Girls Day Out

Two weeks ago, the girls, Tammy, Jamie, Debbie and I got together for a day in Chicago in celebration of my birthday. The plan was to leave town by 9am and spend as long as it took to accomplish what we wanted to get done - a load of shopping and a day of relaxation with the girls. We left pretty close to on time, talked the entire 2.5 hours it took to get to Ikea, and then immediately headed upstairs for lunch in the cafe. A little more than SEVEN HOURS later, we loaded everything up in the back of the van and had a passerby snap this picture for us. I'm not going to rat out any particular individual - let me just say that our combined shopping total at this one location was more than $600!! We did what we had gone there to do, and only then did we leave. Mission accomplished. From Ikea we drove across the street to Woodfield Mall (with only a short stop at the Container Store) for - you guessed it - some more shopping! We hit NY & Co. pretty hard, swung into the Gap, stopped in a couple of other shops, talked to a guy at Caribou Coffee (rumor has it that one is on it's way to the Bend!) and then headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for a late dinner. It was around 10:00 by the time we sat down, and after 1AM before we finished our dessert (the whole point, isn't it??) and got back in the van for the trip home. I dropped each of the girls off and finally arrived home around 3:30 (yikes!) and crashed hard until around 10 the next morning. Now that's a good day!!

I can't tell you how much fun we had - and it wasn't because I dropped a load of money (though that didn't hurt!). It was because I spent the day with my best friends having some of the best, most honest conversation I've had in a while. I love doing life with these girls, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Thanks girls - I love you!!