Lee Girls' Weekend 2015

A year ago when my sisters and I were all feeling cold, we decided to meet in Phoenix for the last weekend in January 2015.  It sounded perfect.  Then last summer when I went to book us a hotel or a rental house or a cabin in the woods, I discovered that the Super Bowl was happening in Phoenix that same weekend and finding someplace to stay for under one MILLION dollars was going to be nearly impossible.  Eventually I found a tiny house in Gilbert that could squeeze in all nine of us (plus two infants).

[Nicole, Claire, Makenzie, Katy, Mom (sitting with Moira and Macey), Lori, Allyn, Jen, and Melissa.]

First to arrive was Allyn on Monday.  She wanted to see the Love sculpture in Scottsdale, so we stopped by that and then found some cheap stuff from Mexico in a nearby store.

Aye, yai, yai that's a lot of imports!

Mom, Nicole, and Katy arrived on Wednesday night.  That's when the weather turned cloudy and gray.  Thursday we all did an endowment session in the Gilbert Temple.  It was really special being in the temple with my family.

Jen, Claire, Moira, Lori, and Macey arrived on Thursday and we spent the evening eating tacos and playing with babies.  By then I had become very familiar with the ins and outs Sky Harbor Airport.  That place is a bit much.  Babies are cute.

Did I mention babies are cute?

Friday was my mom's 65th birthday!  To celebrate, she gave each of us some money and said we had two hours to spend it on ourselves.  

After shopping in the (stupid stupid) pouring rain for a few hours, we came back to the house and shared what we bought.  Mom bought Moose Munch, a red sweater, and (would you believe) . . .

 . . . the exact same shirt that I bought!  

Makenzie joined the party a few hours later.  Her husband tore his Achilles tendon the day before, but insisted she come party for 24 hours.  It wouldn't have been the same without her.   

I found some birthday cupcakes for Mom at Sweet Tooth Fairy and after a dinner at Joe's Farm Grill, we went back to the house to celebrate my mom being born.

I love this picture because that's her happy cry face.  We sing a very pretty "Happy Birthday to You."

Mom and Lori cut the cupcakes in half so the awesomeness would go further.  Please note the adorable mugs on the counter.  Allyn and I painted everyone's initials on those mugs.  Some of us have the same initials, so we also added birth order numbers so everyone would know whose was whose.  I used this tutorial HERE.

When we were planning our weekend, Katy suggested we each bring one of our favorite things (that cost less than $5) for everyone in the group.  We also filled out a questionnaire about our favorite things.  Someone would read another person's answers and everyone would have to guess whose it was.  Then that person would tell about the favorite thing they had brought and pass them out for everyone.  It was super fun to get to know each other better and collect some fun stuff.

The next day Nicole decided she had to steal some lemons before we checked out of the rental house.

This kills me.

Then Nicole said we had to hold them in a group picture by the pool.  

We're the funnest people we know.

The Real Housewives of Gilbert, Arizona.  Photo by Nicole.

It was cloudy and rainy all weekend.  As I was driving the last of my house guests back to the airport, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  It was absurd, really.  But despite poor weather, the stupid Super Bowl, Makenzie's crazy plane issues, and my early onset dementia, we were able to spend a delightful weekend together. Can't wait to do it again soon!