Amy's Birthday Weekend in Black Butte

Because Lisa S. is such a wonderful person and blesses us with a girls' get-away in January - and because Amy turned 40 at the end of December - the girls thought we could use these as good excuses to splurge a bit and have a spa day.

The cabin is in Black Butte, so the spa choice was the new Shibui Spa, part of the Five Pines Resort at the border of Sisters. Here's a picture of Lisa Q. standing in front of the beautiful building.


We arrived first as we were the only two ladies to show up Saturday morning vs. Friday. (John was at a leadership retreat and Dennis is already busy in tax season so we didn't feel like it would be appropriate to leave a day early). That gave us the opportunity to lounge in the hot tub section of the spa for about 45 minutes before it became VERY obvious that all of these ladies had invaded the establishment (they are a little giggly and loud):


After the most aggressive massage I've ever had (when this gal says "deep tissue" she means it - she was determined to work every knot out - and given the state of my upper back muscles - this is not an easy accomplishment) - we relaxed and socialized a bit before all heading off for Mexican fare-

Including a birthday song to Miss Amy:


We ended up bypassing the Lodge Lounge this time and relaxed back at the cabin for the rest of the evening. We watched "Waitress" (a very good chick-flick) and watched the snow fall amidst conversations of politics, child-rearing, and finances.....

The evening eventually ended by almost the entire crew taking some sort of sleeping aid (primarily Ambien) to get to sleep (myself excluded, fortunately I'm not to that spot yet....) and then deciding to get back up and play a little bit of cards. What a crack-up of practically "stoned/drunk" women, laughing at anything that moved and particularly each other as they succumbed to the sleep-aids effects........

I'm so thankful for this January get-away - it is a good refresher to my soul and makes me especially grateful for this wonderful group of women that have blessed my life. I'm hoping that next year Michele will be able to make it again (not the greatest timing this year because of the deadline with their house) and perhaps will get Susan and Stephie over there too!