Friday, July 11, 2014

Happy Gatherings

We've had such a good time this summer getting together with people we don't normally see.  For starters, we've decided to make a real effort to get Stomper together on a regular basis with one of his Preslar cousins.  He's already very close to his boy cousin on my side of the family, and we've often lamented that they don't get together more than a couple times a year since he lives in the Seattle area.  And yet as much as we miss that cousin as well as the rest of his family it occurred to us that Stomper has a cousin just about his age who lives a heck of a lot closer, just 25 miles away in DayBreak.  So far this year we've planned three family gatherings with subsequent sleepovers.  How lovely it's been to see another cousin friendship strengthen and develop.  It's been wonderful for me too since it means that I get to see my sister-in-law Kathleen a lot more, and our families have enjoyed our time together.  I don't have many pictures of the escapades, but here's one I snapped at Seven Peaks, where we met up after a sleepover at our house.



Another very happy reunion last week was the day Bitty got a visit from her long lost friend who moved to St. George a year ago.  It was happy for me too.  This gal's mom became a real friend and I have missed her this year.  Poor Bitty keeps losing friends to the tragedy of the move.  She has some cute friends here but so many have left us and it's been sad.  We had a delightful afternoon visit.  You know what's funny?  These two started having playdates before kindergarten and every time they got together I had to break up or reconcile or referee at least 5 disagreements/fights/fits every single time. I wasn't sure that these two girls were even really friends way back then.  And now you put the two of them together and they're off, just enjoying every minute together.  I love watching that progress. Bundle has that issue with pretty much all of her friends right now and it gives me hope for the future.  Maybe someday she will actually get along with her friends.  Bitty sure does, and it took some time!



Also last week was a soccer team reunion for Stomper.  He hasn't been on the team for a year, which has been nice, mostly due to that thing where he doesn't like playing soccer.  I'm so happy he did it though because of the great friendships he forged and which remain strong.  One dear family moved away to San Fransisco a year ago (last summer was a tough one for friends moving away!) but came back for a visit.  We planned a party - it was supposed to be a swimming party at the home of another kid but his mom ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis (poor girl! It was the worst!) and so at the last minute we moved the party to my back yard where the kids did their best to recreate the feel of a pool using our hose.  The moms sat on the porch, tried to avoid getting sprayed by the kids, and had a great time catching up.





So we've had many happy gatherings thus far, and I'm looking forward to many more!

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