30!

On the 8th, the birthday I've been dreading arrived, and Lisa and I turned 30.  Both of us were pretty unhappy about that.  Fortunately, Mike and Dan stepped up big time and got me and Lisa together for the weekend!  Lisa came to Phoenix Wednesday night-Sunday morning.  Having the weekend to look forward to made my transition to 30 way WAY easier.

Wednesday night I picked her up from the airport and we had a girls night at my house.  I forgot to take pictures, but it was fun to introduce her to so many of my friends.

Thursday morning we tricked the boys.  Lisa started talking to Ethan and then when he saw me he started smiling shyly and said he hadn't known it was her.  Benton just kept saying that we were both Mommy and there were two Mommies.  After awhile he admitted she was Lisa.

Then we went to a kickboxing class at the gym, came home to get changed, and started shopping.  Kohls, Ross, Cafe Rio with my friend Sarah for lunch, then the outlet mall.  Grammy was nice enough to drive out and take us to dinner,

 After more shopping (special thanks for all the birthday money from family that enabled all our shopping) we went to our hotel in Scottsdale and fell asleep.

After sleeping in a little on Friday, we had a pretty much free breakfast at Einstein Bagels (I signed up for lots of free birthday club offers) and then hiked Camelback Mountain.

 At the top.

 Lisa being super committed to cell phone pictures of strangers. (She was laying flat but started getting up before I snapped the picture.)

 Some of her creativity with my phone.

We went back to the hotel for some swimming and reading (and talking, always lots and lots of talking).

Then we went horseback riding.  It was fun to be on a horse again, but considering we rode enough as kids to not be beginners, the two hour walk got a little boring.

 Lisa figured out that when we went through little ditches she could stop her horse and then kick him to go fast down and up out of the ditch so that there was a little more excitement.  What a rebel.  Check out the necklace my friend Jessica got me with my 3 boys' names on it!

 The longer I live in Phoenix, the more beautiful I think the desert is.  Lisa thought it was cool, but wouldn't go so far as to say it was pretty.  She was impressed with our cloudless skies, though.

 We were really hungry by the time we were done, so we quickly changed and went out to dinner.  Our hotel was walking distance from Old Town Scottsdale so we tried a Mexican place the hotel recommended (Lisa wanted all the good Mexican she could get since Rochester is lacking in that area).  We went to a Tacos and Tequila place (with a Tequila coupon from the hotel) and got...tacos.  They were very yummy.  The hotel employees were surprised to see us back so soon, but, Mormon moms have a different idea of "going out".

I was actually really excited to go to the hot tub, so we changed into our bathing suits and started searching for it.  After not finding it, we went to the front desk and asked where it was.  They told us it had been removed!  I was bummed because a hot tub was a requirement for me when I booked the hotel and I had called to double check that they had one.  He apologized and gave us free breakfast vouchers for the next day.  Lisa and I had a good time laughing that the lesson in this was when you call to see if a hotel has a hot tub, you apparently need to ask how long they intend on keeping it.  It was probably a "you had to be there" joke.

With that not working out, we walked to Fry's, bought ice cream, and ate it at the hotel while laughing to Mike Birbiglia stand up on Netflix.

We were slap happy in the evenings, so even things like this were very funny.

 Saturday morning (our actual birthday) we slept in some and then went for a 5 mile run along the canal.  Lisa got me going almost a minute per mile faster than I usually go, but I know she could have gone much faster.  We came back to the hotel and had a restaurant breakfast with our vouchers, then got cleaned up and checked out and hung out by the pool reading for several hours.  I'm so glad we got that in, because a weekend without kids isn't complete without several hours of lounging with a book (and of course dozing off).  The weather was beautiful!  Cool enough for exercise, but warm enough for the (heated) pool.

Next we hit The Melting Pot for happy hour cheese and chocolate.

We spent the evening shopping at some awesome discount stores near Scottsdale that Grammy told us about and then went to Tempe Marketplace so we could hit Downeast and Charming Charlie's.  When all those stores closed at 9, we went to Target and then found that Ross or Marshall's was still open, I forget which.  We didn't leave there until 11 and were starting to get a little hungry.  Luckily, Red Robin was next door, so we went there for our free birthday hamburgers.  We left at about midnight, so we didn't waste any of our birthday!

The next morning, Lisa was nice enough to get up early with us and take our family pictures in the good morning light.  Then, sadly, we had to take her back to the airport.

This type of weekend needs to happen much much more often!

I am so grateful for Lisa!  We may live on opposite ends of the country, but I can call or text her about the most random things and she is always happy to listen and talk about it (or pretends really well).  I love that we could spend the weekend together and easily fill the time with things we both enjoy and not run out of things to talk about.  I love you so much Lisa and don't know what I'd do without you!  And at least we can be "old" together. :)