girls' retreat 2k19

After two years back to back in Boise, we were ready to venture a little further from home for this year's girls' retreat... so naturally we picked UTAH and staying at Nicole's amazing new house so we could be in awe of her talent, skill, hard work, etc. all weekend.

Full disclosure: here we are actually pictured in front of the Lord's house ;). Also an incredible testament to workmanship and dedication!

With Kara as our chauffeur, we hit the road VERY prepared to meet any potential carsickness head on - Nycole doesn't actually get carsick but she ESPECIALLY doesn't when she's wearing these cool goggles.

Lunnnnch as we left Meridian. Pita Pit? Probably?

First trip in a couple years without someone bringing a baby.... so obviously we all loved on Kaitlyn via FaceTime as often as possible.

Utah border!!!

Utah weather, boooo.

Prettier Utah weather, yayyy!

Utah Nicole!!!

More Kaitlyn. We were having withdrawals.

Dinner first,

 then arriving at Nicole's house to examine and admire ALL the things.

Very glad to discover that all seven of us fit easily in the master shower.

PS if this isn't the shower of everyone's dreams, I'm not sure why not. Amazing. 

Gathering for girl talk in the living room... during which we realized we needed a late night trip to Target??

after which we came home and I crashed on the couch because I'm LAME.

Okay, the next morning was all about the enneagram. We all took various tests/evaluations and sorted ourselves accordingly and then I found a hundred examples from instagram to see how well we matched our supposed types. I am possibly the most 2ish person ever. Like, 100% 2. Not a doubt. All the stereotypes.

Once we were all up and dressed and beautiful, our Salt Lake City day began! Starting with brunch:

Instagram post: Sometimes you order three lemonades, get served five, and pay for four- all whilst listening to a pretty epic playlist of late 90s hits- and conclude that brunch remains the best🥒🍓🍋🍊.

Next up: a lovely walk through downtown Salt Lake....

to the temple! We did an endowment session and it was beautiful and lovely and a little giggly and perfect. 

Afterwards I (of course) insisted on a photo shoot and this very kind gentleman came to our aid and offered to take a picture when he saw us awkwardly struggling to get a good selfie.

In a hilarious turn of events, he opted to take a selfie on my phone before photographing the rest of us. ALSO HE IS TEMPLE SQUARE SECURITY. I'm sure he could tell we were a VIP group.

Another insta caption: I couldn’t love these girls more... unless they were more cooperative with my lengthy photo shoot demands in the hot afternoon sun 😬📸😅. Lovely temple date with my sanity saving seven 🖤.

Ahhh I love them.

Couple more pictures....

and a selfie...

and just ONE more before...

a delicious late lunch/early dinner:

Few pictures as we left Temple Square.

Prayers are answered... that's the only reason we were able to find Kara's van in the parking garage ;).

Post-temple and dinner shopping. Fun tradition: Kara and I are 99% of the time the lightweights who end up finding a place to sit while everyone else continues to shop and wander and browse and shop. Hence this impromptu photo shoot:

P.S. if you haven't taken a selfie with me wherein I immediately change my hair and demand another selfie... then I doubt you've actually taken a selfie with me ;).

Who knew I looked so alluring when checking out at DI?

Maybe I've worked at a middle school too long, but I really struggled with the Sweet Tooth Fairy using STF as a cute abbreviation...

I had no problem with sneaking bites from the various cupcakes and treats purchased at their shoppppppe.

We also hit up In N Out apparently? This day never ended I guess?

Ha, 11:30 pm taking more enneagram tests. Still a 2.

Late night puzzling, hair-doing, dancing (Nycole and I are possibly the most incredible interpretive dancers ever. You'll just have to take my word for it however, as that video footage should never see the light of day).

Just so that we don't waste Emily's incredible photography skills, here are some stills of the interpretative dancing. Awe-inspiring.

Oh my heck. Timestamp on this picture is FOUR AM. What the freak. Still up and spilling our guts and giggling and probably crying and loving each other.

Puzzle progress the next morning... technically later that morning I guess ;).

Totally unrelated to girls' retreat except that I took this screenshot on the trip, but this is 100% Chuck's and me....

We decided to eat in at Nicole's this morning, which was obviously a wise choice because Nicole is an insanely fantastic hostess.

Like seriously? So delicious and so beautiful.

Next up was a hike. The Hike. The hike that prompted us to not be able to use the word 'hike' for like two years afterwards. The hike that we emerged on the other side of a more close knit, unified group.

NEVER trust Nicole when she describes a hike as not strenuous. It will be muy strenuous. Paulina and Melinda solved a murder mystery in the picnic area and I was 98% sure my death was imminent on the hiking trail and they'd have another body on their hands.

Ohhh I never covered room arrangements! I honestly can't remember how they were decided, but Emily and I shared this guest room...

Paulina and Kara were in the girls' room, Melinda and Nycole were in the boys' room, and Nicole stayed in her own room? Or maybe crashed in the boys' room too?

Puzzle almost complete....

Saturday evening... time for more hair.

I have so much hair and it's so insane to straighten... 

Aaaand just like that it was Sunday morning, insert allll the crying emojis. We dolled up and hit up Nicole's ward where they were probably slightly alarmed at the absence of her family and the presence of six random women:

Allll the vain pictures of my amazing hair and makeup.

Nicole (and co.) prepared an amazing lunch for us before it was time to leave:

Why wouldn't you use this awesome container for water? 

Mmmmm.

Random instagram scrolling on the way home, reminding myself that girls' retreats are necessary for self care:

reminding myself the chaos that would be waiting for me at home....

and preparing to play innocent when any mention of my weekend expenses pop up:

Crossing back into Idaho....

and coming home to the sweetest signs ever yet again.

Slightly sketchy recap of girls' retreat 2k19, on account of it being written 2+ years after the fact. whoops ;). As always, so grateful for these six and our friendships and our time away together.