Never Say Never

The girls: Brittany, April, Jessica, Katie and me

Brittany...and her 8 month pregnant self! Best trooper award for sure.

Jessica is 6 and half months pregnant, with Katie.

All of us on the beach...

we brought a tripod and set up shop. 2 hours and 100 pictures later we were exhausted.

In a pyramid you should not put two tall people on one side and two short people on the other:) Lesson learned from my lopsided pose.

The jumping picture...there's a whole post coming on this one:)

Baywatch

Charlie's Angel's??

The Mama's to be together...more on them later too.

I never thought I'd be able to truly enjoy a trip without my family. But I sure did. I never thought you could go on a trip with an odd number and somebody not feel left out. But no one did. (that I know of:)). I never thought you could go on a trip with all girls and have NO drama. But we did. I never thought I would get less sleep than when I am at home with two children. Oh unfortunately you can. I never thought I could laugh and cry so much in four days. But I did. I never thought I could leave my babies and that things would be completely fine with no real problems at all. But there weren't any. I never thought I could learn so much from a few in such little time but I did. I never thought I could love both girls I've known for what seems like forever and girls I might not think I have anything in common with...but I did. I never thought I'd find one person, let alone four others that liked to take pictures so much! But you can see above it was found. I never thought I'd have as much fun as I have when I rock out to Biebster with my babies, but it came close. Never say Never:)
As you can tell my girl's trip this past weekend was a success. For so many reasons. We cried and laughed and talked til my voice was hoarse. We sang Justin Beiber at the loudest volume possible (ok, maybe that was just me) We ate great food and got alot of quality time. My complaint always when spending time with women is that we spend far too much time on the superficial or the surface. With each person being scared to say anything real. I can't stand it. It makes me crazy. So with the fear of being completely annoying I insisted throughout the trip that we talk about things that were important to us by asking questions that each person had to answer. At first this too feels superficial but eventually you get in far enough and everybody feels liscense to let it all hang out. Something I probably do far too much of...you all know that from reading this blog of sometimes too much depth. Anyways I was afraid the trip itself would be fun and I'd get a break but there wouldn't be alot of realness...and I needed that more than any of the other. But there was realness and love and grace and laughter. I am so thankful that I went and can see how going makes me a better wife, friend and mother. I learned things from each girl and God used the trip to renew my love for Him through being able to see others through His eyes. I felt renewed to come home and continue the ministry to my family as well as convicted to continue to get outside of it and minister there too. It was truly beautiful. God reminded me that He gives us friends to sharpen us and at the end of the trip we took time to encourage one another. As each girl encouraged me I thought of the ways that I see Jesus in them and hope that I can be more like them in those ways, and in turn more like our Jesus.