Friends and Family

One major downside to living in California is that we're far from lots of people we love. The upside to our location, however, is that we've been able to spend more quality time with some others of our favorite people.

Jeff and Matt became friends in college, and now that we're all grown up, Jeff and his lovely fiancée Julia, who live up in San Francisco, have become family friends.  Alice adores her godfather Jeff, to a large degree because she has finally found someone unrelated to her who is willing to indulge her goofy sensibilities.

We are also beyond excited that Cousin Dylan is, at least for now, just a very short plane ride (or a longish car ride) away in Southern California. I know that doesn't sound so close, but just knowing that we're in the same state and that we could drive if we wanted to is very comforting. 

He and Vola tagged along recently when a work trip brought Jason to our area.

The first day they were here, Vola and I didn't make it out of the house with the kids at all because one out of the three kids was napping or failing Quiet Time 101 the whole time.

The next morning, however, we hit the sidewalk as soon as the two little kids woke from their morning naps and we enjoyed nearly sixty whole minutes at the park until it was time to go home for lunch.

We could have used an extra set of hands (actually we could have used two extra sets: one to wrangle the third kid and the second to hand us snacks and drinks all day).

One thing I'm learning as we're a few months into our second big move is that hanging out with good friends and family can make any place begin to feel more like home.