When the Girls Trip Made it Out of the Group Chat

We've been traveling with the same group of friends since 2008 - we've done couples trips and family trips but never a girls trip...until last month, yay! Our group of 5 ladies went to Cape Cod and had an amazing 5 days together.

We left at the crack of dawn on Friday, September 12 and came home late at night on Tuesday, September 17. We packed a lot in - a day in Cape Cod, a day on Nantucket, a day on Martha's Vineyard! Lots of gossip, laughter, FOOD, drinks, and memories made.

Tired but ready to GOOOOO!

Allena ~ Susannah ~ Rhonda ~ Desiree ~ Karin

It took us a long time to get to Boston. We were staying with Dez's family who have a house on Cape Cod, and Dez's childhood bestie was picking us up and staying the first 2 nights with us. With Friday traffic, we didn't get to Cape Cod until evening time, and immediately freshened up and went to a local restaurant, The Raw Bar. Dez's cousin, aunt {who is from Ireland}, aunt's sister and her hubby {visiting from Ireland} and us 6 ladies had a great time and possibly overserved ourselves.

I'm not a huge seafood person, so I had a crab cake and clam chowder.

Everyone else had lobster rolls. We all had a shot {a cherry bomb} that was AWFUL.

After dinner we went back to Dez's aunt and uncle's house and continued to make poor choices ending in us going to bed at 3AM with a 7AM wake-up call to make it to the ferry for Martha's Vineyard. Spoiler alert - that didn't happen! We did wake up at 7AM and knew we were in no condition for the ferry so rescheduled for a later ferry...and still missed that ferry, ha! We rallied and spent the day on Cape Cod in Chatham.

Gorgeous view from our lunch spot, The Chatham Inn

I won't tell tales that could be incriminating, but I'll just say we weren't all at our fighting best. {grin}

Evidence of not being 'at my best' ha!

Sunday was our day on Nantucket! I guess I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a great time. We met some girls on the ferry who lived in Cape Cod {and one had lived on Nantucket previously} and they gave us great recommendations for the day. We had lunch at a cute place right by the ferry, then shopped around and of course had the famous fudge on the island. We walked {bad move} to a restaurant called The Sand Bar where we sat with our feet in the sand and had a drink. Our ferry friends told us to also check out Cisco Brewery and that was an amazing experience. Live music, drinks, snacks - so fun!!

Ferry beauties

Karin and Allena

With our new friends at Cisco!

The ferry was running late to get us back to Cape Cod. We were STARVING but couldn't find anything open since it was Sunday night. We ended up Ubering to a DIVE pizza bar. It was hilarious - we walked in the door and the owner asked me 'Are you sure you're in the right place?' I guess a group of girls in sundresses is not their usual clientele ha. But the pizza was delicious, and we make fun wherever we go!

Monday was our last full day. After we missed our ferry Saturday to Martha's Vineyard we changed our plans from whale watching on Monday because none of us wanted to miss MV! And it was everyone's favorite day!

Dez's family was THE BEST and drove us around A LOT.

A ferry a day...could get used to this!

Not a shabby view to start the day!

Loved all the old buildings - so much history!

We had our favorite meal of the trip on Martha's Vineyard!

Wish I could remember what this place was called ha.

Being cute {grin}

We did more shopping {including in the cutest bookstore!} and walked around. Martha's Vineyard is a lot bigger than Nantucket so we had to choose what parts of the island to see, and we really wanted to ride the carousel {closed!} and see the painted houses.

We were real confused about why these painted houses exist and went down a rabbit hole reading about their history. Sounded way too much like a cult, but they sure are cute!!

Another selfie? Sure!

A Wizard of Oz house! Had to take a pic for my Wicked-loving girls!

Gorgeous sunset on our way back to The Cape!

Dez's family met us for one last dinner - we had AMAZING {shocking!} Mexican food. This was absolutely delicious!!

I spearheaded us getting matching pajamas - how cute are we?

Our last morning, Karin, Susie, and I took a walk down to the water. It was so peaceful and the weather was perfect - as it was for the whole trip!

A last YUMMY breakfast!

We had to move stuff around between our bags for everyone to be under 50 pounds ha.

And that was a wrap on our first - but definitely not last - girls trip!

Game On!

I might actually be able to get caught up before too much longer - how exciting! I shared a few weeks ago about my birthday, but I hadn't shared about what we did the weekend before to celebrate me and Dez {our birthdays are 2 days apart}. We went back to Game On! where we celebrated Lina's birthday back in June. I thought our group of friends would enjoy it, and I was right!

Dez and I got matching shirts made that said Big Leo Energy which was also our team name.

Our whole crew - always down for some fun!

We played Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, and Plinko.

The boys were kicking our butts through the first 2 games, but our mad Plinko skills secured a victory for the girls!

This was such a great night and everyone should go if they can!

Blame It On Mexico!

June was a busy month but oh so fun! As I was looking through pictures we packed in so much fun stuff. This will be a fun walk down memory lane. {grin}

On June 1, I went with a group of friends to see Katherine Center speak. I love all her books and think she is just precious. She lives in Texas and always comes to our little indy bookstore. 

Chatting with her after her talk, she is so sweet!

Then Brent and I took a quick 3-night trip to Mexico with his cousin Philip's family and some of their friends. We had a great time - spent lots of time in the resort pools, had some really great meals, and took a great trip out on a catamaran. 

Early flights = a quick nap in the hotel! Ha!

Nothing like family that are also great friends!

June included lots of Gus love OF COURSE. He also got really sick at the end of the month {some failed diet changes} and gave us a big scare. But nothing like a day at the vet getting IV fluids and meds and costing us $850 to make him all better. {grin}

I'm going to do a separate post for my parents' anniversary party which happened in the middle of June. We had such a blast and 50 years of marriage deserves its own shoutout!

The weekend after the party, we traveled to Houston for the annual LJA Stockholders dinner - this is always a highlight of the year because we always go with great friends! This year we didn't stay a second night but went swimming on Friday night at Derek and Dez's house {after a stop for bathing suits at Buc-ee's ha}. Some friends from high school were in town with their newest baby, so we wanted some snuggles with Mark Falcon!

My AmpedUp instructor friend, Lina, turned 50 in June, and we went to a fun place called Game On to play tv game shows with a group of friends! [Spoiler alert - we did this for my birthday too!] We had such a blast! Lina's husband made us a spring roll DIY bar, and we had a great time together. He got seriously injured a few days later in a freak accident, so I'm very glad we got to spend time with him too, and I'm so glad he is doing better now.

The whole crew

I love lazy mornings in the summer! Also love our new patio furniture.

Little Bit got her braces [Round 1] off at the end of June! She was so happy!

Sheesh, I am shocked at how much we did this month as I continue to type this all out! We also had our Girl Scout end-of-year reward trip. The girls voted to go to Kalahari. Paige is transferring into our troop, so she got to go too. She was SO thrilled - she was sobbing that she couldn't go and it worked out for her to go! Made my mama heart so full.

We rushed home from Kalahari to change clothes and turn around and go to the Dell Diamond - literally across the street from Kalahari - for Brent's summer event at the Round Rock Express baseball game.

Being silly with the fun glasses...and tired Drew! {grin}

And we closed out the month with Trent's birthday! He had a fun day of video games and lounging around enjoying a summer birthday. We went out to eat for burgers at a small, local restaurant with both sets of grandparents. [I got a picture of him but won't post it.] He also took 3 of his friends to Kalahari the next week. So wild that he was old enough for us to just drop him off and pick him up!

Since he doesn't like me posting pictures of him NOW...

let's look at baby Trent! GAAAAAH!