Our crazy Twin Cities adventure

My good friend, Gianna and I have been pregnant at the same time for all three of my pregnancies and 3 out of her 4. For Sammy and Caleb, we only overlapped about 2 months. But our last pregnancy, our due dates were just 2 weeks apart. We complained, whined, and cried together over the past year. We called one another countless times to complain or share the latest news about the little lives growing inside of us. We've been trying to figure out a time to get together, but even though we only live 2 hours from one another, it's been hard to find the time to meet up this summer.

But my husband recently provided us with a great excuse to head down to the Cities. You can read all about it (and the other crazy happenings) in Gianna's blog post entitled, "Series of Unfortunate Events."

Usually when we all get together, some sort of catastrophe always seems to happen. There have been trips to the ER, food poisoning, and kids getting sick. This trip lived up to all the others. Now, while no one has reported getting sick, we did have several things that will make it a night to remember. There were three bee stings, people were stuck in some serious traffic AND a horrible storm, and 16 people...including 10 children 6 and under...were confined in a hot and sticky basement when the power went out.

See, I told you this trip would live up to the rest!

The purpose of this little trip was not to give us another great story...even though I'm glad to add another crazy adventure to the memory book...but it was to introduce my sweet baby girl to her future mate friend. Gianna's little guy was born 2 weeks before Hannah, and is a good looking boy...even if this picture does NOT show the extent of his cuteness.

Brad and I were planning on swinging by a few friends' houses throughout the day, but Gianna had the great idea of throwing a little party so all of us, and our beautiful children, could spend the night eating, playing, and hanging out together.

And between being stuck in traffic and stung by bees and stuck in the basement with no power, we did a lot of eating, playing, and hanging out.

Even though the kids weren't able to play in the tree house or the pool...due to the "friendly" bees, they still had a ton of fun!

The swing was a popular attraction!

I LOVE this picture of Gianna's oldest daughter!

I also love that Sammy thought the trip to the Cities was all about her seeing her friends.

I just didn't have the heart to break it to her!

The boys, who were greatly outnumbered, spent the evening fighting over playing with the cars and bikes.

Megan's son, Noah, really melts my heart, and this picture can tell you a lot about him. He is adorable, fun, and quite dangerous at times...which has, from time to time, resulted in a trip to the ER.

And, of course, our husbands were simply being themselves. They were making silly faces and yelling at the Yankees game that was on in the TV in the garage.

Oh, and they were eating as well and watching the "wee ones" play.

And while these lovely girls were playing so sweetly and quietly in Gianna's basement, my son was doing this...

Yup, that little guy belongs to me. I'm so blessed! Again, this is why God gave me two daughters and only ONE Caleb...He knew I couldn't handle another boy!

I am so blessed to call these women my dear friends. My friendships with them really blossomed about 8 years ago, but for several of us, we go as far back as the fall of 1995 when Gianna and I were freshman at Northwestern.

15 years! I still can't believe I'm that old!

Lord, your gift of these dear friends sometimes takes my breath away. You have been so good to continue to grow our friendships. You have done AMAZING work in all of our lives. Thank you!

And I can't wait for the next crazy adventure with these wonderful friends!