seriously a fantastic weekend {blog besties}

I met Laynah just over a year ago through blogging. The best we can figure is that she saw a comment I left on someone else's blog and then came to comment on mine; we've been blogging buddies ever since.

You meet a lot of people through blogging, but it's kind of like real life in that just because you meet doesn't mean you become close friends. So I've met a lot of people through blogging, but of all of them, Laynah is the one I have connected with most. We've connected over our similarities, the similarities of our husbands, and I think one thing that really connected us initially was that we were both trying to get pregnant.

Since we had so much fun reading each other's blogs and commenting back and forth to each other, we've tried on a few occasions to meet up: Russ and I considered a trip to California back in January, but ended up doing Hawaii instead; Laynah came out to Utah for a day, but was too busy to meet up because of bridal things for her sis-in-law. 

My birthday started to creep up, and with it, the task to meet a blog friend in person. I actually had something set up with some Utah bloggers, but when that fell through, I decided to try and finally make a meet-up with Laynah happen. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but it hit me that we should just meet halfway in Vegas. I proposed the idea, and Laynah was up for it, too! We thought we'd do a couples trip, but since neither of our husbands were too keen on the idea of meeting up with complete strangers and spending a whole weekend together, we eventually decided on a girls trip.

And guys. Blog besties have definitely become IRL besties. We had so much fun! It was so natural. We could talk about anything, and since we're both open books, that worked out really well. We could also not talk, and it didn't feel like awkward silence. It really just felt like we had been friends for years.

One of the funniest things to me is that because she's from California, all of her friends and family were kind of freaking out about her meeting up with a stranger in Vegas. What if I was a murderer or a sex trafficker? But she and I knew each other so well that we weren't worried. We even stayed in the same hotel room. But it was kind of an ongoing thing that she'd have to text people and call people and text them pictures of us to let them know that things were still okay. Haha and it made me a little self conscious of some of the things I did--like when I closed the curtains in the room, I had the thought, "What if this makes her think I'm going to kill her or something? Haha so many ridiculous things. But before we even met up, we had this email conversation that was pretty hilarious:

Laynah: Alright SO this might be awkward... but most of my coworkers think you are planning on kidnapping me and selling me to the black market  :l  Matt and I both feel pretty good about you NOT being a murderer (haha), but to be safe, I was thinking that instead of meeting at the room we can meet for dinner first (or at a show or whatever we decide for Friday night, just anywhere public) and then later when we get to the room I'm going to skype Matthew to let him know I'm okay :)   

Me: HAHA that is so funny! I've had people say some similar things, so I totally get it :) Somewhere public sounds great haha. I'm just cracking up over this email though, idk why haha :)  

Laynah: HAHAHA maybe we can make a video together to post on Facebook and be like "SEE?!" Ohhh goodness...my coworkers would love that. It is pretty funny, I'm cracking up too.  

Me: Haha that would be awesome! Or we could make like a horror murder video and then be like JUST KIDDING!  Haha hopefully that doesn't make me sound like an actual murderer... 

Laynah: HAHAHAHA I'm dying. Not literally. Because you are not a literal muderer. But that would be hilarious. 

Haha we didn't even end up meeting somewhere public--we Skyped a few days before the trip and I guess that was sufficient because we met at the room. But anyway.

Some highlights of what we did:

• Tournament of Kings--a show with knights and horses and a meal that you eat with only your hands! Also, Laynah was Merlin's girlfriend for a minute ;)
• Walked the strip--so much walking! Haha our legs were permanently tired the whole weekend :)
• Went to the Las Vegas temple--Laynah wants to visit as many temple in the world as possible (and really, so do I) so this was a definite priority.
• Saw flamingos and some other wildlife at the Flamingo Wildlife Habitat. We also held some parrots and got pictures taken of us, but then the system crashed and we weren't able to buy any. We're hoping we'll get them someday . . . but the email the person gave to us is not correct.
• Rode the roller coaster at New York New York. 
• Stuck our feet in the pool for about one minute before deciding it was too cold.
• Went to IHOP in our pajamas.
• Watched Bride Wars.
• Went to church, where the tiniest group of primary kids sang songs for Mother's Day and this eleven-year-old boy was singing his heart out to his mom, and it was the literal cutest thing ever.
• Ate nachos and frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3. FYI, frozen hot chocolate is definitely overrated (and over priced!) . . . it's basically just a milkshake.
• Hugged goodbye . . . until next time!

Some funny/fun highlights:

• Laughing so hard in the car after our first night of walking on the strip. I have no clue what we were laughing about, but we just kept laughing :)
• Laynah forgetting her temple recommend, so they had to call her stake president, who just happens to be her father-in-law. She was embarrassed about that, but it turned out to be funny because later on in the day in her family's group text conversation, when some people were freaking out that maybe Laynah wasn't safe, her FIL was quick to say she had been in the temple earlier on in the day. Haha :)
• The random guy who told Laynah she was pretty because of the shirt she was wearing ("Feed me and tell me I'm pretty")
• The guy behind us in line for the roller coaster legit staring us down and waiting for us to acknowledge the fact that he was checking us out. So awkward and hilarious.
• Me asking the bartender if they had water. The conversation went something like this:
• Me: Do you guys have water?
• Her: No we do not.
• Me: Okay, thanks anyway.
• Her: I'm just kidding, of course we have water! Anytime a bar tells you they don't have water, they are lying!
• Me: Oh, well I've never been to a bar so I wouldn't know.
• Her: What?! You're over 21 and you've never been to a bar?
• Me: Well I don't drink . . . 
• Her: Good for you, honey!
• The workers at IHOP asking if we were cousins and us proceeding to tell them that we met on the internet and this was our first time meeting in real life. They called us "internet friends" after that :)
• Laynah tripping down that one small step out of IHOP. Twice. Hahaha :)
• Cracking (or at least trying to crack) each other's backs . . . hahaha so funny :)

It was seriously such a fun trip, and I'm so glad we both made the effort to make it happen. We might not be able to see each other often, but this is definitely a friendship I want to continue :)

Have you ever met up with a blog bestie in real life? How did it go for you? :)