This past weekend, I checked another item off my 30 before 30 list. I spent a whole weekend with a group of girls that I didn’t know too well.

I have a small anxiety problem.  I love traveling, but I tend to have anxiety.  I know it seems really silly, but I turn things down sometimes because I’m worried that I’ll be too worried and it will make me sick. So, while writing my list, I thought this would be a good thing to commit to and see what happens.  It turns out that around the same time, I was invited by a friend of mine, Kirsten, to go on a girl’s trip with her friends.  I knew some of them fairly well, and others I had never met.  It was going to be a long weekend in Arizona.

I booked my ticket and flew out on Thursday night with Leah, who I’ve known since freshman year at UMD.  We arrived in Arizona and I got a little sick on the plane, not sure if it was a little anxiety or if it was simply the turbulence.  We were greeted with lots of hugs and smiles.  We ended up having an absolute blast.  We stayed in a beautiful home.  Kirsten did a BRILLIANT job putting the whole trip together.  We drank by the pool, hiked a mountain and had a kick-ass Cinco de Mayo celebration – complete with lime-a-ritas, tacos and tequila shots.  We found the biggest lemon known to man and named it Kevin.  We had a few serious dance parties.  I lost at Jenga twice which was disgraceful.  We found a small boy’s car bed in the basement and built it around Christina when she fell asleep on Saturday night.

I truly believe I left the weekend with a few new friends and better relationships with the ladies I already knew.  It’s so hard to believe that these ladies were in college at the same time as me and had many of the same friends, yet our paths didn’t cross until now.  Better late than never.  I am so happy that I went.  I had so much fun.  I am so grateful to Kirsten and her friends for including me in this adventure.  I wasn’t the only rookie either which made things a little easier.  Laura & I had some common ground and caused a little trouble of our own on Saturday night.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Cheers to hot sun, Lime-A-Ritas, new friends, Justin Bieber, Eileen, Leroy Brown, mountain climbing and Young Homies.