Special Visitors - Aug 3-5

It seems the last major event for my family that I blogged on was our vacation in July.

So I guess I'll start from there with my highlights.

Just a week after we returned home from our mountain vacation,

we had some very special visitors.

They are not only friends, but family.

Here's a quick run through of their story.

Sixteen years ago, in August, there was a BIG event happening.

Jeff and I were getting married!

A couple of days before the actual wedding we had company coming in.

My cousin, Christy and Aunt Barbara were coming to Kansas

for this special occasion from, the Bay area, in California.

Jeff had a friend, Brandon, that he worked with one summer during college at a Christian camp in Texas,

coming up to be an usher in the wedding, from Texas.

During these days before the wedding,

while we were all in tight quarters in a mobile home,

Brandon and Christy began to "make eyes" at each other,

and I will be so bold to say, they were flat out flirting.

(Even though Christy denies it, because she had a boyfriend back home.)

They began to correspond via mail, but mainly through the phone lines.

He went to California for Thanksgiving, she went to Texas for Christmas.

Somewhere in it all, Christy moved to Kansas to live with my parents,

and I believe Brandon made it up a couple of times.

They were soon engaged and Christy moved back to Cali to plan for the wedding,

and a little less then a year after they met,

we were flying out to California for their wedding.

I believe Brandon said they were getting married on their 6th time of seeing each other.

(This is the basic gist, but I might be off on some of these facts.)

Fifteen years and 7 kids later...

Brandon, Christy and their three kids, where on their way back home, in California,

from visiting Brandon's family in Texas,

then they visited my family in Kansas,

and then were stopping by to see us.

My boys were a little shy around their girls in the beginning,

and it's probably because it had been 3 years since they really have seen each other.

But Kaylie was so excited to see them that she immediately ushered them to her room

and began playing with them.

Jeff and Brandon began talking before they even came in the house,

and I don't think they stopped until they were pulling out two days later.

After that first few hours, the kids got along fabulously...

they made breakfast...

enjoyed the park and running through the sprinklers (while J & B talked)...

they enjoyed the kids' zip-line and the neighbors salamanders.

Christy and I did lots of talking and picture taking...

thought I better snap one of us on the other side of the camera.

We then tried to get a picture of the kids.

It's NOT the best time late at night.

Jeff and Brandon enjoyed remembering old camp songs...with a captive audience.

August 5th... Happy 15th Anniversary...which had slipped both their minds until I said something.

Waving goodbye until no longer seen, a family tradition.