JR + Larissa come to town

Larissa's been my friend for as long as I can remember. It's a cliche, but in this case, it's true. We are cousins, went to the same grade school, elementary school, junior high, highschool. There is little we don't know about each other. It may be that there are 2,000 miles between us & weeks where the lines of communication are silent, but when we are together is it the same comfortableness that shared an entire bag of skittles, that made up our own secret language, that ate my sister's flavored lip gloss together. Those days are long gone (obviously. I haven't had the urge to eat watermelon lip gloss in quite a while), but our friendship is still here. And now we are in the same stage again. It was so fun to have them here!

We spent as much time outdoors as possible. Trevor was a good little guy & loved throwing the golf balls around while his dad improved his game. Larissa & I got some good quality talks, ahem, I mean walks in. The weather cooperated beautifully for them, & we spent at least part of every day in the fresh air.

 I hit up the tulip festival one last time. The cow train was a first though:). Everyone should ride the cow train at least once in their lifetime. The tulips were mostly done, but Trevor had fun running from one activity to the next. 

One of the things I love most about getting visitors here is meshing them with my new friends here in Oregon. It shortens the distance between here & there. Moving didn't chop my circle of friends: it gave me the opportunity to watch it expand in ways I never imagined! It reminds me of a game we used to play in P.E. class (that's Physical Education. Does everyone call it that?) called "amoeba tag". One person was "it", & once they tagged someone, that person had to link arms & help the original "it" tag people. The "it" group quickly had a sea of arms that could reach out & touch people: so much more powerful & extensive than just the original "it". I love the connections! It gives me a sense of stability & belonging. The shift from there to here isn't quite so sharp & final when there are connections between the people I love. 

I had to include this photo. We showed up at Duane & Adriana's house & realized that not only did blue-eyed, blond-haired JR, Larissa, & Trevor all match (unplanned actually), but blue-eyed, blond-haired Dakota coordinated right along with them. I tried to get her to pose with them for a mock family photo, but the best I could get was just with Trevor. Anyway, I thought it was funny. Yay for friends & random matching!

Thanks so much for coming, Larissa! Come back again before Trevor's all grown up.