For those of you who don’t know Barbs, she is one of the sweetest, kindest and most adorable young women you will ever meet. I’ve known her since we were freshmen in high school and I’m sure she recalls the very first moment we met, because that’s the kind of friend she is (and I am not).
Despite our best efforts to corrupt her throughout our four years of high school, she resisted every temptation and remains a good person to this day. (I guess it did work to our benefit since we could always rely on Barbs to be our designated driver, so perhaps the lord does have a bigger plan.)
Fast forward twelve years later and it’s no surprise Barbs would be one of the first of my bestest high school girlfriends to find true love. I can recall sitting on her princess-esque bed talking about what her dream wedding would look like. I can’t be sure, but I think I even remember a wedding scrapbook she was keeping to track her best ideas in a Creative Memories format. A little creepy…
Just this past September, Barbs made the first big move (literally) out of our third floor apartment, where she had been living with Christie and Jen, and into a one bedroom with her husband-to-be, Robby. These two are the perfect match…Individually they are both fantastic, but together, they are amazing…I mean look at them…it’s like naughty and nice!
After Robby proposed to Barbs last year, it didn’t take long for us to start thinking about how we would all want to celebrate together…After months of planning, which was 95% completed by Christie, we headed to Santa Barbara for a little weekend getaway! It was the first time, in a very long time, the girls (plus a few extras) were together.
Thursday evening Christie, Jen, Shay-rone (welcome back from Asia), Jayme and I all piled into the Prius for what turned out to be a very long drive to Ventura, CA. Jam-packed with our clothes, goodie bags, food and more, frequent stops were a must to make the ride bearable. After about two hours I took the wheel from Jayme and decided to spice things up a bit. How does one spice things up on a road trip through the middle of nowhere?! Applebees! Yeah…you read me right! Applebees.
SIDE NOTE: A couple weeks back, while on vacation with my family, my parents and I had a sit down dinner at Applebees in Watsonville, CA. It was here we discovered Jell-o Shots! Yes. Applebees serves $1 Jell-o and Pudding shots all day!! I’m in love.
Back to the road trip…Once you’ve had a Jell-o shot or two, this turns into Long Islands, tequila and more. Whoopsie! (Don’t worry mom, I only had one Jell-o shot and that was it. Free fountain drinks for the designated driver also served at Applebees.) Flash forward what should have been a five to six hour drive, we’re on hour eight pulling into the hotel at approximately 3:00am. Whoopsie again!
The next day we left Ventura and headed back up to Santa Barbara and checked into our fabulous vacation home. After aggressively claiming bedrooms, we hit up the store, stocked the house and waited for the rest of the crew’s arrival. The next 48 hours are a bit of a blur…but here’s a quick look at what I can remember…(and yes, it’s unusual for Barb’s to take champagne to the face.)
What is not captured in this video is Sunday morning when I woke up cheifed aka covered in permanent marker penis drawings. It’s four days later and I still can’t scrub these darn things off. Oh and did I mention I was also puking all morning? I was so out of it, the girls had to pack my bags and dress me. The upside was that I got out of any chores that morning. The downside was that I had a seven hour car ride ahead of me. Thank goodness for Wendy’s and catnaps!
