This post is for all you women out there! Don’t neglect precious time with your gal pals. Life gets really busy for all of us whether you are single, a mom, a wife, a businesswoman, and everything in between. It’s easy to just push away from commitments to nourishing our connections with other women. In doing so, we neglect ourselves as well.
Committing to an overnight away from home, family, kids, husbands and pets can be overwhelming, but I am here to tell you that making that time is so vital in refilling our own wellness tanks just as much as spending time with our kids, spouse or partner’s as well.
A big part of our own self-love and self care, in my opinion, is time with my friends. Sometimes all we can do is squeeze in a coffee date a lunch meet-up or walk on the trail. Even those couple of hours can seem like a lot sometimes.
How do you make it work? The first step is figuring out who to go with, why you’re going, where you’re going and what you’re planning to do. My first getaways were single overnights centered around yoga or run events. If you want to do that, go to my post about how and why to Do a Fun Run with Your Tribe.
Where to Go?? Where to Stay??
Getting away for a long weekend came to us after seeing photos of Hillside Hideaway in Leavenworth on a friends Instagram feed. If you know me, you know that I absolutely love the snow! Leavenworth and the surrounding area is absolutely beautiful all year round. It is a great place for #allthingsoutdoors!
Check out my post A Novice’s Guide to Snowshoeing for some tip and photos!
Once we realized that this was something we wanted to do, we decided to go with the Galentine’s theme.
Because the hideaway can comfortably sleep up to 10 people with three separate bedrooms and a loft, we immediately booked a weekend that worked for us all. In order to have plenty of personal space, all too important for a bunch of women over two nights, we decided to just stick with six friends.
We knew that renting a whole cabin would be more per night then just hotel room, but we wanted the space to be able to be ourselves do what we wanted and just chill out. Hillside Hideaway comes equipped with all that you will need for a wonderful getaway with friends, family or friends that are family.
Complete with private hot tub Hillside Hideaway is exactly as it sounds. Nestled into the side of a hill gave us a sense of privacy and being just us and nature.
Planning our Getaway
Meal Plan
Hillside Hideaway isn’t so remote that we didn’t have access to restaurants in Leavenworth, 17 miles away and a convience store just two miles away, we wanted this as a true getaway. 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 1 snack person was easily divided between us. We each planned our assigned meal, after checking for allergies or food issues, and each of us purchased everything we needed.
Hillside Hideaway comes with staples, but this foodie and her friends wanted our own ingredients and brands so we just brought what we needed in baggies and small containers. We had such a fun time cooking together. Dancing, laughing and celebrating our time together didn’t center around food, but it really was a unexpected surprise bonus.
Here’s our weekend menu…..
- Grilled Steak & Asparagus
- Quiche & Fruit Salad with Mimosas
- Chilli in the Crockpot
- Fajitas
- Scrambled Eggs & Homefries with Yogurt Parfait Bar
Who Sleeps Where?
When we all decided who was going and where we were staying, we decided who bunked together. Because we were sharing rooms and none of us were couples, you really need to make sure you are ok with the person you are sharing your room with. Do you snore? Be honest and provide earplugs. I’m lucky in that my peeps know I snore and bring their own. HAHAHA Are you a neatnick? Don’t room with a slob or be ok with it for the weekend and let it go! Plan ahead peeps. It may make or break your weekend away.
I’m an early riser and so is my bff Cindy. We were also the ones making breakfast, so we took the lower level masterbedroom suite. It was perfect for getting up, starting the coffee, prepping our meals without disturbing the others and then just wrapping ourselves in a blanket and sitting outside on the deck in the cold morning air with our mug and listening and watching to the morning rise. PS doesn’t Cindy look so peaceful sitting there?
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
What do you do when you get six women together away from it all?
Decorating for our Galentine’s Getaway! Yes, we planned and brought along all our own decorations and photo props, shared clothes and ideas! Check out my Valentine Decoration Ideas for all the fun stuff you see in my photos!
Self-Care Facials. OMGosh, have you ever tried to not laugh with a facial mask on your face?!?! Whatever, you know how much we looked like serial killers with those things on?! So worth the self-care! We also had fun prepping together for our photo shoots. Helping each other out with our make-up. Want some help with your make-up? Head to these IG posts!
Truth or Drink Card Game. Georgina brought this card game made by the people at CUT. If you haven’t watched her videos or CUT. Click here! The card game is obviously more hilarious the more you drink to avoid telling a truth and how deep and vulnerable you want to be. We weren’t all drinkers, but it was a fun way to get to know each other and share our stories. We are all friends, but some you know better than others, right? We were open and honest and really vulnerable at times. Who better than to share with than a safe space. We knew what we said at the cabin, stayed at the cabin. It was a no-judgement zone. Wanna play? Click here!
Photo Shoots. Hello, snow. Galentine’s Yes please! Pop over to my post on Valentine’s Day Outfit Inspo for some tips and ideas and more photos from our getwaway!
Yoga Session. You aren’t surprised are you? Hello my new favorite yoga prop, the headstand chair!
Get-To-Know-You Game. Cindy surprised us with this game complete with a Nail Salon gift card to the winner! Each of us wrote on separate pieces of paper 5 things people didn’t know about us. One-by-one the pieces were read out loud by the person selected. Get your game face and thinking cap on, because you have to now guess who wrote what. Yep! And the one who guesses right the most wins the prize. You want the most points, right? That means trying to throw people off the scent when you know its you! YOU choose how silly, intriguing or personal you want to go. It really is amazing to see what people will share and who will recognize you right away or be clueless! Tammy was the winner. I’m not surprised, she is an amazing listener and surprised us all on how well she knew us.
Downtime. The nice thing about having a group of women it that sometimes you just need alone time. Or a walk in the cold. There were enough of us that got that. Go to bed early? Go for it. Stay up late. You go girl! Drink, don’t drink? It’s all up to you!
I hope this helps to inspire you to do like us and plan that getaway with your peeps!
Wanna follow all my pals? Here you go!
- Georgina @discoveringgeorgina_ and her yoga studio @azulsupyoga
- Cathy @sparkles_69 and her company TurnKey Repair
- Cindy @woodlandfeary my partner in crime
- Tammy @tammywenstrom the walking guru
- Rhonda @rhondalovessupyoga who couldn’t join us in the end because of a masters paper that was due, but we missed greatly!
Don’t forget check out Hillside Hideaway for your next adventure away! Washington state is beautiful and we can’t rave enough about the wonderful setting for our Galentine’s Getway! Click here! and follow them on IG too!
WINTER GETAWAY TIPS: Although easily accessible by the private road, you’ll need to consider the weather when you are driving there. Snow on the ground combined with icy rain made driving the hill a little sketchy at points, although it had been plowed recently. But this girl is from Wisconsin and has a Jeep 😂, so I was going to go. I also recommend that if you plan to go during the Winter months, that besides the right vehicle and the right driver is to make sure you have remote start for your car. We had a lot of rain the first two days and then a drop in temperature overnight to below 20. The next morning all are car doors were frozen shut. My Jeep has a remote start, so I had pre-set my heater and defrost. Beep-beep. Vroom-vroom. I was ready to load my car. My friend Georgina didn’t have remote start, but a call to the hubby and liberal application of hot water on the door seals, a little time and we were able to open one door start the car turn everything on.
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