Old Friends, New Friends and Books

We are very fortunate to have many of our closest friends live nearby or at least in the same metropolitan area as us. However, when that's the case you rarely get weekend-long visitors. This past weekend, we DID get to have visitors for the weekend. Our friends Katie, Matt and their little Maggie came to visit from Charleston!

I had an excuse to cook a bunch of stuff last week to prepare and got to do more this weekend, too.

The girls had a great time playing with and around each other - but photo opportunities were at a minimum as there was just too much action. Katie and I grew up together and our girls get to, as well. I wish of course that they lived closer, but they are stuck with each other anyway. So far, so good. They are almost exactly one year apart - just like Katie and me.

The Watsons came over for a little while on Friday night to hang out. And on Saturday, we got to meet friends at the zoo- the Arnolds and the Fullers! I tried to get photos there, but WOW. I took 147 and only a few turned out not blurry or just plain bad.

Libby spent most of her time wanting to visit - or visiting - meerkats and bush dogs.

You can see her cute reflection in the photo of Maggie and Katie below (at the meerkats)!

Maggie taking a ride on Matt.

Ansley and Libby had a great time together climbing and hanging.

And Ryan was eager to spend some time with on the train!

...which we finally did as our last event!

Libby had a great time on the train - her first time on this one - and she like the tunnels the best. I told her to give Daddy "thumbs up!" when we finished - and this was it. (That's a #1 with the index finger instead.)

Libby was calling Maggie "Mags" by the end of the weekend, and she enjoyed Greta and Tucker (the dogs) a lot, too. Katie and Matt went to a wedding shower last night so we got to watch Mags. Maggie was a bit disappointed when her mom left last night so Libby's first question/statement to me when I got her up this morning was, "Maggie's mama is back here now." Pretty sweet for her to be concerned and then she liked pointing out how Commissioner and Greta "match" (both are black-and-tan doxies.)

I can't wait to have them back again.

Busy week ahead for us but we're looking forward to a fun fall ahead. The cooler(ish) days have started and the humidity is lessening. Libby and I are delighted to get outside more and I just kicked off the start of a new book club in my neighborhood. I just hope that I'll be able to keep up. We had a good planning meeting today and I'm looking forward to getting to know some other ladies in my neighborhood better in the process.

Katie gave me some great recommendations, too!

Good friends, good food, good books. When I can forget world events and politics, life is good.