Great Friends

This past ten days has been full of fabulous friends for us.

It has been nice to spend time with people we love, and some people we haven't seen in a while and it was great to get to spend some actual face time with them.

My friend, Kathy, I get to see a few times a year, but it is always fun to spend time with her.  We have known each other since high school, and she always has hilarious stories to share with us when she comes by.  My kids love her and she is a lot of fun.  I am grateful for her friendship...and her persistence because she is almost always the one who takes the time to come and see us, it is almost never the other way.

I hadn't actually seen my friend, Roxanne, in over seven years.  She lives in California and much of our interaction comes through our blogs.  She has an ADORABLE family and it was really fun to get to meet her kids in person.  She spent an afternoon with us and it was super good to talk to her after so long.  I am grateful for her friendship, even long distance.  She is an amazing person.

Josh and I have also had the opportunity to spend some time with some great local friends that will be moving soon.  The Aiellos are some of our best friends in the ward and we will miss them a lot when they go.  There aren't too many people in the world that really understand Josh's humor, and there are even fewer people that I feel comfortable opening up to, so it will be sad for us to have them leave, but it has been great to get to see so much of them and their kids as they prep to trek to Florida.

And, last but not least, last night we had dinner with my friend Andrea and her sweet husband Torrey.  I haven't seen her in about five years, and had never met her wonderful husband.  Their daughter Aniston (don't you just love that name!) was really sweet to let our large brood invade all of her toys.  Andrea is a particularly important friend in my life because she is the one who introduced Josh and I by setting us up on our first date (which didn't go well, but has worked out since).  I will forever be indebted to Andrea for that, but on top of that she is a great friend and it was really fun to spend time with her and her family. (Also, it makes me feel pathetic that I never blogged about our 11th anniversary this past week...however, "we spent the evening at home with a Redbox movie" doesn't really make an exciting post...oh well, it was fun for us).

I am grateful for the incredible friends that I have in my life and the good influence they are on me (and boy do I need a good influence!).  I am especially grateful because I get absorbed in my family's life and adventures and I am not the best at arranging time to spend with other people (reference hermit post).

It is nice to still be friends with people, even when you haven't seen them in a while.

Friendship it a beautiful thing.

Love you all.