My Weekend Away

We spent the weekend in Southern Utah for the Third Annual Excell Girly Girl Weekend!! Eli made goofy faces at us before he fell asleep in the car.

After he was asleep, he would sporadically wake up to yell, "Grandpa truck!" and then fall asleep again. He was very excited to spend the weekend with the guys.

I was especially excited about this Girly Girl Weekend because it was my first Girly Girl without a (born) baby. Laura was so sweet to plan this year's get together just before #2 is born so I could fully enjoy the Girls' Weekend experience. Nevermind that Tana and Laura had to bring their babies on my behalf. I enjoyed the freedom.

After I kissed Jeff and Eli goodbye and sprinted out the door, we made our way down to St. George. We went to the house to get set up and proved we are smart enough to assemble things without our husbands around...even if it took a couple tries before coming together.

Then we went to Kneaders for sandwiches and smoothies. This is where I tried to squish between two occupied chairs and may have severely underestimated the size of my belly. I am pretty sure the man whose head my belly grazed against was too busy eating his lunch to realize I was trying my hardest to gracefully unwedge myself from behind his chair. But unfortunately all the Excell girls saw. And I guess it was a sight to see.

After lunch we went to some historical sites in St. George. First stop was the Jacob Hamblin home. A part of me wondered if at first glance people thought we were a bunch of sister wives -- especially with my belly and the two babies we were lugging around. But what cute sister wives we were.

Next we went to Brigham Young's winter home.

We wore out the babies in the midst of our touring.

We met up with Mary's parents for a few minutes as we enjoyed the beautiful St. George weather. This is where I was called the paparazzi.

After our cultural enlightenment, we went back home so Laura could cook us up some pizza.

Do you know homemade pizza is just about one of my favorite foods right now?

Especially when it's made with Alfredo sauce. Yum, yum!

Mary and Coleman waiting for the pizza to bake.

Chicken Avocado Alfredo Pizza (cooked on a pizza stone, Becky). Couldn't have bought a better combo.

After dinner I took full advantage of my childless night. Laura got out a craft, but my pregnant state doesn't give me much energy past 6:00, so I kicked my legs up and soaked up the lovely feeling of not having to do anything at all. It was wonderful.

The next day was St. Patty's Day. You can't throw a bunch of women together on St. Patty's Day and expect the holiday to go unnoticed. We made the most of it by dying our waffles green, whipping up a green smoothie, and eating with Irish music filling the kitchen. (Mary is sporting her craft from the night before, the flower broach/hair accessory.)

I made my now famous spinach smoothie and everyone at least pretended to like it.

Breakfast was followed by games and pedicures.

So maybe I have a lot of lazy times when I'm with child because I could have easily taken a better picture of the pedicures in action, but I once again refused to move from the couch.

We ate a delicious cauliflower soup for lunch and then we decided it was time to relieve our husbands of their weekend with the children.

I will neither confirm nor deny whether it took me five minutes and a few tears to get out of the car and face motherhood once again after my two-day break. But I will confirm that once Eli and his rosy cheeks ran out to greet me, I realized how much I had missed him. Then I realized how awesome of a dad Jeff must be because Eli didn't seem to have missed me all that much. In fact, he wasn't really even running to greet me, but rather escaping to the garage so he could steal a look at grandpa's truck. Oh well.

I had such a fun time and I'm grateful to have awesome in-laws. Until next year girly girls!