Ten years ago, my cousin had a “brilliant beyond brilliant idea” (can anyone name that movie?) to establish a tradition where all of the girls on my mom’s side of the family get together for one weekend every year. With all of us spread out across the country, it is a way for us to stay in touch and become much closer than we would otherwise be. We rotate between each of our houses so that one person isn’t hosting every single year, and this year we went to Vancouver, Washington!

On the first night, we had our Nanny’s famous spaghetti in her honor. My Nanny was 100% Italian and I have never tasted a better spaghetti and meatballs in my entire life…even when I ate plenty of it in Italy!

We hiked up Multnomah Falls. It was kind of a rainy day, but we decided to go for it anyways! We won’t let weather get in the way of our plans.

We had a Murder Mystery Dinner…the theme was Miss America Pageant! So we all dressed up in outdated pageant gowns, ate a delicious dinner, and participated in the sneaky behind the scenes drama of the pageant.

We went shopping and then out to a lovely dinner in Portland, followed by a pit stop at Voodoo Donuts, and then on to a Comedy Night.

This was the first Girls Getaway Weekend since our darling Nanny passed away earlier this year. It was definitely not the same without her and we missed her very much. But there is not a doubt in my mind that she was looking over us during the whole weekend, and I know it made her happy that we are continuing this tradition. It was always so important to her.

I cannot find the words to accurately describe how much I love my family. I am already looking forward to the next Girls Getaway Weekend!