Friends in town

Thanksgiving week was busy. My bro got married and had two receptions, my family was all in town, Adam's family was all in town and friends were coming home left and right. It did make for a CRAZY week. Seems like all the fun happens at once. But I'll take it.

Jenny with Ethan, Ange, Jill with Ella, Me with Baby Linc, and Ollie. E graciously took pictures of us. These three babies were all born in March.

Jill and Jenny grew up next door to me. We played lots of "house" and always fought over who got to be Crystal Gayle. We always used their mom's old purses to put our things in. And lots of roller skating. We would ride our banana seat bikes all day, around the neighborhood, to the dirt hills (every neighborhood should have those) and back again, until it was dark. Their mom was like Martha Stewart and always had yummy treats to share.

Ange grew up 4 houses down. We had tons of sleepovers in her basement. We would stay up all night and halfway through would get the munchies and sneak to her kitchen for a piece of bread. (I never liked eating a piece of bread plain, but everyone else did. Plus it was fast, easy and quiet.) We watched "Thriller" at her house and played on her old apple computer- old school black and white 2D olympics. She has three boys too. My face is so red in these pics from all the laughing I did. (Oh- and wrangling three boys at a crowded lunch place.) It's fun that we can pick right back up and laugh. I love it.

Jessica came into town from California. She is very pregnant and still so beautiful. So not fair. We had a good chat- although it was much too short. I think I met Jessic in our 8th grade gymnastics class. "Warm up your wrissss!" (From our teacher with a lisp.) We started hanging out and ended up living at Snow College together. She was also the only reason I went out in high school- it always seemed too scary to go to parties or stomps. I would always try to back out at the last minute, but Jessic would always be there making me go. (And I would end up loving it.) She is so funny and quick, so spiritual yet down to earth and quite the writer. She's turned out to be an amazing person. It's funny to think back on our little class together. We were just tiny little girls.
{Lindsay S, Charlotte, Katie, Jill, Marci, Stephanie, Rachel, Emily, Me and Lindsay N.}

On Saturday morning we got together with my friend Lindsay who was in from CA too. She moved about a year ago from our little neighborhood where we've lived the past 6 years. I hated to see her go. She has a little boy the same age as Ollie and the cutest little girl who was just tiny when she left. We met because we were visiting teaching partners for a couple of years. Then we were in a baby-sitting group together, a dinner group and a book club- (although we both have our fascinations with magazines...) I've laughed and cried as she's shared her life experience. I've learned a lot from her. It was fun to hear about her new life and I'm so glad she can be near her family again.

It was fun catching up all you girls. I love that even though life changes and takes us different directions and places, we can still reminisce and learn from each other. I'm so thankful for blogs. And for my busy week meeting up with everyone! There's nothing like live interaction. And I love the bonds of friendship- there's nothing quite like it.