Friday, May 14

girl's retreat 2010: estes park

to help celebrate cynthia's birthday this year, we all decided to treat ourselves to a weekend getaway, sans kids.

for me, it all started on a wednesday night when i said goodbye to kate and weston and drove to monroe to stay at my parents' house so my mom and i could travel to colorado together the next day.  around 5:00am, i woke up with this hot, burning pain inside my upper left ribcage.  i tried to ignore it, tried to sleep through it, tried to drink a lot of water to get rid of it - nothing worked.  after a couple of hours and some research online, i decided since, a) i was already away from my doctor and hospital and b) we were only going to be travelling further away and out of state in the next several hours, that i should just bite the bullet and go to the ER in richfield.  i'm glad i did.  they told me, after 2 1/2 hours, a urine sample, a round of baby monitoring, and a renal ultrasound, that i had a 1/4" diameter kidney stone already making its way through my ureters and that was causing the pain and i would have to suffer the passing.  ouch.  i asked for some tylenol in the hospital and they gave me a loritab and then a prescription for more, and they sent me on my way.  when my mom and i got home, i asked my dad for a blessing and then i took a shower and my mom and i were on our way.

i think i must be one of the luckiest people ever because that is where the kidney stone story ends.  i never felt another thing - thank goodness because we spent 8 hours of the day driving...

we made the rounds (quickly) and saw all of the men and the kids thursday night before we got to johanna's for the night.  friday morning, we got our move on.  we had to do a little bit of shopping for goodies and a swimsuit for me before we showed up at cynthia's door.  sarah had prepped her a tiny bit by telling her the 2 of them were going to spend the day together and to be ready at a certain time.  at the last minute, she told cynthia to pack a bag and bring anything she'd want for pampering herself.  then we all descended!
just before leaving

i think she was pretty surprised :)

we quickly headed out and had lunch at olive garden before we took off for estes park.  cynthia still didn't know where we were going, so we all had fun torturing her with that.  once she found out we were going to estes park, she was like estes park?  all of this surprising and we're going to estes park?  alex had taken her here for one of their early anniversaries and she was pregnant and very sick the entire time.  hopefully she has changed her mind a bit about estes park :)

sarah and jen had picked out our accomodations and were brilliant enough to book a room that included 2 bathrooms.  oh and of course, slept 8 and had seating for all of us, etc... but the 2 bathrooms came in the most handy, i must say :)
 here are some shots of the place

we spent friday through monday here and enjoyed relaxing (which included a lot of talking and laughing) watching chick flicks, and of course eating.
hanging out (in various stages of being ready) over the weekend
johanna and cynthia

eating included trying new restaurants (trying to steer clear of burger king and taco bell).  we had to read reviews and ask for recommendations while we were there.  sometimes we were successful, like nepal's cafe, and other times not so much, like hunter's chophouse... poor cynthia had a rough experience there that all began with getting a buffalo steak...
 
nepal's cafe
  

we played games, well we played one game ... but my team kicked the other team's butt.  we played taboo and i ran one round giving 9 winning (count 'em - NINE) clues!!!   hey, it's my blog, i can include details like that if i want to :)

 
 

we did some shopping as well, but it was cold and we were all too busy browsing and buying to take pictures.

so apparently we are doing this every year ... we'll see what happens next summer when i have a baby (who wants to watch someone else's 9 month old for 4 days?  not me)  but i had a fabulous time with all the ladies!  the only bummer was that johanna was sick and we all just hoped she would have a more relaxing/recovering time with us than taking care of her kids :)

oh and cynthia, we'll always have estes park!

8 quick quips:

pamc_5@yahoo.com said...

loved the post, especially all the photos. all the ones i shot were crummy. it really was a fun weekend and i am already looking into places in st george. maybe dad will tend for you next summer anyway we can cross that bridge when we get to it.

Kristi said...

Looks like so much fun!!!! What a fun family you guys have:)What a great getaway! Jealous:))))))

Cynthia said...

Yeey thanks for posting! Great job as you always do. Sorry that the pics dont stand up to the Colton's Blog ;) It was soo much fun! Im already looking forward to next years.

Cynthia said...

...and yes Erin, my feelings towards Estes Park have change, for the better! ;)

Sarah said...

Thanks for posting! I miss our little excursion already and everyday I crave Nepals. Next summer will be a little interesting especially since I don't have much luck with my babies not being attached to my boob but hopefully I will have better luck. So glad you guys made the trip out it would not have been the same without you.

Marshall and Rose Lowry said...

That looked like such a fun weekend! I always dream of gettaways with my mom and sisters but don't take the time to plan any. You inspire me!

Johanna said...

I loved hanging out with all you wonderful women! Cynthia - you were supposed to email ME the pictures!! Just so you all know - I am STILL SICK! But I'm feeling marginally better so hope next week I'll be back to my old self... And I hope we can do this getaway stuff again soon. It was great to make some fun memories with all of you.

The Guiness Family said...

What a great time! I will watch your little one next year Erin. Just let me know when. I love babies!