another caroline to love!

it's time to crank out my fifth and final post about my june trip to nashville. (i know--i estimated three posts... so i was a bit off. i had more i wanted to say. shocker.) this post is dedicated to the second sweetest baby caroline i know. she belongs to my dear dear friend rachel. rachel and i go way back to summer orientation before our freshman year in college. she was from nebraska, and i was from the south. nebraskans apparently don't really hug strangers. southerners will hug just about anybody. i met rachel. i hugged rachel. she didn't know quite what to do with me. but we became friends anyway. :) and the rest is history. we buddied up for most of our speech pathology classes during undergrad, we ran together at night (i used to run!? and i liked it?!), and i even let her think that "pen" and "pin" were pronounced differently. (she wasn't from the south, remember?!) rachel was one of the smartest people i'd ever met. if i made an "A" on a test, rachel made a higher "A". everytime. but she was so humble about it, and i don't recall it ever even striking my highly-competitive-nerve. rachel and i never lived together during undergrad, but we made up for that by sharing a room during graduate school. this girl has the patience of job. she endured my sleep-talking (as if i don't talk enough when i'm awake!) and the life-size picture of brian's face that was plastered to the wall on my side of our room (though rachel did think he was such a fun guy-- get it, rach?!??). rachel surely humored my cheesy jokes and c-l-u-t-t-e-r-e-d desk, neither of which i managed to abandon after those grad school days. rachel was a rock. she came through the most challenging therapy assignments virtually unscathed, and she even passed our dreaded comps though she was incredibly ill the week of (including the day before) the big exams. most importantly, rachel was grounded in the Word. i was so blessed to live with such godly girls during grad school. we did share a good number of tears together during our school years, but we also shared the promises of God, the blessings of being in Christ. praise the Lord for that!

so all that to say... i really really love my friend rachel. since we graduated with our masters degree in 2003, our visits have sadly been few and far between. the last time i saw rachel was the summer of 2006, so when we were planning this trip to nashville, it hit me that it would not be out of the question for rachel to drive over to visit. i was beyond excited when she agreed to come to nashville for a day. yay! i knew i could squeeze in one more visit with one more loved one. :) and oh, what a blessing that day was. it was worth all the squeezing in to get to hug her neck and to see her precious baby. i loved seeing rachel as a mom. it was so fun to talk about motherhood with her and to just share that day with my friend. it made me wish we lived closer so that we could spend more time together more often. before i get too sappy and teary-eyed, here is a peek into the day with my friend:

caroline was eating when amelia woke up from her nap, so this is the babies' first time to see each other.



all four kids together



the carolines :)



caroline and amelia were so sweet to look right at the camera!



aaaaand they're done.


rachel sent this adorable outfit to amelia, so i had to get them in a picture together. looking at this picture makes me realize that i never got one of me and baby caroline. aw man! i guess i didn't have an extra pair of arms for that picture. well, rachel is gonna have to bring caroline down here soon so i can get a picture with her. ;)


so by the time rachel arrived, ethan and caroline were getting a little stir crazy in the house. it was blazing hot outside, so i refused to take them out in the backyard. instead, we went to mcdonald's to the indoor playground. (which ethan refers to as "old mcdonald's had a farm".) the kids played and climbed and played and climbed while my mom, rachel, and i sat and chatted and played with babies.


caroline got the hang of climbing up but was a little timid about the climbing down part. since she knew how to climb up, she just kept climing higher and higher and higher. she pretty much took on the role of the kitty cat stuck up the tree. (this picture was taken when she was just getting started.)


and what role did i get to play? the nice firemommy who climbs the tree to get the cat down. the firemommy told the bystanders that they were not allowed to take pictures, but they did anyway.


it surely was a wonderful visit with rachel and baby caroline. rachel, thank you so much for making the drive over for the day. i know that was a lot of time in the car, but it meant so much for me to get to see you. we need to do it again before these girls get too much older! i love you, friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (all those exclamation points are just for you!)