A Visit From Our Friends

The joys of a new and bigger home include the ability to host our friends when they decide to visit us from Minnesota.  Last summer, you may recall that my dorm mate Torrie, her husband and daughter, Leila, stayed with us for about 5 days after Laurel was born.  We were happy to have them, but I think we all felt the squeeze that 7 people and one large German Shepherd under one fairly small roof can create.

This year when summer vacation plans were being made, we were happy to provide a much more spacious location for them to call home for a week.  The beauty of their visits is that Clare has a buddy to play with (Leila), I get to catch up with my old buddy (Torrie), Chris and Jonathan can get away from the ladies and have some good "boy time" grilling, taking the dog out and talking about Chris's awesome job (he's a pilot for Jet Blue a topic that never gets old for Jonathan.  Thankfully Chris is exceptionally patient with our million questions), and Munich and Laurel get to join in on all the fun.  Laurel especially loved having some buddies to chase around.  The other bonus is that we tend to stick around and enjoy our own neighborhoods a bit more than usual.  Of course the Wanderlust never leaves us, but every now and then we are fortunate enough to see where we live through other people's eyes, and it isn't such a bad place to be (despite the crazy cost of living).

The day after Torrie, Chris and Leila left, we were lucky enough to welcome Jonathan's college roommate, James, and his girlfriend Vickie.  They spent the 4th of July with us, and we were also lucky enough to have them with us on James's birthday, July 5th.  We loved spending a couple days with them and feel very lucky to have such amazing friends who are all willing to make the trek to our home to see us.

After all our company left, we were exhausted.  Looks like the prayers, book and bedtime story may have been cut short when one very tired mama crashed in Clare's bed.