Over the course of our married life, Lester and I have made and kept several wonderful friends. And though we've moved several times over the course of those years, we've been blessed to keep in touch with many of them. This New Year's week, we got to hang out with two of those couples!

I can't tell you the countless late game nights we've had, or how many ridiculous inside jokes and personal life experiences these couples have shared with us. Steph and Emil fight [and of course, love each other] as much as me and Lester do, which is rare in public haha. And Brian was actually one of Lester's first friends in college, and they were roommates and groomsmen for each other. We actually had difficulty sharing him and had a bit of a love/hate relationship at that point. So when Brittney came along, I was pretty cynical that she would change any of that, but she proved me wrong, and has ended up being one of my closest friends! They are some of our favorite people.

So for this reason, I was ecstatic for the chance to hang out again. But in all honesty, I was a little wary since we haven't physically hung out with the Tait's at least since we've had kids [which, PS I can't believe it had been that long!]. Our priorities are different now, and I was feeling a little bit of that whole 'what if we're not as cool or as close as we think we are!' kind of a deal haha.

However, within the first five minutes our daughters became as much a part of our group as anyone else. By the end of the trip, Addy was waking up asking for them and she was sad the next morning when she came upstairs and asked 'Where everybody?'. She had a little sad temper fit when I said they all went home-and I cried with her HAHA just kidding...kinda.

We picked them up from the airport on New Year's Day, and went straight into the city. We hit up a burrito joint, then a few bridge views like the Marin Headlands, Fort Point, The Palace of Fine Arts, and what not before we met up with the Morco's at Westfield Mall on Union Square for dinner. We came home exhausted and hung out till we crashed.





The next morning we made our favorite savory and sweet crepes and then headed over the show them the cliffs and Rockaway beach. We played in the sand while everyone else climbed the rocks by the tide pools. Emil also helped Addy use her new face painting set which she loved. We then went to catch the Pineda's house for dinner and to watch some games the boys wanted to keep up with.






We had another busy day planned after that, and we headed out to Muir woods, which was as always amazing. Then we did more of the city with Ghirardelli Square, Fishermen's Wharf and Lombard Street. Then we came home for some baking and games.



On Saturday we woke up and went to Livermore to visit Brian's grandparent's graves. I thought it was nice how while we all quietly looked around he took the time to pluck up any dead grass around their graves. We went and got flowers afterwards for him to leave them, and then visited some of his Dad's old homes. Afterwards we did a little outlet shopping then headed over the to Oakland temple where we unexpectedly ran into one of Lester and Brian's old college friends and her family. After heading back home for fish and chips for dinner, the boys headed out to a BYU game in the city, and we played sequence, put the girls to sleep and talked for a few hours till they got home. Then we hung out till it was bed time and got ready to drop them off the next morning.




Anyways, it was wonderful trip, and I'm so glad we got to spend some time with our friends. Now it is officially our turn to go visit them, and I look forward to when we can make that happen. Hopefully sooner rather then later.  Until then, we will work on getting back into a routine without all the wonderful family and friends visiting, and try to enjoy the simplicity of every day life. Happy New Year everyone!