Everyone knows the saying that starts with “when life gives you lemons,” but what about when life doesn’t LITERALLY hand you a bucket of lemons? What if those lemons are still attached to the tree? The answer: you work for it. You shake and jump and hang from that tree. You lift a girlfriend around the waist and have her stretch for it – hoping that extra inch is enough for her to snatch it. When that doesn’t work, you both dangle from a limb so the combined weight of two adult females pulls that limb down so you can grasp just one lemon. And that’s exactly what we did on our girls’ trip a few weeks ago. Then you know what we did!? We made lemonade… okay, we didn’t… but we did put it in our cocktails!

At some point during my years in Colorado, a group of girlfriends instituted an annual trip to various destinations across the state. (I think the need for this escape started once kids began to appear in the picture.) We often chose a hot spring as our well-needed, well-deserved, ladies-only vacation spot so we could soak our tired bodies in the rotten egg smelling pools and let the steam of the sulphur water cleanse our pores. We would then dunk in a cold river or tide pool to shock the system, thus compelling us to affectionately name the weekend The Plunge.

Over the years, The Plunge has been to Glenwood Springs, Mt Princeton Hot Spring, Crested Butte, Steamboat Springs, and Palisade. Once a few of us moved, the logistics of a girls’ weekend got tricky… then COVID… and then, before there’s time to realize there are more gray hairs than you’d like to admit, five years have gone by since the last Plunge. Inconceivable!

So, a small group of us looked at our calendars, talked to our partners, worked out arrangements for the kids, threw our work computers out the window, and boarded a non-private jet airliner to Scottsdale, AZ (some people do fly private, you know?). Now, I believe there are hot springs in Arizona and perhaps some close to Scottsdale, but that was not the point of this Plunge. We wanted to escape the winter weather of our various homesteads for sunshine and 80 degree temperatures, but more importantly, we needed to plunge back into each others’ lives.

The health benefits of spending time with your ladies is real – and it’s powerful! Research shows that female friendships provide both mental and physiological health benefits by increasing production of serotonin and oxytocin. These natural chemicals within the body boost moods and reduce stress, respectively. Female friendships increase feelings of connectedness and decrease feelings of isolation; girlfriends provide emotional support and a glimpse of sanity when the rest of life feels out of control; a good #girlsquad gives you the support you need to be your best self and help you grow as a person. Girlfriends make us feel needed and appreciated on the deepest of levels.

To learn more, these famous best friends say it best.

Knowing all of this, why in the world did it take us so long to plan our next Plunge?!? And after a five-year hiatus – big shocker – we had an amazing weekend. It was quick, but full of joy, laughter, tears, and unforgettable memories.