Shannon's Girls Weekend

Shannon's EAST coast shower was a couple of weeks ago.  

Up this weekend:  The WEST coast get together:

A little girls weekend in Sonoma County, California.

Leaving Kansas City

Per usual, I flew in super late.  Landed in Sacramento, Scott picked me up, and we drove 2.5. hours to Guerneville, CA (north of Napa).  It was a long day to say the least.

I couldn't see much on the drive -- I mean, it was the middle of the night.  But when I woke up to this beauty, I knew it was going to be a good weekend!

10 of Shannon's friends got together and rented The Antler River Lodge on the Russian River for the weekend.

It's a gorgeous property, ON the river, with 3 large bedrooms and a loft.  Lots of antlers and a few creepy stuffed animals topped it off.

I'm a morning person.  So even though I was up late, I still got up early.  Every one in the house was dead asleep, so I went for a quick jog after sending Scott on his way.

(PS - He got major points this weekend.  Drove 2.5 hours to Sacramento to pick me up at night, drove me another 2.5 hours to Guerneville to drop me off in the morning, and then turned around and drove 5 hours home.)

My run was certainly nothing spectacular.  I haven't ran in a long time, but it felt good to get outside and enjoy the fresh air, if nothing else.

The main event for the day was not a winery.  It was paintball.  

I know, weird.  But Shannon saw it on Pinterest, and decided that's what she wanted to do.  So we all piled in cars and drove 45 minutes south to Playland in Petaluma.

We weren't sure what we were in for when we pulled in to this:

Now, what Shannon really saw on Pinterest was girls playing paintball in bridesmaids dresses.  That was my task during the week:  to come up with 10 bridesmaid dresses in a host of sizes for all the girls to pick and choose from.  

This is what I flew out to California with:

No one was really too excited to play paintball, but when we broke out the surprise dresses, everyone was all about it.

I had enough dresses and sizes for everyone -- including the pregnant Amanda -- to wear!

I mean, come on.  How funny is this!

When we first walked up, the guys working immediately informed us we were NOT in proper paintball attire.  After some discussion, we decided we didn't care.  We were playing anyways.  How bad could it really hurt?

Well, I was the first to find out.  I got nailed in the first game, and it scared me more than anything.  Like a quick sting.  But when I looked down, I noticed it had actually drew blood!  And that was from being shot across the field!

I got Shannon in the same arm the second game, and she was bleeding, too!

Maybe those guys were right.  We probably should have worn sleeves...

Our third game we played against a couple of boys, and our fourth game was against a 9 year old birthday party.  There were at least 20 of those little kids, and they were ruthless.  

They absolutely destroyed us, and even when we raised our hands and said we were hit, they continued to shoot (which wasn't allowed and could have gotten them kicked out).

We were nice and posed for a picture with them anyways - but we really wanted to rip all their little heads off.  Punks.

Case in point:  I got hit three more times AFTER being hit in the head (also not allowed).  Stomach, hip, and inner thigh.  Bam, bam, bam.

Brooke got unleashed on by those boys, too.  Look at those welts!

#GuernvilleGroup

Four games was enough for us.  We all get hit enough times to realize we didn't want to do that anymore.  It was intense and exhausting, running around with those heavy guns in the heat!

So the natural thing to do to unwind is hang out on a lawn at a brewery and listen to live music.  Lagunitas Brewery was right there in Petaluma, so that's where we went.  

We (as in everyone else) had a few pitchers of beer, and we kicked back there for the afternoon.  We figured we would fit in a little better there than at a fancy winery anyways. 

Back at the house, every one cleaned up, relaxed, and waited for the crockpot chicken tacos to be ready for dinner.

Well, most of us relaxed.  Devon went for a swim in the river!  Crazy girl.

Dinner was so enjoyable.  Good food, casual setting (well, I guess a little fancy if you look at the lights and chandelier), and fun girls laughing.

Once we finished eating, Shannon brought out bags of fun leggings (by Lula Roe, that Devon sells) and let us all choose a pair as a 'Thank You' for coming for the weekend.

Look at these fun designs!  And they are super soft and comfy to boot!

The party moved from the table to the family room, and that was about as far as we got.  Every one was pretty tired, so we just spent the evening sitting around and talking.  And fittingly, the movie Bridesmaids was on tv, so that was our background noise.

I eventually crashed and went to bed around 10pm.  Most of the other girls stayed up until almost midnight, but I just couldn't hang.

Sunday morning, I got up and went for a run again.  A little longer, but a little slower.  So whatever.  It felt good. :)

Everyone got up fairly early and left Sunday morning.  We were all supposed to be out of the rental by 11am.  

Shannon, Brooke, and I headed back to Oakland, which took forever because of this:

Why is there alwasy so much traffic in San Fran!?  It blows my mind.  Sunday afternoon and we were sitting in that!

Anyways, we ended up at Ricky's a little hole-in-the-wall sports bar in San Leandro, close to where Shannon used to live.

The Raiders were playing (Shannon's team), and so were the Eagles (Brooke's team), so we were glued to the plethora of tv's to watch the end of the games.  And both won!

Ryan showed up a little later with Miss Wembley, who was just a little excited to see her Momma!

Ryan took Brooke in to the city for the rest of the day (she flew out of SFO that night) and Shannon and I hung around Oakland since I flew out of there that afternoon.

We sat at Jamba and talked wedding details, returned an air mattress to Costco, and then went to the airport for my flight home.

We had to compare paintball bruises before I left.  Shannon's definitely looked worse than mine!  And I'm the one that shot her there.  Oops! 

Easy flight home with a quick stop in Salt Lake City.  I landed around 11:45, so it was a late night for me.  And an early Monday morning.  Story of my life.

Story of my life for just a few more days, actually.  Wednesday, September 30th is my last day at work!  No more "early Monday  mornings" for me for quite awhile!! :)