You Need A Girls Trip NOW!

First, let me say that I love traveling time with my husband and son. I also REALLY love traveling with my husband sans kiddo (which is a totally other post that I need to write), anyway I digress…

We are a traveling family – it’s our hobby. Both my husband and I grew up on family road trips and became adults who were down for any kind of trip, wherever, whenever; provided we had a paycheck to spend on it. But I think we can all agree that there is nothing like a good ole’ GIRLS TRIP!!!! I don’t know about you, but I have become increasingly aware that as I get older life, careers, marriage, mothering, etc. can get in the way of that and suddenly, it’s been a year, or two, and you start to think about it. You tally up your Girls’ Nights Out and you realize the numbers have dwindled substantially. Oh yeah…it’s been a while since I left my family’s side to let them fend for themselves for longer than 3 hours max…hmm…when was the last time I got some quality time with any of my friends that lasted longer than a lunch or dinner? When was the last time I bought or wore ‘going out clothes’? When was the last time I actually blow dried and styled my hair (myself) and put on full makeup? When was the last time I didn’t have to worry about waking up early with a child after a good night out? When was the last time I didn’t have to unload the dishwasher, run the laundry, go to the store, or vacuum for longer than a day?? hmmm…holy crap, WHO AM I? I NEED TO RECHARGE THESE BATTERIES, ASAP!!!!! 

My husband is super great about supporting my nights out or my girls trips. We have really made an effort to acknowledge how we both need time with our friends, but, like I said, LIFE GETS IN THE WAY. All of my friends have their own things going on, and it’s really hard to sync schedules. It used to not be that way because 10-15 years ago, our lives pretty much revolved around each other, our work schedules, and class schedules. We would take at least one girls trip a year – Spring Break in New Orleans. One year we even went twice. Sprinkle some random road trips here and there and we never lacked in girl time. We didn’t even have to schedule GNOs because we had them all the time. Oh to go back to our 20’s…HA! Fast forward to now, some of us are wives, some of us live in different parts of the country, some of us are career women, some of us are moms (OGs and newbies), some of us are doing it ALL. Which is awesome because…who run the world? Amiright? BUT what is also not so awesome is that we are so focused on these important things that we kind of forget to take some personal time for ourselves.

I have two main circles of friends – this tends to happen as you get older I have figured out. Some have more circles – due to school age children/job/geographic relation to friends/etc. My main two circles are my FRAMILY and my ADL crew (<–inside joke/memoriam to a friend.) So, my framily besties did manage to fit some trips (Bahamas in 2014, Puerto Vallarta in 2015) in between weddings and babies, BUT then freaking ZIKA hit and that completely derailed plans for all of us who are of child bearing age (we like the tropical trips). I had been whining aloud to my husband for probably the first 4 months of 2017 that I was going on a two year-girls trip-slump, like “I REALLY NEED A GIRLS TRIP… I DUNNO IF ANYONE CAN GO BECAUSE THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER…BLAH BLAH BLAH” and finally, he was like, “OH MY GOD! JUST ASK YOUR FRIENDS AND MAKE IT WORK.” So I did. And to my astonishment, 2017 became the year I got my GIRLS TRIP GROOVE BACK! AWWW YEAH!!!!! PRAISE HANDS, YA’LL!!! RAISE EM!!!!

The trip that brought it back was a quickie, surprise trip for one of my dear friends’ 30th birthday. Friday to Sunday in New Orleans – because I have some legitimate experience in laissez les bon temps router there, and also because the birthday girl HAD NEVER BEEN THERE and she was a new mom of twin 6 month old boys, enough said. AND it was AMAZING. It was just enough time to give my friend a taste of New Orleans: we drank all the delicious drinks, ate all of the mouth-watering things, did a haunted ghost tour, and slept in. It was also the perfect amount of time to get her hooked on NOLA and for all of us to recharge/reset. In August, my college bestie (who lives in Atlanta) mentioned I should come visit her in November for a book tour stop of one of our favorite people, Jenna Bush. So obviously I went! Friday – Sunday, another short and sweet trip full of Shake Shack, wine, shopping, and BLOWOUTS – I heart Drybar. And it was SO WORTH IT. SO MUCH FUN.  AND SO NEEDED. Alright, so that’s two girls trips this year, way more than I ever expected . I’m actually pretty proud of myself and my friends. We made it work: money/schedules/kids schedules/husbands schedules, we made it happen. And in each of my circles of girlfriends, we have decided that we need to commit to making this an annual thing. Somehow we’ve got to make it happen.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is: it’s okay for you to lose yourself in your daily life, but give yourself some credit, you do need some personal care time, with your friends, without your daily responsibilities, every once in a while. YOU DESERVE IT. And chances are your friends deserve it too. SO PLAN IT! 

Not to worry though, this won’t just be a happenstance of 2017 – nah uh, no. I just recently got invited to meet a couple of my besties from Albuquerque in Vegas in February for a girls’ birthday weekend and let’s me just say this – IT’S HAPPENING! Bring on 2018 and the girls trips!

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