A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

I have held off in the writing of this post for many reasons…some of them unknown…but I think the main reason is because I was still digesting and savoring all of the memories.
Sometime around the first of October, Kaiya sent me a text message telling me she had gotten an invitation from Anne (yet another middle school buddy we have found), she had been invited to a Halloween party and wanted to know if I was going to go with her.  I know in her heart of hearts she thought she was being funny since they were in DC and I was in Georgia.  HAHA on her…I quickly asked Hondo to look at flights and within 3 days I had my ticket and had taken a few days off from work.  I was DC bound!
The week before I left I began to question my trip…would she think I looked older…more wrinkled…would her family accept me…what would we talk about for 4 days…the list went on and on…combine that with the excitement of seeing someone who has known me longer than anyone I know (excluding family) and I was one HOT MESS.
From the moment I turned around in the airport and looked into her eyes I was transported back to my youth.  She looks exactly the same, sounds the same….even walks the same. Nothing had changed….well nothing except she has 2 kids, I have 6…she is married to a cute as pie aviator…and I married my prince…and while we are old enough to buy wine…we are to old to sit up all night drinking it…and we NEVER ran out of things to talk about!
I can not even begin to list all the things we talked about…man were we some trouble makers…I guess I should say sorry Mom (a million times over)….but we both agreed that there is not much we would have done differently because it made us into the feisty women we are today.
The greatest joy for me on the trip was the time spent with her children.  These kids are just amazing…you did good girl…funny, outgoing, talented, spirited…the list goes on and on and on. They have all the best of their Mom and Dad, tempered with some good old common sense.  They quickly became Poodle and Cubby to me…I mean really, we all have nicknames, why should they be any different…and as I left their home a little piece of my heart stayed with them.
I can not wait for her to travel to Georgia, meet my Hondo and fall in love with my tribe (I have told her to bring some Valium).
It may never be easy but it will always be worth it.
Babs
This was a replica of a jail in Jamestown…my Mom was surprised it took us so long to finally get locked in the pokie.
A must for anyone going to DC….Ben’s Chili Bowl!!! Best dang dog I have ever had.
Me and the Poodle at Ben’s
Me and Kaiya
Kaiya, Anne and Me (Anne always had this amazing sense of style when we were kids, her house was exactly as I would have thought)
Todd and Cubby, boy did Kaiya get it right with the men in her life!
My favorite picture from the trip.  Poodle letting me braid her hair…man oh man oh man did she have me wrapped around her finger by the end of my trip!!!!!