Reunited and It Feels so Good!

Being together felt like coming home.  We've spent the last five days with some of our Oki family and it was like we stepped back in time to when we all lived by each other and spent all our time together.  Too bad we were in rainy/snowy Seattle instead of on a tropical island.  Aaron and Crista flew in from Chicago and Tom and Tracey drove up from southern Washington and we picked up right where we left off:  the guys messing around with their latest Mac gadgets and running farther and faster than they should, the kids playing like cousins running from one activity to the next and collapsing into bed from sheer exhaustion, and the women cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids all the while talking up a storm.  We decided our friendship should be measured in dog years because even though we've only known each other a few years, it seems much longer than that because we spent so much time together.  Tom and Aaron spent hours and hours working with Randy in church duties, and their wives were my main support system as I struggled with my family tragedies.  They feel like sisters to me and we know each other inside and out.  Our house was bursting at the seams with fifteen people living in it but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Do I sound like a teenager whose whole life revolves around her friends?  If I do, like I totally don't care.  Having awesome friends is one of the perks of not living by family.  Like, I totally recommend it!

Scenes from the weekend:

laptops, iPhones, and iPads kept the guys entertained for hours

Kids ate in one room, adults in another.

First snow!

Water toys work in the winter too!

the hot tub was the happening place to be

Thanks to tall Tom, my ceilings/windows are cobweb free!

9 kids who played so well the adults actually got to hang out uninterrupted

I miss everyone already!