3rd Annual Girls Gip

Earlier this month, I was able to meet up with my very best girl, Christie, for one of our girls weekends before she moves from California to DC next month.  Usually, my other very best girl Amber joins us on our trips, but being she's like ten thousand miles away in Japan, we had to improvise.  Jonathan was great about letting me go for 4 days being that he couldn't really take time off work...so he took the girls to the squadron with him on Thursday and Friday.  They played soccer, colored pictures and were baby sat by various pilots as well as the scheduler Mel.  Mel is nice...she brought the girls candy.  They talk about her often.

Amber and I waiting in the terminal in Vegas, Starbucks behind us of course.

 On our plane, Amber in her own seat.

 

 You may wonder if I got weird looks.  I'm flying out of Vegas...I'm the least of the weirdos flying out of there!

Reading a bit on the flight.

 

 Arriving in Monterey, CA

 Amber giving Christie a hug.

And we're off!  We made Amber sit in the back seat.

 We stopped at a local shop Christie wanted to check out and Amber did a little trying on of clothes and jewelry.

 What do you think of this sweater?

 

After shopping, we stopped to grab a bite to eat at this cute little cafe.  A man walking by proceeded to give us, and I'm talking diarrhea of the mouth, his liberal agenda without our asking.  We weren't really up for visitors, but oh well.  The climax of his monologue was when he told us that all republicans hate our president because he's black...he had a few expletives thrown in for emphasis I guess.  Real classy guy this man was.  I kinda joked around with him and Christie kinda sat there silent at the complete shock of the moment.

 

Christie booked us a room RIGHT on the bay with a beautiful view.  We even saw seals playing in the water!

Amber enjoying the view.

 

I'll take this bed!

Wine time.

The morning I woke up to leave, I wasn't feel all that well and by the time I had arrived in California, I was a tad under the weather.  Luckily Christie was fine with us just chillin' in the hotel room and she let me nap for a little bit.  It helped my fever to go away and Amber even felt sorry for me and laid down by me to be sure I'd be okay.  Christie is a germophobe but she loves me so much she didn't quarantine me to my own room.  After a day of chatting and my nap, we watched Grey's Anatomy and called it a night.

The next morning we woke up and I was feeling a bit better.  Christie brought me a muffin and coffee for Amber.

I forgot my bathing suit so yes, I wore clothes in the hot tub.  So I wouldn't feel left out, Christie wore shorts too. 

We joked how we were "those girls in clothes in the hot tub with a person on a stick".  Being that we were in a very liberal  part of the state, we can only imagine what people were thinking.

 

 We got cleaned up and got ready to head out for a bit of sight seeing, but not before we sat by the warm fire in the hotel lobby and chatted for a bit more.

Amber watched over our bags while we checked out.  She had to watch out for any weirdos wanting to steal our stuff!

Amber by Monterey Bay.

 Enjoying some delish clam chowder.

We then headed to Christie's house to relieve her hubby who had also been sick that morning.  Amber volunteered to watch cartoons with Jude and Logan and though I was feeling a little bit better, I still took another nap.

Christie made a fabulous meal and Amber couldn't stay away from the wine!

The next morning, I was feeling 100%, so of course we spent our afternoon shopping!  There is an outdoor mall maybe 5 minutes from her house with awesome stores.  6 hours was all we could muster before needing to eat dinner.

 We stopped at Williams-Sonoma so Amber could show us an apron she really wants for Christmas.

Then we posed with the pretty Pottery Barn Christmas tree.

Amber was all over the See's candy, literally!

We found some cute fairy books, one with Amber's name on it!

More trying on of fun stuff.

The 3 of us.  

Oohh la la!

An afternoon of shopping isn't complete without a stop into Target.  On a serious note, Amber doesn't have Target in Japan and we know she's going through serious withdrawal!

We went to dinner and when Christie couldn't hang anymore, we came home to see the scores of the college football games going on and Amber was hooked on this Stanford game.  She was glued to the TV for the rest of the evening.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast and Amber was so exhausted she coulnd't walk anymore.  She had a busy weekend!

I was delayed in the Monterey airport for a few hours and got home late to my family, but I read a good chunk of my book and people watched in the terminal, so it wasn't too bad.  Christie is so awesome.  I miss her terribly and am grateful for our short time together on these trips.  I love the Air Force for the people I've met, especially these 2 women, but hate it for the same reason when it separates me from them.  Just in her being her, she makes me realize what is truly important, and her perspective of life is always right on.  She is one of the godliest women I've ever met and am so blessed by our friendship and the bond we share.  She and Todd have such a strong marriage, and are awesome parents raising 2 of the sweetest, most compassionate, intelligent and funniest little boys I've ever met.  Kylie and Logan have been betrothed for about the last 5 years and I'm not kidding...I'd be so happy if they married!  Luckily Amber is headed back to the US next summer, so we will be planning our next girls trip hopefully within the year.  And next time, we're hoping Amber isn't so anorexic looking.  We hated not having her there and we felt like we were cheating on her, but she was there with us in spirit, and on a stick.