These girlfriends of mine are PURE GOLD...I'm not saying that we are old, by any stretch of the imagination, just noting how truly vaulable our friendship is and that it goes back many years.

Lucky for us, Brenda (in the plum-colored blouse) happens to have a lake house in northern Indiana...

...which is the PERFECT place for our annual girlfriends' getaway.

 

We decided to begin our time together by going to nearby Shipshewana...

...and a little shopping at Yoder's.

We all really wanted to take these rockers home with us...too bad Brenda didn't have room in her vehicle.

I fell in love with this old wagon filled with petunias. Would be a great project for my favorite gardener (Kimmie, are you reading this?)....

Dinner at the Blue Gate Restaurant...

...and then taking in a fun musical afterwards!

We got our getaway off to a laughing start, for sure!

We enjoyed our morning coffee on the deck, surrounded by God's beauty and silence.

Well, except for the chattering squirrels...

...and gently-rippling water as the resident swans paddled by.

 

Of course, we had to get the pontoon out and cruise around the lakes.

Brenda is our fearless captain and knows her boat stuff.

Linda grew up on a lake, so she is very boat-savvy too...

...and Peggy is just all-around knowledgeable and always helpful.

As for Amy and me, we just sat back and enjoyed the ride!

Not that we couldn't help, they just didn't need our "expertise"!

 

After a couple of hours, it was heating up and we needed cooling down...

 

...so a delicious ice cream lunch was in order! Who says we have to eat "healthy" on our getaway?! Not that ice cream isn't healthy, with all that dairy nutrition...

We ended the day with a few rousing games of euchre, entertaining each other with stories that made us laugh until we cried.

I thought we might have to break out the Depends...

If laughter is good for the soul, then our souls should be good now for a long while!

 

But more than anything, it just felt wonderful to set aside time for each other. And ourselves.

Breakfast at Chubby's, who is one of Brenda's cousins. And we did some brats shopping at his store next door which, according to my husband and son, have the very BEST brats they have ever eaten. I dare not go up to Brenda's lake house without coming home with some brats for my people.

Those 2 days flew by quickly, but we left refreshed and our friendships renewed.

 

I love these gals...we've been through a lot together.

These girlfriends are gold.