The Visitors

The first two weeks of our visit north of the equator was pretty calm, but only if looked at in the context of what was to follow.  Because this, this and this are not what our everyday lives look like.  Those two weeks were pure, unadulterated joy. And wet.  Very, very wet.

And then it got even better.  For one week MadHatter's two best friends from California (who happen to be the kids of my two best friends from California) came to Texas and spent it playing with us at the Lake House.  We hadn't seen each other since our visit to their homes last year and there were hugs, screams and voices talking over each other for the first hour (and that was just the adults).  

We tried to cram a year of not having seen each other into a week.  I think we did a pretty good job.

We jumped from the dock, screaming Holapaloola the whole way (and who knows, except the kids, what that means)

We spent time relaxing above the water...

And we spent a lot of time relaxing under water.

And we jumped, and jumped, and jumped.

But it wasn't all water.  We dried out and put shoes on to go out for texas BBQ.  And we headed out for a day at the Children's Museum followed by ice cream.  We hit the movies, had drinks with friends, went on an armadillo hunt and we celebrated a very special birthday (ok, that one was in the water).  

And then we hopped in the golf cart, and headed back to the water.  They spent so much time there that I am surprised that none of them grew gills.

They had to do a dry run of the water skiing before they could hit the water.  

And then, suddenly, the week was over.  It went so fast.  I wish we could have had a bit more time but even if we had, I would have wished we had just a bit more.  Because when you see friends like these only once a year, there is never going to be enough time.  I am just blessed to have them in my life and lucky enough that they took the time and made the effort to come and visit.  Next time it is my turn as we are heading to California in December for a week.  Can't wait!

I didn't have time for much reflection, or relaxation though, because a week later the Chile girls came for a quick two day visit.  The Chile girls all met about 2 1/2 years ago when most of us moved to, you guess it, Chile.  And about a year ago, one by one, the girls started moving away.  First J went to Canada, then D to Texas and finally C to Oklahoma.  K, M and I are still here but don't have a lot of free time to get together as often as we would like.  

Since we all have school break the same time in Chile and K and D are already in Texas we thought we would do a whirlwind Chile girl reunion.  With kids.  Did I mention we have a bunch of kids between us?  

So, on Monday, all 6 of my girlfriends arrived with 10 kids in tow.  If you add my two...well, it's a lot of people.  And it was loud.  And it was fun.  And it was over too quickly.

We spent the majority of two days in the pool and the lake.  The kids couldn't get enough of tubing.  M couldn't get enough of the jet ski.  And we really couldn't get enough of talking to each other.  It had been too long.  And it will be too long until we do it again.

 Visitors.

We had a lot of them over the first 4 weeks.  But we also had family.

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