We got together with our friends Katrina & Matt earlier this week. We always try to see them when we’re in Omaha, but it doesn’t always work out because their lives are very full. In addition to jobs and grad school classes and the usual details of life, they have triplet boys a little younger than Annalie. So yeah, they’ve been pretty busy the past five years.

Katrina and Matt are the best kind of friends. Even when we have not seen them in over a year or really even talked to them much, we can go over to their house for pizza and brownie sundaes and have a great time with no awkwardness at all. Troy and Matt are both computer geeks and they always immediately get lost in discussions of video cards and gigabytes.

Katrina and I went to high school together (though we really didn’t become friends till we were in college…at different schools…in different states…it’s a long story, maybe I’ll blog it someday) so we know a lot of the same people and always spend at least half our visit catching each other up on mutual friends’ lives. Then we move onto our families, our kids, what books we’re reading, ice cream, etc.

While the adults were talking, the kids played, of course. Katrina & Matt have a lot of cool stuff in their backyard for kids, and we could barely get them to come inside and eat their pizza. Annalie has always had a great time playing with Zach and Josh and Alex. Especially Alex.

UPDATE: I found another photo of Annalie & the triplets that I thought was worth including:

(Photo taken February 2005)

Photo taken December 2006

Photo taken June 2009

Notice anything similar about those photos?

Before we left, Alex told Annalie that he loved her. Annalie smiled, gave him a hug, then whispered something into his ear that made him grin widely. Josh and Zach wanted secrets too, so Annalie obliged by whispering into their ears. Then everyone was happy. We said our good-byes, buckled ourselves into the car and headed home.

On the way home I asked Annalie if she could tell me what she whispered to the boys. She said, “But it was a secret!” I assured her she didn’t have to tell me, I was just curious. Annalie thought about it for a few seconds before saying, “Okay, I can tell you. I told Josh that he was a funny boy, and I told Zach the same thing. I told Alex that I liked him and that he was the BEST boy!”

Troy shook his head and said, “I better start preparing myself for the teenage years!”

I’m sitting on the couch in the living room, downloading photos from the D40’s memory card to my laptop, when I remember that there are photos on the point-and-shoot that I need to download too. I don’t want to stop what I’m doing, and isn’t that why I had a kid, to go fetch things for me? I ask Annalie, “Would you do something for me?”

Annalie replies, “Sure!”

“Could you please go into the dining room and get the camera out of my purse, please?”

“Oh…no, I don’t think I will do that.”

I laugh. “What? A second ago you said you would.”

“Yeah, well, I thought you were just going to ask me for a kiss!”

Photo by Joe Sands

I told myself that I was just going to upload some photos tonight and not get sucked into blogging. It’s really late and we have things to do tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep. Clearly I was lying to myself. But it’s been so long since I’ve posted! Travel blogging is always tricky for me. We’re so busy doing stuff and enjoying time visiting with family and friends that I don’t have as much time to sit in front of the computer.

So, in a nutshell: after church Sunday morning, we packed a few things and drove down to Joe & Kassie’s for an overnight visit. We ate, talked, had a great time, slept, then went home.

We also had dinner at Kassie’s dad and stepmom’s house. We’ve known David and Kristy for years, and have eaten dinner at their house a half-dozen times before, whenever we happen to be passing through on a Sunday night. We’ve always been warmly welcomed and made to feel like part of the family when we’ve been there.

I love knowing my friends’ families. I really do.

Kassie had commissioned me to make her a felted bag like the one I made for OMSH, except in gray, red, and black. I finished crocheting it right before we left California. I figured Kassie might get a kick out of felting it herself. She thought Kristy (who is also a crocheter) would like that too, so we took it along to dinner and felted it in the washing machine while we ate dessert.

Photo by Joe Sands

Mmmm, ice cream sandwich cake. (Please note that we did eat our veggies first, like good boys and girls.)

Kassie loved her new bag, yay! I was a little bummed that the straps were such different lengths after felting, but Kassie generously insisted that she didn’t mind, and anyway it just proved it was handmade! So I got over myself and was happy that she was happy.

Joe put on a mini camera class for me again, and explained a couple of things to me that will help me use my 50mm lens more effectively. Thanks, Joe!

Photo by Joe Sands

Joe also took a few pictures, like this one he got of me looking like my brother. Whenever I make this expression for a camera, I immediately know that I will look like my brother in the photo. (Of course, I always look like my brother.)

Annalie had a blast playing with David and Kristy’s dog while the rest of us sat on the deck eating and talking. (The dog whose name I cannot recall at the moment, despite calling it out a hundred times that evening.)

Kristy said Annalie might be the first person to ever wear that dog out. I bet he slept hard after we went home.

It’s too bad we can’t have a dog in our current situation (rental house, moving every couple of years) because Annalie really loves dogs of all kinds. It’s a good thing we have friends with dogs so she can get her fix every now and then.