And we meet again

"Friendship isn't about who you've known the longest.  It's about who walked into your life and said 'I'm here for you' and proved it."

Less than a year ago, on June 23, I went to Alaska to surprise Hannah at her graduation.  It was scary because we'd known each other only through the mail, and I had no idea what being in person would be like.   

Since that time, Hannah and Christian have been to Washington 3 times--the first time for fun, the second for my graduation, and again this month for another no-reason visit!  (Does that give you a hint about how our first meeting went?)  Although we haven't known each other very well for very long, they've proven that they're friends to stay.  :)  I have been beyond blessed to have them as close friends in the past year.  Here's a sneak-peak into our latest Fabulous Four reunion.
(Don't you love that after they arrived our first stop was Costco?  That's doing things the Small way!)

Hannah and Christian have really mastered the trampoline flip.  They have pretty flawless form..

(Photo credit for the following 2 pictures goes to Christian.)

I love how it looks like we're all suspended in air.  It reminds me of the laughing scene in "Mary Poppins" were everyone floats by the ceiling.

A common theme with almost anyone who comes to visit is game time.  We love games of almost any kind, which we often subject our friends to.  Between the photo/video shoots, outdoor work, movies, talks, and laughs, we also played many games at various hours.

The pickles are a good sign we're playing this game late at night.

Jenga turned out to be a favorite.  It's shocking how intense and addicting this "simple" game can be.

Of course, all good games must be accompanied by good food, too.  Among other snacks and meals, we made a killer pizza.  I think this meal will be recurring throughout the summer.

After all the food and games, it's probably a good idea to get some exercise...

We always save our traditional photo shoot for the last day or 2 of our time together.  I'm not really sure why, but it reminds us that we'd better make the most of our final days (or hours) together!

Turns out we don't exactly know what a bar fight should look like.  Did we get close, though?

Pen-pals and friends for the keeping!
(Thanks for the "girl" picture, Christian!)

With big changes ahead for our four-some, we decided to make a time capsule!  Although we hope to see each other many times between now and our time capsule opening in 5 years, we found ourselves a little depressed at the thought of all the changes that would take place by that time.  This picture is representing us looking into the future.  :)

Of course, in 5 years we'll all be quite old, and we'll probably look back on all these pictures like this:

Editing credit to Hannah!  I'm beginning to wonder if this picture is really as old as it looks...

As a parting "huzzah," we stopped for Blizzards on the way to the airport.  That's when we knew our time together was really getting short and we would soon separated by many miles and state lines.

I am so grateful to be blessed with friends who seek the Lord and do more than their part to make sure we get time together, despite the distance.  The past year of knowing my pen-pal of ~12 years more deeply has been a real gift, too.  Here's for the longest lasting pen-pal I have!  (And we're still writing!!)

I'm not sure why this final picture of us is one of my favorites.  Maybe because we all look happily satisfied after the ice cream?