A Tale of Four Friends

Confession: I don't have a lot of friends. I'm an introvert. I have 4 kids. I work full time. I take kind of a long time to get to know. I value depth over breadth in friendship. And once I latch on to you, you're stuck with me for life.

The Beehive Tearoom, 2010

Once upon a time there were four friends. They met weekly and prayed for each other, held each other accountable, and walked side-by-side through a whole bunch of tough years. For reasons most of us can't comprehend, two of the four moved from Utah, but throughout the years they kept investing each other. And they kept investing in a joint vacation fund.

Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, 2017

That's right, after seven years of investing $10 per month in our vacation fund, we finally took our fantastic, amazing, unbelievable girls' vacation!!!

And it was everything we dreamed it would be.

Five days. Four friends. Zero cooking. At least one nap daily. No cell service. Everything necessary for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

It was a blessed, amazing time together. Deck boys brought us fancy drinks served in pineapples. We got sunburns. We read books (Books! With two hands, two eyeballs, and nobody needing anything from us! Who does that?!? Not us!). We prayed. We laughed. We cried. We ate. A lot. We went to the spa. We drove a jeep around Cozumel. We ate ceviche and etouffee and beignets. We snorkeled. We saw dolphins and a whale. We watched the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico.

Seriously. Who does this? These girls!!! Backed by amazing families who make it all possible.

Stop1 - New Orleans! We got photobombed by a bear. Who thought photobombing us was hilarious. Which we thought was hilarious.

Beignets!

Stop 2: Cruise ship! Pic from our balcony.

Bingo and other festivities upon the ship

Stop 3: Cozumel!

Back on ship - formal night and more gallivanting

It's hard to fully express my gratitude for this trip. For these women. For time and money for such decadence. For families that love us enough to keep things rolling at home while we run away. For 9 years of friendship and counting. For sisters.