ACES Wild: May 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Weekend with the Jessees!

Yay! The mountains, Dollywood, and spending the weekend with dear friends, whom we hadn't seen in nearly six years, made for an excellent weekend!! Okay, if I hadn't have had to deal with food poisoning on Saturday, then it would have been absolutely perfect. But with that aside, it was so great to meet up with the Jessees and share a cabin for the weekend with them and their sweetheart kids.

And our weather could not have been nicer. It was quite the contrast to the flooding that was occuring in Nashville at the time. Eric was holding his breath more than any of us (even the kids), hoping for clear skies on Sunday, so we could all go to Dollywood together. Last year, his Dollywood dreams got dashed when we visited the mountains and our day at the park got rained out.

It was so nice to catch up with our friends and it is so special when the people you love bring along new little people to love, too. The boys instantly connected with Kate and Layne. And who could blame them. They are cuties! Toys were shared, minimal kid plowing occured, and many hugs were had. This was good, especially in this "girls are still a little yucky" stage that Caleb is still in. Caleb and Kate were quite the pair riding roller coasters and water rides together. I guess girls can be pretty cool after all. The boys continue to ask about their new buddies.

Today at Jack's graduation party, Caleb told a little girl that she looked like his friend, Kate.

Matt and Brandi were such wonderful friends to us while we were in Iowa. Believe it or not, there weren't a lot of southern accents floating around at Palmer College, so it was an instant connection when we met the Jessees. They are just the kindest, most genuine people you could meet. They even loved our dog, JC, and would dog sit for us when we had to go out of town. And how great that after six years, we finally discovered that we are only six hours from each other and Pigeon Forge is a great halfway meeting spot. Thank you Facebook!

How blessed we are to have such wonderful friends, who although we may not get to see them everyday, we know they are there for us, if we need them. And vice versa. We are blessed that we continue to stay in touch and look forward to getting together more often (now that we know how close we live...how did we miss this? Oh yeah, we were busy having babies. ) and for our kids to grow close to their family, as well.

God is good. He places special people in our lives for a season. And sometimes he blesses us with lifelong friends! We love you, Jessees!

Five-Year-Old Photography

Caleb was so excited when we got to our cabin in Pigeon Forge. He took pictures of some of his favorite cabin highlights...

And he took a few family shots, too

And an important member of the family, Puppy, could not be left out. He has been Caleb's sleep buddy for as long as we can remember. Even though our buddy is getting bigger and bigger, he doesn't go to bed without asking for Puppy. Puppy has traveled with us everywhere over the last (nearly) six years. He has lost his nose and I hold my breath each time I wash him, hoping that he will come out of the machine intact, but he is still hanging in there and continues to be the perfect sleep companion for Caleb.