Da' girls, in Da-lute!

I had a great weekend away with 5 of my dear friends! We were blessed with a whole weekend together in a hotel up in Duluth, MN. Our friend, Jody's husband does a lot of travel with his job. They had a lot of points stored up for hotel stays, and she graciously covered the hotel fees using their points~ thank you so much, Jody!! It was so much fun to go away and be Sarah for the weekend. I did bring little Cole with me, because I am nursing...and he is only 3 months old today! I still can't believe he is 3 months old already! Anyway, my husband came home at about 11 on Friday (April 3rd) and I was getting ready to go. I was the designated driver, because I am one of those cool moms who drive a mini van! ~lol. I first picked up Anna, then Lisa, next Jeannie, and finally Jody and her princess~K. It was a full van with 5 women, 2 babies (and their car seats)...not to mention all of our stuff.

I am the driver, Anna is in the passenger seat, Jeannie is behind me, and in the front of this picture you see Jody on the left and Lisa on the right. Baby K is in between them.
We all did a good job packing lightly, and I have to say I am mightily impressed!
Friday night, we had dinner at the Giant Panda (a Chinese restaurant). We all enjoy Chinese, but I think we were all a bit disappointed with this restaurant. They didn't put in fresh food, or restock what ran out, we didn't get our beverages refilled~ actually the waitress never came back, except with the bill, and their ice cream machine was broken (looks like it had been like that for a long time). I would understand if they were super busy, but that wasn't the case. At least we still had fun and great conversations. I was shocked at this lady that was there, though. She came over to us and wanted to see Cole. No biggie...but then, she squatted down to see him and was touching him over and over. I am very uncomfortable with strangers touching my kids, especially my newborns. I don't mind people admiring my cute kids, but caressing their cheeks, putting their nuk in their mouth, touching his chin and his hair....PLEASE, have some common courtesy. What do you do? Do you tell them to back off and stop touching your baby? She just talked on and on for about 10-15 minutes. I think it was a bit rude, especially since we were all there to socialize. There is something to be said about manners and etiquette.
Anyway...we were off to the Comfort Inn and Suites. We had 2 double beds and a hide-a-bed couch in the room. We also had a refrigerator and a microwave. It was just right for our girls weekend lock-in! We had to snap a few photos of us all giddy. Jeannie had a timer on her camera, so she jumped on the end of the bed to get in the photo for these.
From Left to Right: Lisa, Anna, me, Jody, and Jeannie. See our hands? Yeah, it was planned.
Time to make the kissy faces! We had this on-going teasing about the "control freak" a.k.a. Lisa, but come to think of it, I think I may have stole that role for the pictures...I kept saying, "Now lets do this...."

I love this photo best! I love how happy we look to have such a special weekend away together!
Psst...I didn't have my foot up for this photo, either. Opps, I missed that instruction! :)
This picture is of us in the van driving down the super big hill. You can see Lake Superior from this glance. The lake is HUGE...one of the biggest, and it is beautiful anytime of the year.
This is a photo of the back of the hotel. There are walk paths all over. Duluth is a big-time tourist city. It is a favorite city of mine living here.
The three amigos! We always have a grand time together! I think Jody should get square-shaped glasses, too!
Sweet baby Cole sleeping so soundly. I love watching him sleep! He is so snuggly~
The babies loving on each other. Cole is not going to let her go.
We had a great time, soaking our feet, painting our nails (fingers and toes), and Jody and I died our hair. I gave Jody a hair cut, too! It was fun to pamper ourselves and each other!
Me and Anna!
Miss K, Lisa and I! I love the look Miss K is giving us!
Jody and I!
Jeannie and I! Notice my hair color? This is pretty much my natural color these days. Terry didn't notice, although I really wasn't surprised. It is OK, it just isn't his thing to notice that.
Yep, we had a pillow fight on Saturday night. This was so much fun! Lisa and I had a blast! My favorite was tackling her down on the bed. We even got security to come and knock on our door from the racket! Yes!! We got in trouble!
Two on the bed, and the little one said, "Roll over, roll over...."
Sleeping so peacefully! Doesn't he look snug as a bug?? The beds were very comfortable and great to sleep on. We did get a night in the hot tub. A few of us jumped into the pool~ literally...Jeannie was happily floating a long, and Lisa and I did a cannon ball near her! It was a hoot! I wish I would have had pictures of us gals in the hot tub. None of us thought of it, though.
Here are the little ones on our trip...Cole and K. It was their first weekend in a hotel together. They were so good the whole weekend! They got along great, too!
Brrr....it was chilly, but great to have this photo! We asked a guy who was running by, and he got a bit overwhelmed when we all handed him our cameras. He joked and even said he could go get his camera.

Then, we headed home. It was sad to end our time together...but we had a grand time! We definitely want to plan something like this again! It was so refreshing and therapeutic! This is a good portion of ladies from my monthly ladies night out that I talk about. We so much enjoy each other's company. Thank you Jody, for supplying the means to escape life for awhile, and thank you to all of you ladies for a great weekend...and lasting memories!