Upside Down

Over the holidays our good friends, the Grahams, came for a visit! We always look forward to their visits, even though we only get to see them a couple times a year! This year was especially fun because we talked them into staying two nights, instead of just one! We manage to pack as much fun into three days and two nights as possible!

Our friendship with the Grahams started back on Summertree Court, the sweet little cul-de-sac I mention wistfully from time to time on this blog. Before we moved here, we lived on Summertree Court in Olathe for five years.

Oh how we loved that little street.

In almost every house there were babies and toddlers and stay at home mommies. The sidewalks overflowed with trikes, bikes, and sidewalk chalk. In the summertime we would set up little blow up pools and sprinklers and let the kids loose! In the winter we would walk over to each others houses, still in our pajamas, so the kids could play and the mommies could chat over coffee. Many mornings we would load up all our littles into their strollers and take long walks around the neighborhood. We had barbecues, block parties, play dates, and just so much fun. I think back on those years with such fond, happy memories. Eventually one by one, the families started to move away, and soon it was time for the Grahams to say good-bye.

What stinks about their move is that it happened just as our families were getting to know each other and hang out. We had lived just a few houses apart for a few years, but for whatever reason, just hadn't spent as much time with the Grahams as some of the other couples on the block. But Chris, Bethany, and little Huntler were the first to show up in our hospital room after Avery was born, and soon after Bethany and I were chatting away on the phone on a regular basis. Then, all too soon, it was time for them to leave. That last day we walked through their empty rooms together and reminisced about all the fun times spent there, and into the late evening we helped them load their things into a U-Haul truck and then watched through tear filled eyes as they drove down our street for the last time, headed for Arizona. . .

That was over three years ago now! Since then my BFF Bethany and I have spent more hours than I could ever count on the phone talking about everything imaginable. We moved here shortly after the Grahams moved out West and I think both of us were pretty lonely in our new homes at first. We filled many long, lonely afternoons with our chit-chat across all those miles about everything from party-planning and the latest celebrity gossip, to brain surgery and seizures.

Since that time and during their stays when they are back in Kansas our husbands and children have become great friends too! When they are here, we don't feel like we have to entertain them. They feel more like family than just friends. The kids play, (well, the husbands play too!) and Bethany and I talk for hours. This last trip, we even managed to sneak away from the house for a little while to do some quick after-Christmas shopping in the oh-so-exciting Flint Hills Mall (can you hear the sarcasm?)

As I've mentioned before Bethany is a talented photographer, but when we're hanging out she doesn't usually snap pictures, so as they were getting ready to head out the door at the end of this visit, I snapped a few quick pictures of Britton with the kiddos. Bethany's sweet little ones call him "Burt", although this time he was called "Britton" by Bethany's oldest. . . another sad reminder that they are growing up so fast. . . sigh.



Are they not some of the cutest little people you've ever seen? Huntler and Gentry wanted "Burt" to hold them upside down and me to take their pictures like that! Of course, Kaylen had to get in on the action!

I miss having my friend and her sweet family around. I miss pulling up extra chairs to our dinner table, the house extra full of little people politely requesting "choc-ate milk," and the daddies battling it away on the Wii until the wee hours of the morning!

I miss my friend.

And since the Grahams are thousands of miles away now, and our next visit isn't right around the corner, well, things have felt a little upside down around here!