Friends bring so much JOY to life!

Landon and I have had an amazing month! Tuesday, March 4th we had our friend Keith Warren over for dinner and then his lady friend came by later that night to play games with us. The reason this is so cool - we hadn't seen Keith since I was pregnant with Sawyer! He used to spend a lot more time with us, but then moved back to his home town Kearney. It's a little bit of a drive, plus he was having some health problems and in and out of the hospital. We kept meaning to go visit him at home, but Landon only has Friday and Saturday free and those are the days I work. Then Monday he called Landon and told him how much he missed us and how the three of us (inlcuding Trenton) and even Tazo made life bearable for him during the tough times in his life. We set up dinner on Tuesday and it was wonderful to see him again. It really made me think about how we should have invested more effort trying to see him in the last year. He got to hear Trenton talk and meet Sawyer for the first time, which was special. I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but I had to share the story because that's how our month started. Then on Saturday and Sunday March 8th and 9th we saw the Grabau family from Colorado. Landon flew out to their home a year ago March, but it had been even longer since I'd seen them. Trenton was six months old, so once again they got to see him grown up and meet Sawyer. Eric was the best man in our wedding and Eric and Mindy also did our premarital counseling in their home. They were such an encouragement while we were dating and always willing to talk our issues out with us. Landon still talks to Eric at least once a week, but it was good to see all of them in person and talk face to face. We're hoping to take a vacation to Colorado in July to see some of my extended family and visit Grabaus while we're there. I was really bad about pictures again! Here is Landon with their family, but their oldest son, Nathan, was down at the hotel snack bar getting a late night snack and we left right after this picture! Megan and Colton are nine and seven and they were so good with the boys! Trenton latched onto Megan right away and would drag her around by her belt like a puppy to play with him.

Then on Saturday, March 15th, we had plans to go on a double date with Scott and Amber. Landon got the night off work and we were at the house waiting for Cara, Scott's sister, to come babysit. The doorbell rang and we told Landon to go get it because instead of Cara, his best friend Jesse and Jesse's sister Hannah were going to be standing there! We had all known they were flying in from Alaska, but Landon had no clue. It had been two years since Landon and I had seen them. Jesse was one of Landon's college roommates and we met his family in Flagstaff for Jesse's graduation in May of 2006. It was really hard to keep the news to myself since I was SO excited :-) I tried to take a video of Landon's reaction, but the glare from the sun blocked most of it out . . .



It's still really funny to watch because you can hear Landon's reaction. Right after he screamed, he jumped in Jesse's arms like a little kid! It was hysterical! We joke now that this video shows what it will be like when Jesus comes again. The doorbell will ring and there will just be a glowing light and two legs in sight when all of a sudden Landon will scream and jump in his arms!! Needless to say, it was a good surprise. They stayed Saturday through Wednesday and the time flew by way too fast. We played horseshoes, ate spaghetti with ground caribou that Jesse shot in Alaska, heard Landon speak for Junior High, tried the new YCs by our house, played bocce ball at the park, visited the Phoenix Zoo (Hannah had never been to a zoo), went to Freestone, and basically just enjoyed conversation. We got to hear stories about their life in Aslaka (including Jesse straddling the dead caribou we ate in the passenger side of an ATV to get it back home!!) and also relived memories from our NAU days. It was neat to get to know his sister Hannah this trip. We're already planning on when we can get to Alaska to visit them; how amazing would that be?! Here are some pictures from our time together:

Now, in five days my parents and brother Aaron will be flying in to stay at our house for ten days! They haven't been here since we moved in, so I am looking forward to showing them our new house. We saw them for Christmas in Idaho, but kids grow up so fast! They will be able to hear the words Trenton has added to his voacbulary and watch Sawyer scoot around the living room. What an ending to a spectacular month. God has brought me so much JOY in March!! Congrats if you made it to the end of this post; I've never had so much to say and probably never will again :-)