the Power of Moms-Friends

I love being a SAHM, but definitely one of the difficulties is that it kind of inherently cuts you off from the world. No office to go to every day, no boss motivating me or group lunches to herd over to.
Lucky for me, I have an amazing and inspiring group of mom friends who are in every way my colleagues. I met many of them when Caleb and Julian were just a few months old and they have made my experience so much more than it otherwise would have been. Our kids are mostly all the same ages so we have a lot in common. Getting together with them multiple times a week over the past 3+ years has been amazing- probably more fun for us than our kids. We go to Disneyland together, try out parks, and we're doing a 5k run in two weeks. We go to the occasional movie together and do baby-sitting swaps so that we can get in low-cost date nights. We watch each other's kids so that we can go to the doctor, the grocer or for a haircut (although with my four kids I might do this a little less than some others. The fact that I have friends brave enough to help me at all speaks volumes as to how amazing these ladies are). We take turns teaching a music class on Friday mornings for our kids, and on Tuesdays we get together for bike-riding. They have steered me towards fun, low-cost gymnastics classes and helped me figure out what to do for preschool. I swap dinners each week with one friend and another has let us plant a garden at her house. They motivate me to exercise, eat better, develop my talents, be more patient and overall be a better mom, a better wife and a better friend.
I don't know what I would do without my mom-friends.
Sadly, many of them are moving out of LA this summer. So this past weekend we headed up to San Francisco for a last hurrah girls' get together. In total, we were leaving behind 20 children and 8 supportive husbands (and my amazing mom-in-law who sacrificed her own Mother's Day to carry my load. The Mother's Day thing was totally unintentional by the way. We figured it out after the plane tix were bought...)



We got to our hotel in Union Square on Friday night (although on the plane ride over we had a stir when we recognized Jesse Metcalfe from 'John Tucker Must Die' riding 1st class on our flight). But the biggest treat was meeting up with Katie at SFO, who flew in from London just for our special weekend. Together we trekked over to the Ferry Building for the world's most amazing hamburgers and sweet potato fries, and then brought cheesecake back to the hotel for a pajama party over 'the Young Victoria'. I could have gone home that night having had an amazing time, but the fun was just beginning.

The next day we got up early for a gorgeous morning run along the water, then we all got manicures and pedicures (for me it had been YEARS since this last splurge) and started a conversation that carried us through the rest of the day: How did you meet your husband? And how did you get engaged? I had heard these stories in bits and pieces, but it was great to get the full version from everyone. While a couple girls went to the Wicked matinee we hit H&M, Anthro, Nordstroms and walked to Ghiradelli Square and rode the cable car. That night we ate at an awesome local joint called 'Sears Fine Foods' where Katie gave me a bite of the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich with pesto, butternut squash, and white cheddar. Unbelievable. We stayed up late Saturday night listening to everyone's stories, and as I listened I seriously felt like I was watching lots of romantic comedies. Some of these stories were way better than a movie!

On Sunday we mostly hung out in Golden Gate Park, chatted, and took tons of photos of us- by ourselves. Like an individual photo. It was crazy! I can't wait for the exceptionally talented photographer Lindsay's photos of the occasion- it was definitely a weekend to remember. I came home excited to see all my boys, with a fresh perspective on all the things I've got going on here and a much longer fuse than I had last week.

It was my kind of fun. We talked about doing another one in five years.
I'm in.