Tears and Laughter in Walla Walla

Recently I went away for a weekend with 10 other friends to celebrate my dear friend, Terri's 40th birthday.  The weekend was kind of a surprise for Terri.  All she knew about the weekend was that we were all going for two nights and that we were wine tasting in Walla Walla.  Our friend, Jamie, with the help of a few others planned the rest of the activities in what turned out to be a pretty amazing weekend.

Before dinner on Friday we each got a personal reading from a psychic.  This was my first reading ever.  I didn't know what to expect.  Some of the ladies before me spoke of their readings and it seemed pretty safe.  She wasn't telling people how she thought they were going to die or that spouses were doing 'non-spouse' like things.  The psychic wanted to know if we had any questions.  I was stressing about what question(s) to ask.  My turn came up and before my butt could even find the chair she says, "oh my .. you're soo blue" as she holds each of her hands in the air in front of me like the air was pulsating.  I kind of froze mid air, went wide-eyed, and said, "what does that mean?"  What she proceeded to tell me during my 10 minute reading couldn't have been any better if I wrote her script myself.  She said my aura was royal blue and that it meant I was very balanced.  I'm very intuitive, people like me, I have a strong marriage, my family life is balanced - she actually said that I had the most balanced life she's seen in years.  She said Matt and I were on the same page and that we had a happy marriage.  She said that Matthias will live up to his name.  He's a leader and while that may make him hard to deal with now, it'll pay off later.  She said Gwyneth was mild and sweet.  If she doesn't be careful she can be easily taken advantage of and that her heart will be broken at a young age - BUT - because Matt and I are so darn balanced we'll have a proper support system for her to be ok.  I only asked one question, "Will I ever go back to work?"  She said that I will go back part-time once both kids are in school.  I'll look around the house and say, "everything is clean, now what?" So, yes, I will go back to work .. part-time .. for fun.  Her words.  Oh, she also told me that "in this life" everything will be fine and that I don't have to worry about anything.  I have angles and lights behind me making sure all is good.

cough. cough.

While eating a literal finger-licking-good BBQ dinner that Emory, our grill master for the night, grilled in the drive way on his homemade grill Terri decided to stand and tell us that she wrote thank you cards for each of us and attached each of our names to a letter in the word FRIENDSHIPS.  She was going to have us all guess each person she was going to speak about.  She started with "F" and tears immediately started falling from all of us.  The good kind.  The kind where you're thankful.  Dinner was nice.  My heart was as full as my belly.

After dinner we all sat around the fire pit and got comfortable for the night.  That is until the music came on.  Dana led the way and the rest of us promptly fell in behind her and we did a flash mob for Terri as her first surprise of the night.  It was hysterical.  The CD skipped each time we jumped (we were on a the deck) so we got a little out of time with the music .. not to mention some of us (I'm in this group) only watched the video once so half of us didn't know what we were doing.  I fully intended on following Dana's awesome lead. :)

In lieu of birthday gifts we each wrote a 'Toast to Terri' that we were going to read to her around the fire.  This was started by Lori busting out her guitar and singing Terri a song she wrote about her.  It was quirky and sweet and totally not something I wanted to follow.  My, "I like you.  You are nice." totally seemed lacking all of the sudden.  As each of us said what we said .. more tears were shed.  More laughs were had. I read my simple words (a slight step up from "I like you.  You are nice.") just to Terri as I hate public speaking .. and any group more than one is public speaking.  Just saying.  I think she was truly moved.  Not by my words, but by everyone's.  Everyone spoke from the heart and it felt like the night was one big bear hug.  Safe and warm, radiating with love.

Saturday brought sunshine for our full day of wine tasting.  We got a limo to haul us gals around from winery to winery for 5 hours.  It was such a nice day.  We visited one winery that when entering felt like you were in a cathedral and another that was a room built from what appeared to be cinder blocks but was the most quaint.  One winery that used to be a school house had a playground that a few of us took advantage of.  Rarely do we get to play so freely even though we all visit parks all the time with our kids.  We visited a nice variety of 4 wineries and having never been wine tasting before . . it was a perfect way to do it on your first time!

We had an amazing winemaker's dinner that night.  We each dressed up and appreciated it as the special night it was.  Even Sarah, whose diet is currently severely limited due to allergies, was able to sit and bask in amazing food.  They graciously made her a separate menu that according to her expressions was on par with everyone else's menu.  I ate every bite from every course.  Our group of 12 went through 14 bottles of wine.  We don't hold back.  The evening ended up being one of the funnest I've had in a long time.

Sunday graced us with more sunshine.  After living in the Seattle area it's amazing how much sunshine is a big deal.  We cleaned up, packed up, and headed out to one last winery.  This winery wasn't on the original itinerary, but at the previous night's dinner the sales rep for Waters Winery (we had Waters wine paired with all our courses .. and then some) - she's awesome btw - overheard Jamie telling Ashley that she was on the lookout for a barrel.  She said that she had one - for free!- and that she would meet us up at our house the next morning and we could follow her to the winery.  She'd also give us all a discount on the wine.  yay!

By the time we left the winery all I could think of was that saying I saw on Pinterest, "I'm sorry for the unkind words I spoke out of hunger."  We all were STARVING and probably willing to sacrifice a baby kitten to get some food.  As Dana said, "I lose my s*it when my blood sugar is low."  I hear ya, girl.  Thankfully we found a place that was 1. open on Sunday - apparently a lot of Walla Walla closes down on Sundays.  How small town of them. and 2. served food.  I wasn't picky.  I just wanted to eat.  Burgers and whatnot were had by all and with our tummy's full we parted ways for home.

Thank goodness I didn't drive.  Once we hit the interstate Dana and I passed the eff out.  Poor Christina drove with no conversation for the first half the drive - about 2 hours.  I got home about 6:30 to the three people I love most in this world.  Matt had dinner ready and waiting.  He smoked me a chicken.  Man knows how to please me.

The weekend flew by and I couldn't be more thankful for having spent the time I did with all those ladies.  It really was a fun time.  A weekend free of drama and full of laughter.  My favorite kind.