Independence Day 2017

Red, white and blue fingernail prep:

Cas and Levi

Brynn, Brooklyn/Aftyn DeHaan, Max Parker, Simone Parker, Evynn DeHann, Tayler

i cried when i met her

When you get a facebook invite letting you know that your long lost friend (here) and his amazing wife are going to be in town, you do whatever you have to do to be there.

We were late.  But if I'm going to be perfectly honest, when am I not?  I'd left work to go to a planning meeting, left the planning meeting to grab my kids, sent Sam a quick text saying "we're on our way!" because it just so happened that right as I was wishing I had a phone number for them, he posted it for me on facebook.

I entered the address into my GPS since it was in an area I wasn't at all acquainted with and the four girls and I set out.

You know it's going to be a good visit when you have to join a parade to get to it.

We came upon a round-about where we needed to "turn," only to find that a local parade was already going straight through it.  I stopped, not sure what to do, when a truck (which was leading a marching band) waived me in.

So I went.  What that pictures doesn't show is that there was quite the gathering for this parade.  We had our windows down and children were yelling at us, "hey! Where's your candy?"

I almost felt we were going to start a pint size riot for our lack of candy to throw out to them.
I finally pulled to the left and started to pass the parade.  Finally we passed the cop car that was leading the whole deal and turned right on the road we needed and left the parade behind.

As we turned off the road the police car blared it sirens.
The girls were certain we were going to be in trouble for breaking into a parade.

I struggled finding the house number and called Sam.
I was laughing hysterically and said fragments of, "where is this house?" and "we were in a parade!"

Sam just started to laugh and said, "you haven't changed a bit."
Man alive I missed that boy and his friendship.

When I met his wife Beth, I cried. (Reference to the joke here).

Cried because we were laughing so hard, that is.
I love that girl.

The kids were entertained with this awesome sand table (diy instructions here on Beth's blog).

And Sam's mom knows how to theme a party up.

I have a list of people that I need to end up living by in my life. 
Sam and Beth are on that list.

Playing with instagram :).

Hey Beth!
I know what I need your help with.
I need to knock this off for my bathroom.

{source}

A huge thanks to Sam and Beth for inviting us out.  Hopefully it won't be so long before I get to see them again.