Girl's Night(s) Out

This weekend was girl’s weekend for the Dopp/Taylor girls up in Park City. We figure if the boys get a weekend that the girls should get one as well. I haven’t done an all girls weekend for probably about 15 years, the last one was with my high school friends, we had a tradition of going up to Idaho to stay at the cabin once a summer, but once we all started having families, and most of us moved away (although most of us are back now) we stopped going.

Girl’s weekend started on Friday, it was my week to volunteer in Jakey’s kindergarten class for “trades” which they will do every Friday for the rest of the year (I will go in once a month, and will work from home a half day those days). It was really a lot of fun, I think in an alternate universe I’m a kindergarten teacher, I wished it payed better I think I would really enjoy it, and I absolutely have loved everything about having a 5 year old. I actually think the 5-10 range are the best “kid years” everything is so new and fresh for them, they love exploring the world (which helps you see everything through new eyes), they are more independant (so they can get their own cereal in the morning), there are so many they are passionate about, they still think hanging out with mom and dad is awesome, and they haven’t quite hit the true “eye roll” years. After I finished I waited at the school until it was out (we finished about 20 minutes before school was out) and then walked Jake over to Scott and Circe’s for his sleep over.

Mom, Jennie, Jenny, and Nikki had started the weekend with lunch at Marie Calendar’s, and then Nikki, Jennie, and Jenny headed for pedicures while mom and I headed up to Park City. We wanted to get shopping early, and Friday night I found some great deals at Liz Claiborne, and got me 4 new shirts. We also stopped at “Harry & David’s” where I got some of the really good baked brie (my favorite pear and gorgonzola) to put in the freezer for the holidays, as well as pre-filled pepper, salt, and nutmeg mills (there is nothing I like better than fresh ground spices). We then met the pedicure girls at Loco Lizard for dinner, and Richelle met as there as well. Dinner was good, Nikki and I split grilled halibut and shrimp tacos, the shrimp wasn’t the best, but the halibut was awesome and definitely made up for it. We then headed out to get stuff for breakfast, and I needed to pick up some P.J’s as I forgot mine.

We rented a couple movies that we didn’t watch, but stayed up until about 1:30 talking about everything from our kids and lives, to issues from the recent elections. 1:30 isn’t really all that late for me, as I’m a night owl with insomnia anyway, but I did manage to sleep until almost 9:00 Saturday morning which was really nice. Saturday we headed back to the outlet stores for more shopping, finding great deals all over for Christmas. We broke at about 1:00 for lunch at Ruby Tuesday, and Circe was able to meet us there, where we had a really great lunch (they have a really good fresh salad bar, and a nice quiche in puff pastry that I’m going to try to duplicate, it shouldn’t be too hard). We then headed back for more shopping, I think we came pretty close to the literal definition of “shop ‘til you drop”. Saturday night we went to one of my favorite restaurant’s in Park City “Zoom”, the food was great, the buffalo onion rings w/blue cheese dip are awesome, and the flatbread with gorgonzola (I think I’m obsessed with the bleu veined cheeses lately), artichoke hearts, and sundried tomatoes was really good as well.

I was honestly jonesing for my Jakey by Saturday night, and having a hard time not stealing someone’s car and fleeing back home to pick up my boy, but we had another fun night sitting up talking. In fact we ended up talking until almost 4:00 a.m. (which is really late even for me). I was still up at about 7:50 excited to get on the road and get home to pick up Jake, Nikki needed to be to church early so I hitched a ride with her and mom. I picked up Jake from Scott and Circe’s where he had a really fun weekend hanging out with his cousin’s the highlight was Ruby’s gingerbread party with her Nutcracker friends, as well as sleeping with Freestone. Scott even managed to get Jake to eat pumpkin French toast and wear a “regular boy shirt” Sunday morning.

Sunday we got home, and did the required cuddling on the couch drinking chocolate (hot in my case, cold in Jake’s) and watching “Nightmare Before Christmas” (we both love that show), and then both fell asleep on the couch for a Sunday afternoon nap. We woke up and got dressed and headed to mom and dad’s for the November Birthday Party (happy birthday Nikki and Dad!!!). Dinner was great, and then time to go home and get ready for the week.

It was a really fun weekend, can’t wait to do it again (although I think one night might be my “away from Jake” limit) , it’s fun to just be with all the girls and spend some time getting to know everyone on a different level than we normally get to know each other.

This week is going to be another busy week, as we become art patrons all week, Jakey and I have tickets to “Scarlet Pimpernel” at Davis High tonight, and I’m thinking we may go catch "Beauty and the Beast" tomorrow night at Northridge High (I’m not sure where to get tickets, Davis High sells theirs on-line, but I can't find anything about it at all on Northridge's site, although it's on the Davis County school calendar). Northridge won best high school musical in Utah for their production of “Les Miserables” last year. I told Jake he had to choose between “Scarlet Pimpernel” and “Beauty and the Beast” and for some reason (I'm guessing my description of the French Revolution including the guillotine) he choose "Scarlet Pimpernel", but I would really like to see both, so I’m going to try, at $8.00 for reserved seating it's not much more than a movie. Thursday night we have tickets for “Nutcracker”. I’m thinking that should be a sufficient amount of ballet, and theater for one week, Jake should be in heaven.