And the tradition continues . . .

We had a wonderful weekend with our dear friends, Josh and Amanda. They became friends of mine during our college years. Josh and Jeremy have actually been friends since the 8th grade (Go bobcats!). At some point a few years ago we started a fun tradition with these guys. Every fall they come to Oklahoma to visit us for a weekend. And every spring we go to visit them. I am confident that this will be a long standing tradition. Even when life gets busy and our families grow larger, we’ll continue our bi-annual visits. Well, this past weekend was the much anticipated spring get-together at their home near Dallas. Typically these weekends consist of: golf for the boys, shopping for the girls, wonderfully cooked dinners and also some delicious eating out, an addictive marble game that normally goes into the wee hours of the night (every night), and just chatting and catching up on life. Time spent with these friends is always so familiar and comfortable. You know the type. It feels effortless . . . probably because it's just so darn easy. So you don’t see one another every week, or even every month, but when you get together, you pick back up right where you left off the last time. Never an awkward hello, but often a tearful goodbye (for me at least). As time passes and we walk through different struggles and victories, they become less like friends and more like family to me. I guess that is the best way to describe it. This type of friendship is something that I possibly took for granted 6+ years ago when I was surrounded by these relationships. Maybe I thought it would always be easy to create this type of bond. How I miss regular time spent with friends like this! And so here are few pictures from our fun weekend in Dallas!

Seriously, 2 of a kind right here. Great friends! VERY similar personalities which is probably the reason they get along so well.

This is Amanda and me at Lone Star Park. That's right, we went to the horse races on Saturday. Did a little gambling, lost a little money. Amanda did win $1.25 with her bet on "Summer Gal". She was insistent on choosing her horse by it's name, not stats. And 1 particular time, that worked for her. She was also insistent on screaming at the top of her lungs, "Come on Summer Gal" through the entire race. She looked and sounded like a regular. She said it was her first time, but maybe she goes every weekend. Who knows!

Pretty incredible huh? It was a fun day at the races.