BFFs are the best

My dear friend, Christin, whom I have mentioned before on this blog, has lived in Vermont for the last year or so. Do you even know how far that is from Nashville? I mapped directions from here to there and it said it will take 19 hours to drive. That is way too far for a friend to live. So when I found out she and her family would be in Birmingham (three hours away!) for a conference, I had to go. She let me know the day that would be the best for me to come so I strategically planned my driving to coincide with the kids naps. I arranged with another friend to pick Maggie up from school, and then Maggie and Grant had a dinner/movie date after work that night. We left around 11:30 am, drove happily for about an hour, and then the kids fell asleep at their normal nap time. Unfortunately Carolina woke up after 45 minutes, and Finn woke up after about 1 1/2 hours. They normally nap for several hours. Oh well! They were in very good moods (Finn kept exclaiming, "I'm so excited to go to Birmingham!") so that helped. We got to Birmingham around 2:30 and met Christin, her husband Kevin, and their kids, Jude, who is three months younger than Finn, and Wren, who is about six months younger than Carolina, at the church where their conference was held. It had a huge, fenced in playground so we camped out there for several hours.
Here is Finn meeting Wren for the first time:And here is Carolina, assaulting hugging Wren. My kids are sometimes aggressively affectionate. Everyone played well together, with only a few minor scuffles. Here are Carolina and Wren having some girl talk.Here is cutie pie Wren again (She has red hair but it's hard to see in this photo. You know how I feel about red headed little girls!):
Finn and Jude had lots of fun together. Although Finn is older than Jude, he isn't potty trained yet, but Jude is, so we made multiple visits to the bathroom to watch Jude, hoping Finn would be similarly inspired. It didn't work, but at least we tried. Here are the boys on the slide. First is the best photo of the two of them.
But I also have to post this one, which is practically the same, but I like it best because Finn just looks so happy. Jude is working on his cheesy smile here!
Later that night we went to dinner in downtown Homewood, a cute section of Birmingham where we used to go when we went to Samford. Here are the boys holding hands while walking on the sidewalk.And finally, here Carolina and I are with Christin and Wren. Christin said Wren is saying, "I shake my fist at you!"
It was so much fun. After dinner we loaded back up in the car and drove back to Nashville. Finn and Carolina fell asleep pretty easily in the car and went right back to bed after we got home, around 10:30pm.
Christin and I talk every week or two on the phone and whenever we see each other we pick back up where we left off. I was a little blue on the way home, though, as it was such a short trip that it felt like a tease! I wanted another couple of days together. Maybe when our kids are older it will be easier. Sniff. Why can't everyone I love just live in Nashville?!
Oh! And for my and Christin's enjoyment, here are the comparison photos of Jude and Finn together. When they decide to go to Samford and room together I will frame these photos for them to hang in their dorm room. Isn't that nice of me? And not weird at all to say, right?
December 2009October 2010
February 2012