Old Friends are the best!

Our dear friends the Sanchez family came for a visit. When we were waiting for them to arrive, I told Addi the story of how this friendship came to be. It started the first day of high school. Jess was in my English class, at lunch we realized we were in the same social group, and it wasn't long before we were close friends. We played softball together, went to dances, and made lots of fun memories throughout our high school days. I was the wild child, and she was always the voice of reason. She was a great friend for me to have around! After high school, Jess and I moved 500 miles from home and went to college together. We lived together, and I remember her coming home from a lab and gushing about this cute boy named Robert! Then they met at a party, started dating, and the rest is history! Tony and I were there when they got engaged! We drank champagne with Rob's entire family and celebrated. We lived in a duplex together, Rob and Jess upstairs, Tony and I downstairs. They were there to celebrate when Tony popped the question. We cooked dinners together, and loved being young, in love, and living in a college town. And then the babies came. Jess was there in the room when Addi was born. In fact, she really helped me make it through that experience. She was amazing, and shortly after, she became a nurse herself. Her and Rob moved a couple hours away for Rob's Forest Service career, and then Andre was born. We got together for special holidays like Super Bowl, Fathers Day, always Forth of July, and planned camping trips together. Then they moved to California for Rob's career. Kaden was born. And recently little baby Drake was born. I have seen Jess once in the past 2 1/2 years, for our high school reunion. It has been hard living apart! And now Rob's career has brought them back to the Northwest! They will be in our same state, just a couple hours up the highway. So this visit is the first of many to come. It was so nice to be together again, now two families of four. Amazed at the kids each of us have created, watching each other parent and enjoying all the great attributes these kids inherited from their parents. After I had told Addi a short and sweet version of this, she says, "Wow Mom! Now THAT'S FRIENDSHIP!" :o) 

We went on a little walk through town and to the lake.

Baby Drake is just too cute!

Addi and Andre gaming it up, playing Cars 2.

The kids playing Little People. At Andre's request the house was turned into a hospital, and him and Addi transported injured people from the zoo to the hospital in the ambulance, and put out fires with the fire truck. A bit different story line then Addi is used to, but that's ok because Andre was happy to play a prince whenever Addi asked him to!