An Extra Long...Extra Fun Weekend

Last Friday we headed to Virginia for an extra long weekend with our friends, Laura and Rich, and their kids. I have been friends with Laura and Rich forever. Well, really only for half of my life. I met them through Robert. Rich and Robert lived in the same neighborhood and Laura and Robert went to high school together. When the four of us were young, broke, newlyweds we spent many evenings playing Pictionary and splitting a 6-pack of beer. Years later when Robert and I divorced we agreed to joint custody of Laura and Rich ;-). I'm so glad we did!

Laura and Rich and their boys, Adam, Ben, and Sam, are some of my favorite people. We don't see them as often as I would like but time apart doesn't seem to negatively impact our friendship. No matter how long it has been since we've been together we can always seem to pick right back up where we left off.

You might think spending a weekend in a house with 3 teenage boys and 2 dogs would be stressful. In this case, you'd be wrong. I'm not sure if Laura and Rich have Valium piped in through their ventilation system or what their secret is but there home is ALWAYS a joy to visit. When you walk into their house you enter "The Stress Free Zone". Seriously, we have visited them countless times since they moved to Virginia and we always feel sad to leave. Their home truly is a special place.

Speaking of special...Adam, Ben, and Sam are amazing, sweet, patient, and kind young men. How many almost 15 year old boys do you know who would willing and enthusiastically go to the playground and play with a 2 year old??? I mean really play. We're talking happily "eating" the lunch Lily made for them out of mulch and then asking for seconds of pretend strawberries, yogurt, etc. What about giving up their bedroom so their Godmother and her family could move in for the weekend? Ben did it without batting an eye. Laura and Rich didn't force the boys to be nice...it is just what comes natural to them. If that doesn't speak volumes to the kind of parents and family life they have I don't know what does!

We had such a wonderful weekend! We talked for hours, ate, drank, and laughed, laughed, laughed!! Lily had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her doting Godparents and the boys. Heck, Lily even enjoyed the two dogs! Lily wasn't the only one that had fun...I was able to wiggle in some spa time, Tony played golf, we celebrated Rich's birthday, spent a fun afternoon at Maymont Park, and we even got to see Ben and Sam perform in Seussical! Thank God it was an extra long weekend or we would've never been able to fit all that fun stuff in!

I could go on for hours about what a great weekend we had...instead, I'll let the pictures do the talking!