Thursday, February 9, 2017

Girl Party in Arizona

I just had the BEST weekend ever. Whitney turned the big 3-0 on February 3rd, and about six months before that she decided she wanted as many people as possible to come down to AZ to help her celebrate and have one big huge birthday party! Needless to say, this girls' weekend has been on the calendar for awhile!
I also have the best husband ever. While he stayed home and kept the home fires burning for him and the 4 kids, I took an early flight out to Phoenix at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. It was 12 degrees when I left Colorado, and had snowed overnight. I arrived about 90 minutes later to the desert, where it was a mild 65 degrees and sunny. Whitney picked me up and we met up with my mom for lunch in Tempe at the "Culinary Dropouts."
I got the grilled chicken club sandwich, and Whitney got the pork belly nachos and both were FABULOUS. We headed back to our posh hotel suite which was right smack in downtown Tempe-- and featured an amazing rooftop pool and hot tub. I even got to spend the afternoon laying out in the Arizona sun next to a pool that wasn't covered in ice! So much bliss! 
More members of the girl party arrived throughout the afternoon, so we headed out to dinner on Mill Street at Postino's-- a pretty swanky wine bar for drinks (non-alcoholic drinks, of course) and appetizers. The sunset that night was beautiful and I can never get enough of the palm trees!
It was warm enough to eat outside, so of course we chose to do that. It was so nice to eat without the pressure of a) KIDS there!!!!, and b) the nagging feeling of having to rush back to relieve a babysitter at home. There was just nothing but time and good company.
They are famous for their different kinds of bruschetta and they were all so yummy! Proscuitto, figs, and mascarpone, bacon and Burrata, smoked salmon with pesto, and green apple with brie (my favorite). We also tried a yummy Brussels sprout salad, and a grilled veggie board with some amazing almond humus.
After a stroll through downtown Tempe, we headed back to the hotel for Whitney's birthday cake. Her best friend Kiera (who is the flight attendant and hooks Whitney up with all the cheap deals) had pulled out all the stops and made a totally decadent cake for the birthday girl. 
She'd made a brownie base, two different kinds of homemade ice cream (chocolate and Nutella), a chocolate truffle topping, and fresh whipped cream. Wowser! Thirty, flirty, and thriving! 
Although it was explicitly a GIRLS-only party we allowed Kubo in for cake. He works for Marriott, and was responsible for procuring our awesome hotel suite for such an amazing price. These three have been friends since their sophomore year of college at BYU, and are more like family at this point. They sure love, and take care of Whitney and I'm grateful for that!
After cake we headed out to the rooftop pool for a soak in the hot tub. There's my cousin Missy and Sarah P. warming up by the bonfire, trying to work up the courage to enter the jacuzzi which already had a dozen or so people in it. Ha ha.
Pretty sweet view from 14 stories up though!
The next morning we needed to burn off a few calories from the night before so we headed out to Papago park for a 3 1/ 2 mile hike. The weather was what you could call PERFECT. 75 degrees and sunny, beautiful blue skies, and a slight breeze. It was just what the doctor ordered for this Denverite.
I was soaking up as much vitamin D as possible! Who knows when spring will finally come to the Rockies?? Surely not in February, that I know. Phoenix reminds me a lot of our year in Vegas and makes me miss the easy winters there!

Our hiking group: Whitney, my mom, Missy, me, and my cousins Emily and Stacy, who both live in Gilbert, AZ.
After our hike we needed more food, of course, so we headed to brunch at Snooze which is like my all-time favorite place for a good brekky!! Sarah P was staying with her sister in Mesa, so she joined us to eat.
I got the eggs Benedict with one Italian style, and one Mexican style and both were delish.
We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready, and the rest of the day was all Whitney's choice. And she decided she wanted to hit the gun range, believe it or not. She'd been once for the first time a couple weeks before, I've been 3 times with Jon, and the rest had never been, EVER. Needless to say, hilarity ensued as we tried to figure out what the heck we were doing! 
Things are looking pretty grim if I am the so-called "expert" of the shooting range! Ha ha! At least I did know how to load it though, thanks to Jon.
After some more relaxing and laying out by the rooftop pool to calm everyone's frazzled gun-shooting nerves that afternoon, we headed to the final birthday dinner at Hopdoddy Burgers in Scottsdale, which is Whitney's all-time favorite. It was PACKED, so we ate outside again just for the heck of it, and it was well worth the wait! It was so much fun just to be there to support Whitney. She is SO loved by SO many people-- and since she is always the one bringing the "party" to everyone else it was nice to bring the party to her this time. I love seeing where she lives and works ands plays, and meeting her friends, and experiencing Phoenix for myself. I hope she knows how much we love her, and that she had the absolute happiest 30th birthday a girl could ever have!! (And thanks again J-man for letting me escape for a few days!)