrived Saturday lunch time and ate at a restaurant (actually still an hour South) called the Twisted Pickle or something like that. Got these huge sandwiches that were full of almost too-much meat. I also had a side of fried pickles, mmmmm. Then we continued to our destination where we met our friend who used to be in our book club, but now lives in Chicago. It was so nice she makes the drive to come see us!

We checked into our bed and breakfast, we had the top room that could sleep 7 people!

My little sleeping nook.

We went downtown and did a little shopping, mostly we spent the time at this consignment shop and helped our friend try on wedding dresses. We found this gorgeous lace one that looked amazing on her, but she couldn't pull the trigger. Too bad. After that we walked down to the beach, sat on the sand chatting, and then watched the sunset.

We then headed back into town for a late dinner, ate at the Barley & Rye and I had this amazing hummus wrap.

Then back to our B & B for wine, snacks, girl time, and sleep!

The next morning woke up at the usual time, and my friend Kelly was getting ready to go for a walk so I went too. We power walked all the way to the water and back, and my hips were sore for 2 days afterwards! But it was a beautiful morning, good exercise, and nice 1 on 1 time.

We then had the most amazing bed and breakfast breakfast that I'd ever had. Usually they just make the plates for you and give you your meal, but this was buffet style and they kept bringing out dish after dish "I've got a egg scramble coming out in a minute", "hot bread over in the corner", etc. SO GOOD!

We ate a ton. Then packed up and headed back to the beach. The water was chilly, but some girls went in. I laid in the sun for a bit, and then spent some time in the sun tent eating snacks and chatting. It was a gorgeous, hot day.

Then time to go. We'd told our husbands home at 6, so we headed back. But yet somehow, even with minimal stops, it took almost 6 hours to get home, so that felt frustrating. Instead I was home just in time to put August to bed and that was it. But my boys had a good weekend together too, and it had been fun with the girls, so it was worth it!

girls' getaway

My book club has been meeting for 8 years now. It is really nice to see these friends so consistently, at least monthly, and now we have been there through many of life's ups and downs together and it has been a wonderful blessing. We have done movie nights and the occasional sleepover, but we had never done a trip. Until last weekend!

We went away to a west coast city called South Haven. Unfortunately, one of our core-group friends couldn't make it, but we were able to meet up with another past book club friend who had moved to Chicago, so it was so nice she could come up and meet us.

After a fun car ride, we arrived and we went down to the beach and laid in the sun. We also window shopped and shopped in the cute downtown and got a delicious dinner. Then we raced back down to the water to see the end of the sunset.

We went back to the hotel and were sad to see the hot tub water was brown :( the hotel lady was not super helpful "I don't know, people must have worn their street clothes in there." Hmmm... how about not allowing that?? Anyway the hotel owner the next morning took some money off the bill, so that was a bit better. So we just hung in the room talking and having snacks.

Next morning hotel breakfast and back downtown. It was a little overcast, so we shopped some more and got a super tasty lunch. I had a salad with roasted beets and goat cheese, and a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. And ice cream of course!

Then the sun was out so we walked to the beach again. It was incredibly windy and there were humongous waves.

Pretty soon it was time to start heading back home. All of these ladies are moms and everyone was excited for the break, but ready to get back to their families. Me too even though September just breezed right by me to her food bowl, I did get a nice welcoming hug from Doug :) It was such a nice time, cool to see a new city, and just great to relax and have meaningful conversations with friends. Doug is super supportive of me spending time with friends, and I've wanted to do something like this for awhile, just hard to pry others away from their babies! Haha, I'm sure I'll be feeling the same way pretty soon too. But it was a great time and I think we all realized how important it is to break away and rest, so hopefully this will become an annual thing. Love girl time!