Mommy Runs Away to the Mountains

After months and months of waiting my long awaited girls trip finally arrived! Bee really made me work for my Mommy-weekend-away with allergies, grumpiness and waking at dawn. I cared not as Karen, Alexis and I set out for the wilds of Sedona to meet our dear friend Lacey.

The 3 Tucson girls set out early and made a brief stop at the outlet mall on the way up to kill some time. I've always known I have a delusional relationship with shorts and I often buy shorts I never wear. Karen and Alexis harassed me out of by shorts two sizes too big in Banana Republic and in The Gap. I also hate trying things on....so I was pulling on some shorts in the middle of the gap over the ones I had on. Those shorts now don't fit...shocking I know. I now have an excuse to return to the outlets though.... maybe it's all a part of my evil shopping mind.

Just for funs... my new shorts that fit with the girl this morning. Bee grunted her approval this morning while trying to eat the carpet in the closet. I take that as a win.

Anyways, back to the girls weekend. So we get to the cabin! Yea! It's all rustic and wood and everything.

Although the neighborhood is a tad ghetto.... not the cabin I pictured in the middle of a field with squirrels scampering up trees. But there were horses and goats wandering in the neighbors yard. It was the only cabin in a neighborhood full of regular houses. And wait for it.... it wasn't even near Sedona. Thanks VRBO. When I searched by "Sedona" I maybe thought the cabin would be even within 30 minutes of Sedona. Nope. We ended up in Camp Verde, AZ which is 50 minutes away. Riiiiiight. Luckily the whole point of the weekend was to run away from my child and to see my ladies. We settled into our cabin and really collapsed on the couches to talk for about 3 hours. There were also cookies involved. After figuring out that we weren't going to the restaurant we planned in Sedona we settled for a nicer steakhouse in a casino because that was really the only option. Keeping it classy. After my steak and having to pull out my ID 3 times- geez I'm over 21... come on I don't look that young!- we retired to the house to talk away the night. I was super excited to go to sleep. No baby monitor. No crack of dawn coughing and waking up. Ahhh. Not so fast. I was wide awake. Staring at the ceiling. Listening to the highway noise.... did I mention our cabin was by the highway?.... yeah. Tossing on my plank of a bed. Rustling through my purse for benadryl...nope.... how does someone with a shellfish allergy as severe as mine not have benadyrl?! Insomnia I hate you. Anyway, I ended up falling asleep at 2 am.... and getting the exact 6 hours I get on a bad day. Damn. Foiled.

After pouring some coffee down my throat I pepped up. We decided to hit a local National Park that claimed it had Montezuma's Castle in it. Super intrigued. They wanted $5 a ticket. Uhhhh no. So we snuck in. It was not hard. We just walked around the welcome house instead of through it. Montezuma's Castle was ok and not the "hiking" we had hoped. It was hot anyways so we loaded into the car to go on the great Iphone 5 charger quest. We ended up in Cottonwood, AZ which was like a time warp. We ate at the cutest little cafe to eat super southwesty food after procuring the phone charger. I saw on olive oil shop- totally different and cool I say- and we go inside. Only to verbally beaten into drinking shots of olive oil until Karen almost threw it up. I kept trying to buy some so that we could just leave. No, no that would not dissuade our dear shop keeper- all he wants to do is further verbally beat us down to drink balsamic and spill it on your white shirt. UGH. Let me leave! It was quickly turning into a strange horror movie where we end up pickled in olive oil tub so we ran.

After escaping the olive oil dungeon we went into a couple "antique" stores which I will put in air quotes because I do not take someones dirty, used lingerie as antique. I call it icky and unsanitary. There were lots of laughs to be had about what was considered an "antique" in Cottonwood. We headed back to the house for happy hour and an home cooked meal. And of course, more talking. I think James' ears would have bled if he'd been there. I scammed some benadryl off Karen and passed the heck out. Sweet uninterrupted sleep how I've missed you.

On our last morning we cooked breakfast and bid adieu to Lacey who had a longer drive since we were actually an hour further from her because VRBO lied thinks an hour from your target destination is ok.

This really happened on our way home. Freakin amazing. With a stop for lunch and a mandatory trip to Ikea we were home!

A great weekend away from home but I was excited to see my little and my hubs. They barely survived me being gone of course. Bee was on deaths door and James looked like a mountain man. Ok, really only one of those statements is true. James decided to grow a beard while I was gone. To no one's surprise it's already disappeared down the drain. I did get a toothless smile and raised chubby arms on my return. I now need a heart transplant because mine turned to goo.