The girls and I returned home from St. George on Tuesday afternoon and continued our quest to clean up and recover from the trip. Our river-running companions had stayed the week in SLC in order to spend time with their folks and families for a little while. The only problem was, due to the pandemic, their families were really keeping their distances and they had a little more time on their hands than they thought. Luckily their kids seemed as lonely for ours as ours were for theirs. They called us up and invited us to come for dinner at the condo where they were staying so we headed over on Wednesday night for Cafe Rio dinner and dessert. Everyone just jumped right back in - we found we still were not lacking in topics for discussion.
The night came to a close too quickly and we decided that maybe we should all go swimming together the next day, sadly without the Troys because they both had to work. So Kathleen and I got to hang out by the side of the pool and enjoy the site of our kids swimming in clean, non-muddy water. We ourselves decided that we had had enough swimsuit time for a while. How nice to sit in comfy chairs in the shade and ....keep talking. I remember thinking grownups were SO BORING when I was little. They just never stopped talking. I have officially become a boring grownup because that's what I love to do with my friends.
After swimming...we headed back to our house for board games because, why not? We sadly said goodnight...and then realized that no one had plans on Saturday night. Chase politely asked if he could take Lucy out to dinner and to go for a walk. Those two headed out while the rest of us ate pizza and watched a Netflix show highly recommended by T.O.T. called Eurovision Song Contest, the Story of Fire Saga. Well, we loved it. A musical starring Will Ferrell as an Icelandic pop star wannabe? Yes please. It only had a few inappropriate parts that made Emma hide under a blanket. (No rated R stuff, don't worry.) Oh we laughed so hard, not only at the movie but at how embarrassed the little kids got. We are still listening to the soundtrack, by the way. Chase and Lucy returned by the end of the movie and watched the ending with us.
Finally T.O.T. had to head away from SLC for work and we felt that our solid week of friend time was finally coming to an end. Of course we had to top it off with Sunday night ice cream and hanging out in the yard. A few gifts were exchanged - Chase came away with a handmade bracelet (which he is still wearing) and Lucy made off with a hoodie of Chase's, which is really saying something since hoodies are his favorite thing on the planet. Kathleen had to tear her kids away and my kids literally all cried.
Honestly, T.O.T. was one of my all time best friends, especially our first couple years of college. He was just a huge part of my life. And I adore his wife. We have kept in pretty close contact with them - we always try to see each other when we visit one another's cities, but we have never actually traveled together or seen each other more than once a year or so, sometimes less. But it just seems like we have found this magical family. I'm sure it wouldn't be the same if we lived next door, which is what I want to do, and we'd probably find some rough edges in our friendships. At the moment though being with them is just idyllic. Four solid days with them after five solid days with them still wasn't enough.
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