Here’s my recap post of three days spent in Scottsdale over the weekend to celebrate my birthday a little early! In what has now become somewhat of an annual tradition, J sent me and two of my friends away for two nights of R & R at the JW Marriott resort & spa in Scottsdale, AZ. I know it might sound fancy … “ooh la la, he flew your friends away for a weekend” but actually, J & I spent a long time crunching numbers for different California locations (Napa, SD, Carmel, etc) and in the end, it was actually cheaper, even with the flights and spa day, to go out of state to celebrate. I was also hoping to be able to take more friends this year than last but alas, it was still too expensive for this year, especially since J pays for everything minus food on these trips. I’m thankful he was generous to do it for the three of us though! 🤍 Best hubby ever!

We flew out last Friday from SFO and it was FREEZING in the city!! I wore shorts since I knew our destination was going to be 100 degrees+ but man I was so cold on the journey there 😂

After being stuck on the tarmac in our plane for an hour, we finally were on our way to Phoenix, AZ. As soon as we landed, we headed to The Henry for a late lunch before checking into the hotel. I have to say, every single restaurant we ate at in Scottsdale was 🤌🏻🤌🏻 chef’s kisses amayyyyyyyzing. The Henry was no exception! They heard it was my birthday and comped free champagne and dessert for us, too.

After lunch, we headed to our hotel and had a few hours of downtime before dinner. One friend headed to the pool to chill; another friend wrapped up a few hours of work before winding down for the weekend, and I took a nice nap LOL.

Desert sunsets are unreal, aren’t they? After unwinding from our travel, we headed out to Chantico for Mexican food dinner…the free chips & salsa they give out here are the BEST thing I’ve ever tasted. I would have been happy to just eat the chips and leave. I did order flautas though 🙂

After dinner, we came back to our room and passed out then woke up bright & early on Saturday ready for our day of fun! First things first, we had to get some coffee…

And then it was time FOR THE SPA~!!!

My friends got facials but I got a massage and then a body wrap…. guys, I think body wraps are my new spa addiction. It was like .. a luxe version of those Korean-style dead-skin scrubs. They exfoliate your entire body, then wrap you up in warm towels and give you a SCALP MASSAGE 💆‍♀️ oooohhh yeaaa baby. Then they wash your body off with overhead showers and rub you down in oil … I was like, this is why babies love bath time. IT WAS AMAZING.

I really think I could spend all day inside a fancy spa. We even ate lunch at the spa restaurant this day; it was my favorite way to spend a day 🙂 And my stinkin’ sweet friends .. I’d mentioned that I was really wanting a donut and sort of threw out “should we go grab donuts? nah, I want to just hang out here all day.” THEN THEY WENT AND ORDERED DONUTS to be delivered to the spa while I was getting my body wrap treatment. Bestest friends there ever were.

After spending ALL day in the spa, it was time to peel ourselves away so we could shower and get dolled up for our fancy steakhouse dinner. We had reservations at Maple & Ash; the restaurant came highly recommended by my hairdresser who vacations in Scottsdale every year.

Almost every dress I own in my closet is a church dress and nothing felt super fancy/dressy for this restaurant (they have a dress code!!) so I had to settle for this black shift dress with some fun shoes. I actually really loved my shoes – they were an Amazon purchase! – but I wish the dress were a little bit more fitted. Oh well! More room to eat 🙂

Dinner was so yummy! We ordered two appetizers, steaks, and SIX SIDES LOL. After the third side, the waiter said “Okay so I think that’s probably enough sides?” and I said NO. We’re ordering everything! 😂 It was nom and we had tons of fun/laughs at the table. They had a custom printed menu they handed me (🙊) and the cocktail shown below (Housewife Behavior) was so gooooood.

By the time dinner was over, two hours had passed and we were ready to get back to our hotel 😉 Props to the youngest friend in the group who played mom that night and made sure none of us twisted our ankle walking back to the room bwahahaha.

Sunday was our last day and the only thing we had on the schedule was packing up and a brunch reservation at Francine before catching our flight back to SFO.

We flew back home with no hiccups and were greeted by 8 children very happy to see their moms (our husbands and kids were hanging out together at one house on Sunday). Speaking of my kids and hubby …

meanwhile…

While I was gone, J was very busy keeping the kids entertained. He took them out to eat ..

Cooked meals for them at home … (peep the ramen HAHAHAA)

Did fun little movie nights for them with snackies BOTH nights 👀

Swam outside with them in the backyard …

Got them dressed/to church …

And maybe most surprising – celebrated A’s second lost tooth without me!! 🤩🤯

They had just as full a weekend at home as I did away! J told me when I got back that the kids are really not that hard to watch now that they’re older and pretty self-sufficient. Other than making sure they had food to eat and weren’t too bored, it wasn’t hard at all. He’s always given me weekends away, even back when I was actively breastfeeding infant A (he sent me to SoCal alone for my bday that year!) so I think in comparison to those years, this feels like nothing. Good job, J! I love you & thank you!