I hope if you are a girl reading this that you have a group of girlfriends like I do. I have lots of circles of friends, and they are all so special to me for different reasons. This post is dedicated to one of those groups! This group of women is so important to me for countless reasons. Carlan, Kathi, Stephanie, and Ann have all taught me how to be a better friend, a better teacher, a better mom, and just a better person in general.

I met them when I thought the worst thing ever was happening. I was getting moved from teaching 2nd to 4th grade. I was scared and angry because I was so comfortable where I was and was leaving my best friend behind in second grade. Little did I know, joining the 4th grade team with bring me 4 new best friends! Hardly any of us teach on the same team anymore, but I’m so happy that we have kept up our tradition to make time for each other every summer for our girls trip. Nothing can bust us up!

If there is anything I can encourage you to do, it is to make friends with older women. They are more fun than you would think, you gain insightful wisdom and new skills you would have never learned had you only hung out with friends your own age, and you’ll have a group of friends that will be more loyal than you can imagine because they love you and care for you as if you were their own daughter!

Carlan, Kathi, Stephanie, and Ann, thank you for enriching my life in a way I never saw coming! I cherish our friendship and these trips more than you will know!! I LOVE YOU!!

This year, we went to Seattle. We joked that the name of our trip would be “Sleepless in Seattle”. Unfortunately for my sleep schedule, that actually ended up being true, but it was SO fun and worth it!

Most of these photos have horrible quality because this post is more of a compilation of all our cell phone pictures, but I did force them into a photo shoot too that is later on down the post! Enjoy these pictures and live vicariously through me and our trip to Seattle!

Sleepless In Seattle

First of all, our trip started off with an amazing flight! We met the sweetest flight attendant who made our flight fun and memorable! We got lots of attention with our shirts! Mine said “I’ll bring the dance moves”. Kathi’s was the fan favorite-“I’ll bring the bail money”. She was glad we behaved and that she still had money left over at the end of the trip!

Once we arrived we went to Pikes Place Market. We could not get over how beautiful, cheap, and huge the flowers were!

While we were there, we ran down to the gum wall and added our contribution!

After Pikes Place, we went to check into the hotel and get ready because I was forcing everyone to take team portraits! An annual tradition they indulge me with.

Carlan, I’m going to miss you so much next year! There will be a big hole in my heart when we aren’t teaching on the same rotation!

After our first location we ran over to a lighthouse to explore and take more team portraits!

Thanks again, for humoring me, girls! I love you!

Even though we were up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport for our 6:30 flight, we woke up at the butt crack of dawn again to make our trip to Canada! While here, we went to the suspension bridge, did the Ifly over Canada (super fun), stopped at a little area with a lighthouse to take some pictures, and went to the park that housed all these totem poles.

The trees here were so big!










I was terrified to walk on this bridge! It was way more scary in real life than it looks in these pictures! VERY wobbly.


At least I had my friends with me!

We got to sleep in until 8 o clock in the morning the next day! We went to visit Oregon to see two different water falls! They were so beautiful! When we got back to Seattle we went to ride the ferris wheel, had dinner at a yummy spot at the pier, and did a little marketing work for Giants snacks!

I was very impressed and proud of me and Kathi. We had to hike up these trails to get to the waterfalls and we both did it with these flimsy, but cute, sandals!

Below are all the pictures we took with our Giants snacks. Kathi’s husband works for Gaints so we got the perk of having these yummy snacks with us on our trip! These seriously are so good! My favorites are the bacon ranch cashews! You should check them out! They have a great variety!

We even found strangers on our trip who wanted to try them, and they weren’t disappointed!

Woah! Are those Giants snacks?!

Arrrr you eating Giants snacks?                                I found something better than gold!

                Catch of the day! Giants snacks!       I could never get enough Giant snacks for my lady!
Who wants minis when you can have Giants snacks?!   My snacks aren’t “miner”, they’re Giants!

        I see Giants snacks in your future!                 After a long night out, reach for Giants snacks!

Giant creatures loves Giants snacks! Even a kiss won’t convince me to give up my Giant snacks!

Giants snacks beat giant salmon every time!       Extra! Extra! Do you have your Giants snacks?!

Who prefers Giants snacks to gumballs?

The perfect snack for a romantic night out!

The last full day in Seattle was the best! Although we had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning again to catch a ferry, we got to go whale watching!! We also debuted our awesome hats that Stephanie made! The little island town was beautiful and had a little store named “Deer Hazel!” I had to take pics to show Hazel!

This was my first time riding a ferry! We met the nicest people on the boat ride!

I was just enthralled! I am so happy that we got to see so many whales! This was by far my favorite part of our trip!

The next day we woke up early again to hit up Pikes Place Market before heading to the airport. I was excited to get coffee from the original Starbucks. Carlan, Stephanie, and I all bought flowers because we couldn’t pass up the cheap price! We ticked off some workers at the airport and it made traveling back home a little difficult, but it was well worth it!

Below are some compilations of different parts of our trip like landscapes, the food we ate, and a small portion of the ridiculous amount of group selfies we shamelessly took.

Bloopers

I’m surprised that we didn’t have more bloopers, but here are the bloopers in no particular order from our trip. As always, they are my favorite pictures from the trip!

Stephanie, the selfie queen!

The lady who took these pictures decided to take a bunch of candids where I was bossing everyone around and telling them what to do with their hands! lol