Mommies Gone Wild

Have you ever had one of those out of body experiences where you come home thinking, did that just happen?? I guess that's how I feel right now, and I'm not sure how to even tell the story of my weekend.

Awesome. Strange. Luxurious. Child-free. Anxious. Fattening.

Let me begin my reminding you of the back story of my birth board and all we've gone through together. Rather that re-typing the whole story, I'll direct you to read this.

My Yuku sisters (henceforth known as yisters) are all Moms of April '07 babies, from all over the country, and all walks of life. This past weekend 20 of us converged on Las Vegas to begin an annual meetup tradition. There have been small meetups in the past...like this one I attended in Chicago. But this was the biggest and yeah, the BEST!

We rented a big house which was decked out like a mini-castle. We swam, ate, chatted, swam, cried, napped, drank, swam, ate, went out to restaurants and bars, chatted and swam. I would compare it to a family reunion, with the twist of some sort of strange reality show featuring stay at home Moms leaving their nests.

At the Indy airport on my way out of town I found myself having a mini-panic attack. Not about leaving my kids (with Jeremy who did GREAT). Not about squeezing my big butt into an airline seat or finally meeting some of these ladies face to face. My panic came from not knowing if I could function without the kids.

Since I don't work, they are ALWAYS around me. The only exception being the 8 hours a week that Tessa is in preschool. I knew they would be fine but would I?...do I remember how to have normal conversations? Can I travel somewhere without goldfish in my purse? And most importantly, have I forgotten who I am without the perpetual child shield protecting me?

I reminded myself that this was no group of strangers. Not only do these women know me, they do know me without kids. When I write this blog, or get on Yuku or Facebook late at night to converse, I don't have that perpetual child shield confusing matters. I think all the stay at home moms I know nowadays thank the internet for their sanity. To the pre-internet Mom I have to say, how did you do it?

So with a deep breath and a copy of Tina Fey's new autobiography on my iPad, away I flew to Vegas by myself to have one of the greatest weekends ever.

My room. One night I had a roommate but I was mostly alone. The luxury of a long shower while not having an ear turned toward the children in the bedroom...was almost too much for me.

That's my face, and possibly my wine glass.

The whole gang, 20 total.

I couldn't snap a good pic but those lights are the Vegas strip. Our view from the balcony.

There was a yoga workout by the pool. In the interest of protecting my back from the harsh concrete, I mostly abstained.

Our ringleader made crepes.

I didn't cook much over the weekend, but I made fruit salad!

...which was part of a breakfast of champions. Yes that's homemade vanilla whip cream on top. And champagne. For breakfast. Commence drooling.

This guy was in our entryway.

Pretty much what we did for 3 days.

I could tell you about all these ladies...their kids, what they do, their favorite pizza toppings. That's how well we know each other.

Yum. Nuff said.

So this is Lise. It's pronounced like Lisa but since we mostly talk through typing, everyone assumed for the longest time that her name was pronounced like LEASE. To this day many of us call her Lease....it's just too hard not to.

This is Abbie who actually lives in Vegas. She made the angel costume that Tessa wore at her Christmas program and several other things for us. She is amazing and I want to be more like her when I grow up.

One of the ladies hosted an at home jean party. I didn't know such a thing existed!

We had little gift bags. Everyone was to bring something from home to contribute, then we guessed who brought what. I took some of my homemade herb soap.

Saturday night some of us went out to a fancy restaurant and did the tasting menu with wine pairings. Yum yum yum. I think the last time I had a tasting menu was in Chicago in 2006 when we went up to see Wicked. Everyone should do it at least once every 5 years....preferably sooner.