30 years = Girls Weekend!

This past weekend was definitely one of the most fun times I've had recently!  I met three of my most dear college friends (one is actually a friend from high school!) for a quick girls weekend away to celebrate our 30th birthdays.  We planned this before we had any idea that Justin and I would be moving but the Lord knew I would absolutely benefit from this trip, at this exact time, well before I did.  It was exactly the refreshment that I needed.  Check out this picture of us from college... circa 2003 I'm thinking...

Me, Rachelle, Michelle, and Andrea

 Just to give a little background on these amazing women... Michelle and I have known each other since junior high and really became good friends in high school.  We both (along with several others from our high school) decided to go to Iowa and she was the girl I called when we first moved in and hadn't made any friends yet.  ;)  We stayed friends through out our years at Iowa.

Michelle and Andrea were on the same floor freshman year in Burge and Rachelle and I were on the same floor in Rienow.  I met Andrea through Michelle and found out she went to high school near my high school and we knew some random mutual people.  Andrea and I were also the crazy girls who got engaged AND MARRIED while still in college, so we loved having each other over for dinner and hanging out as married couples our senior year of college.  We thought we were so grown up.. HA!  :)

Rachelle is the friend who ended up marrying my second cousin and is now IN MY FAMILY...whoa!!  We were on the same floor freshman year, joined the same sorority, were roommates for two years, both worked at the hospital in registration, both elementary education majors, both learned the Everclear dance at UDA dance camp in high school (haha, Rachelle!), among many other similarities. 

All four of us joined sororities and were in a bible study for Greeks together through out college and that is how we all became connected.  We also all grew up in the Chicago burbs so we had that in common as well.  That concludes the history portion of my post.  :) 

And here we are now...

As you can see, the weekend started off with manicures and pedicures and LOTS of catching up!  We all stayed at Michelle's awesome condo in Chicago.  Andrea flew in from D.C. and Rachelle drove in from the burbs. 

After some pampering, we headed to dinner at this darling Italian restaurant Michelle knew about.  She planned the whole weekend and everything was great.. she is the perfect planner! :)

After dinner, we went back to Michelle's, put on our jammies, and watched funny, random You Tube clips.  We were in bed by 11 and up by 7 the next morning.  Yep, we are all 30 now, remember?!

The next morning, Michelle's hubby made us all a gourmet breakfast (can you believe that?!  what a guy!) and then we headed to Lush for facials and foot treatments.  We decided to go heavy on the pampering... who has time for this in their normal lives?!  We all had to buy a $50 gift card to use on products, but they opened the store an hour early for us and pampered us for free!  Then we got to use the gift card on the products we liked.  It was awesome!

Michelle and Rachelle getting facialed.  (is that a word?)

Me and Andrea getting our foot treatments.

Happy customers!

 After that, we ate lunch at a cute bagel shop and then shopped around Lincoln Park. 

We all headed home later that afternoon. It was super quick but I am so glad we all made the effort and did it anyway.  It was so refreshing and relaxing!  We decided we're going to make this an every five years event...  See y'all at 35!  ;)