1. Select the dates in advance!
About 6 months prior to going we selected our dates. This gives couples with children time to solidify baby sitters and time for us adults to request off work. We agreed on Super Bowl weekend! Our guys love football and we were just their for the wine, girl talk and food. Lol
2. Find a location & lodging!
Immediately my friends and I knew we wanted our first trip to be a cabin retreat. We debated on a couple different mountainous regions to travel to. It ended up boiling down to Tennessee and Northern Virginia. Because both my girlfriends have small children we agreed that Northern Virginia would be best. It was only a 3 hour drive for them and they could car pool. For my husband and I it was about a 5 hour drive which wasn't bad at all. Its all about compromise.
To take some weight off my girls I decided to be responsible for finding the cabin. This was probably the hardest part. It literally took me months. I searched several sights but ended up going with HomeAway. My husband and had used them before and had a great experience. This cabin was called The Black Bear Lodge. The owners were very polite and had great customer service! The cabin literally had everything you would need. From pots and pans, to a washer and dryer and even foil, paper towels and tissue. It was perfect! I wanted it to have a great view, sleep 3 couples and have a full kitchen, tvs, a hot tub and a fireplace. And this cabin had it all! I will say when staying in a HomeAway rental be sure to read all the material they have out for you about the home. This home had a septic tank system. That meant no garbage going in the sink drain or toilet. Just little things like that.
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| This cabin was amazing! Two rooms up and one down. Downstairs had two twin beds but they simply pushed them together. It worked out great. There is a Food Lion like 8 min away too! |
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| It had a wrap around balcony with an amazing view. This is view from the living room upstairs. There was a den area downstairs with two couches and a tv. That is where we ate and watched the big game. |
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| You have to drive through a trailer park to get to this house, which kind of scared me at first. But there are really no neighbors close to this home! So peaceful! |
3. Plan and Pack!
We decided that to keep cost low this trip, each couple would bring snacks and prepare a meal for everyone. This really worked out great. On Friday night my friend and her husband made a salmon dinner. It was delicious. They packed a small cooler and brought all the ingredients they needed with them. Each of us actually did this in fear that the local Food Lion wouldn't have some specific ingredients we needed. On Saturday night, I made my tortellini soup recipe which can be found right here on my blog. On Sunday morning my friend Sarah made breakfast biscuits and on Sunday afternoon we all pitched in with Super Bowl appetizers!
Sarah also organized what everyone was to bring by emailing us a chart. It was color coded for each couple and we typed in what food items we would be bringing. It really helped! We only had to stop by the store for a few items which really cut cost. It also allowed everyone to pitch in.
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| I was in charge of bringing the Super Bowl decor and I kind of went over board at Party City. We are still using Super Bowl napkins at my house today. No lie! Lol |
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| For Super Bowl snacks we had meatless meatball sliders, pasta salad, ham and cheese sliders, deviled eggs, party mix, chips with sausage dip and salsa and drinks! The house had a fold out table so we used it to set up all the food! |
4. Fun Activities!
Besides having the Super Bowl to watch that Sunday we had other really fun activities to do. Each couple brought a game. We played so many games y'all. We played taboo of course, black card revoked, who is most likely too, and bean boozled. On Saturday after breakfast we decided to go hiking. Obviously this was already discussed so every one was prepared with proper sneakers and clothes. We traveled about 20 min to a site and hiked the Appalachian Trial for about an hour. We kind of got off to a slow start. Too much talking and eating I guess. We only had about an hour to hike before the sun was starting to set. The hike was pretty challenging too. Oh but the view was well worth it! One night we made smores and got in the hot tub too! So fun!
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| How cool looking was this cave! We had to drive through it to get to our starting spot for the hike. Which we kind of just randomly choose. |
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| The trail, if you want to call it that, was very very slippery. I def did not have not he right shoes for it. I slipped a few times but it was all good. |
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| The view really was amazing! It went on for miles! |
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| We were so happy the house had a fire pit. The boys got the fire going ,which was kind of a struggle for them but once they got it going we were good! |
We really had an awesome time! We are committed to doing a couples retreat every year! 2018 there is already talk of maybe doing the Outer Banks! Its all about friendship, fellowship, love and support. That's the mantra! I cherish all my friendships! I recommend you planning something like this with your tribe!
Love,
April W.
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