Southern Visit - Days 4 and 5

On Tuesday the kids and I went to visit some friends, while Dave stayed at my parents' house and helped put in a refrigerator (our almost-new one from the house in Lexington, since our tenants wanted their own). I'm guessing he probably also played some pool with my dad. (My mom is very cool, making her front living room a game room instead of a formal living room, which she figured would just be a waste.)

We spent a few ours with our dear, dear friends, the kids jumping back into ongoing pretend stories (they can do this without skipping a beat, no matter how many months it's been since they've seen each other), and we moms chatted. Lisa and I have been friends since we were 11 and 9, respectively, having met in our homeschool group. We met another close friend a few years later, and we've all been good friends since then. Lisa and I enjoy an interesting twist to our friendship, too, in that our families eerily follow similar patterns. She had a girl first, then three boys, then a girl. Same here. Corresponding kids even have similar personalities, which we always find a little bizarre. She's left-handed and so am I, and we just discovered that both our fourth children are left-handed as well. (Her fifth is also, so we may be able to make a pretty safe prediction for Miss Scarlett!).

But while that is all very amusing to us, I imagine it is only mildly so to the passing observer (or reader), so we'll move on.

Tuesday night my uncle (my mom's brother), who was on a business trip and staying nearby, came for dinner. More food! Only this time we went Italian, with spaghetti AND lasagna. The guys (and some of the girls!) played pool, we all ate plenty, then we sampled some Korean chocolate that my sister had brought for us. It's filling was fermented cabbage, so I passed, but everyone who did try it said that it just tasted like chocolate. I think this was also the day we finally managed to get all the cousins together in one room for a picture. Some were shoeless and others needed a good hair-brushing, but we figured we didn't have time to fuss over minor details like that if we were going to make this work. So we hastily arranged them in front of the fireplace, then two of my sisters and I stepped back and made crazy faces and noises trying to get the babies' attention (and possibly a smile or two). We got their attention, anyway, and everyone ended up looking in the general direction of the camera (although our biazzre behavior eventually made Scarlett cry, thus ending the photo shoot.

But isn't this a nice-looking group?

Wednesday morning was our last morning, so we all went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where we had a grand time stuffing ourselves with even more food, then we headed back to the house to get all our things together. After lunch (which we didn't need but happily ate anyway!), we said our good-byes (sniff, sniff!), and made our way to the Charlotte airport and eventually boarded our plane for home. When we landed, it was cloudy and a whopping 8 degrees. I'm so glad the kids were able to play outside every day during our visit, because it looks like it's going to be a good while before they have the opportunity for that again!

So - a great visit. Seeing my sister after her year-long absence was worth every minute in itself, but seeing everyone, and all at the same time, was a terrific bonus.