All Girls Weekend
I’ve written before about how my husband and his six brothers and brothers-in-law go on some kind of outdoor adventure every year, called the All Brothers Hike (ABH for short). A little-known fact is that the Ditto women also go on an adventure of our own every year or so, called the All Girls Weekend, also known as AGW, because WRLAIOF (We Really Like Acronyms In Our Family).
You may recall that for ABH last year, the men took a trip to Hawaii, where they spent a week hiking the Napali coast, jumping off waterfalls, and in general having the time of their lives. In a similar vein, the ladies knew that for this year’s AGW, we needed to pull out all the stops; do something really wild; treat ourselves to the trip of a lifetime. And that’s how we ended up spending two and a half days at my mother-in-law’s house in Spokane Valley.
“Kauai versus Spokane Valley: how is that fair?” you ask. Excellent question. All I can say is that, among the seven of us who attended, our combined sense of practicality, frugality, and responsibility—all the -ities, really—made it impossible for us to plan anything beyond the cost-effective and familiar delights of the Spokane/Coeur d’ Alene area. Besides, I think any parent would agree that a break from your kids and the daily pressures of everyday life is a vacation in itself, whether you’re sitting on a beach or lounging on a couch.
I’ve often said that if I had a whole day to myself, I wouldn’t necessarily want to go out shopping or spend the day at a spa; I would just lock myself in my quiet bedroom and stare at a wall until I needed to eat, at which point I would sneak into the kitchen, mix up some brownie batter, and then eat it out of the bowl with a spoon. How’s that for making middle-age look good?
So anyway, off to our mother-in-law’s house we went. Now listen: Debbie Ditto’s house may not be tropical Hawaii, but for anyone wanting to feel pampered and relaxed, it’s not a bad alternative. When we arrived, everything was clean, cozy and calm—the polar opposite of my house. There were vacuum lines in the carpet, fluffy towels in the bathroom, chocolates on a cute little tray on the coffee table, and a basket full of snacks and trinkets laid out for each of us on our beds. Most importantly, there was not a kid in sight.
“This is like heaven!” I said as I put down my bags, took a bite of candy and headed up the stairs to join the other ladies for a dinner of Cafe Rio take-out (because: no cooking allowed!)
As the weekend wore on, we tore up the town and joked about our “exotic” vacation, sending pictures to our husbands on a family group chat.
“#Kauai2021,” we tagged a photo of us posing with our Lime scooters after taking a spin around downtown Spokane. “Relaxing on the beach” was a shot of one of us falling asleep during a pedicure in Post Falls. “Eating at a luau” featured us sitting on tree stumps and enjoying a picnic lunch at the mountainous property where one brother- and sister-in-law are getting ready to build their dream home. There were, however, no words adequate to describe the TikTok video one sister-in-law insisted we film in a park in Coeur d’Alene, but suffice it to say that many passers-by got a good laugh that night, and I perfected the art of avoiding eye contact at all costs.
One of these years, we’ll get up the gumption to take AGW a little further from home. But until then, I’m happy to spend whatever time I can with this remarkable group of women that I love so much. And who knows? Maybe next year we’ll even go international. I’ve heard strange tales of a place called “Canada”—IMBTTCIO (It Might Be Time To Check It Out).