Girls Weekend in Palm Springs

Every year, I get together with two of my high school friends, Crystal and JJ. This year, we went to Palm Springs, where JJ has a condo. I love our weekend trips! Great food, fun drinks and time to catch up with long time friends!

I flew in on Thursday. I got in a few hours before the other two, so I went downtown and had lunch at Tommy Bahama's. The weather was so gorgeous!

I headed to the condo afterwards to rest and wait for JJ and Crystal. They got in around 6:00. Then, we headed downtown for dinner. There was a market on the main street, which had a little bit of everything!

We had dinner at Las Casuela's. The margaritas were gigantic and the food was delicious! We sat out int he courtyard and they had a band playing.

The next day we had to wait for a plumber to come to check why there was no hot water in the condo, so we grabbed brunch and picked up some drinks/snacks at the grocery store. We spent the day at the pool drinking mimosas!

Then, we headed back downtown for more drinks and dinner.

We started out at Tommy Bahamas.

Here we are by the Marilyn Monroe statue.

Just a nice view of the mountains behind us.

Then, we went to the Tiki Bar. They had some really interesting drinks!

Inside, they had some really interesting decorations! Yes, that's a puffer fish lamp and a picture of a naked girl in the background.

Here we are outside by the tiki torches (a little blurry!)

We ate dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant! No pictures of that, but we sat outside and enjoyed some wine and nice weather! The next day, we went to the drag brunch at the Saguaro Hotel.

Here's a picture of JJ's condo.

At the start of the drag brunch. The hotel was super colorful!

It was so much fun! We had unlimited mimosas!

Cheers!

At the end, you can get pictures with the stars of the show! They were all so fun and spent quite a bit of time walking and interacting with the crowd!

After the brunch, we went to watch some football and grab some food at a bar downtown.

The weekend went by really fast and it was back to the airport. Time to say good-bye to these beautiful views!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Funny story... Matt sent me these flowers below for our anniversary. I read the card which said Happy 14 years or something like that. I thought to myself - is that right??? Well, I had gotten Matt a gift a few days earlier and I thought I was so clever because I had looked up the traditional gifts for the years we had been married and purchased something in line with that. Only, I had subtracted wrong and came up with 12 years instead of 14 years! I'm telling you, I must have had major "mom-brain" that day! So, I ran out and got something else not as clever for the 14 year anniversary gift and apologized for being such a space cadet! I'm glad he puts up with me! :)

Some Morgan pictures

Just a girl and her dog playing in the backyard... this dog is such a baby!

Morgan is really excited to be starting basketball in January. We went to practice at McCullom the other day. She doesn't really know many rules or how basketball works, but she's ready to go!

Her soccer team finished out the season with a tie game. The last goal was questionable. It bounced down off the bar and no one thought it went in, but the ref said it did. At least it didn't cause us to lose the game. Morgan's team finished 3rd in their division. It was a rough year for her - being in a new position, new format on the field and then breaking her toe and having to sit out a couple weeks. Here's hoping the winter league picks up!

After their last game, the team went to Zazzo's for a pizza party. The girls all ate lots of pizza and then had ice cream sundaes!

Morgan was finally back to karate after being off for her broken toe for a couple weeks.

Although she has really liked doing karate these past few years, it looks like we may be quitting this to pursue all the other things she wants to do. We're getting to a point where we have to make decisions on what she wants to spend her time on. Soccer is taking up a lot of time and she also wants to play volleyball and basketball. With karate, she's moving into the higher levels that require more time as well to get her black belt. There just aren't enough hours in the week for all the things these girls want to do!!!

Dance Team Pictures

We got Avery's dance team pictures back... love them!

Halloween!

Halloween was a cold one this year! But that didn't stop the girls from trick or treating!

Despite Matt's objections, we got Milo a costume his year! He is the Zoomie Champ!

The girls' school had a Halloween Costume parade outside. It was freezing!

Avery and her cheerleader friends!

Morgan - the not so scary killer clown. No blood/gore/scariness allowed at school.

I helped with Avery's classroom party. I helped with the games in the hallway!

And yes, I "dressed up" a bit. Avery has my hippie glasses on.

Morgan's class also had a party!

We were all surprised to come outside and find snow on the ground!

Morgan trick or treated with her friends, Birdie and Lizzie.

We went to the Downers Grove Museum, which had all kinds of fun stuff for the kiddos to do. And it was decorated kind of creepily!

A favorite house to stop at is the one with the smoke bubbles (and full size candy bars!)

A leftover from the pandemic years... the old candy chute!

Avery went trick or treating with her friends, Katherine and Elise.