a quick visit

my time with my college friends in nashville in june was just not long enough. we squeezed lots of catching up and chasing children in that 48 hours, in addition to christie's wedding festivities! i took lots of pictures, but i am trying to get caught up around here... so this one's gonna be (relatively) short and sweet.

lynsay, christy, and i had the pleasure of staying with cary, ashley, and baby noah for the weekend. they have worked so hard remodeling their beautiful home--it was such a cozy place to relax and talk till 3 in the morning. cary went above and beyond the call of duty on thursday night when he babysat ethan & caroline while the girls had dinner with the bride-to-be. i meant to get a picture of cary and the kiddos, but that never happened. cary did survive the evening, thanks to pizza and bolt! (and his superb fathering skills, of course.)

the next morning, ashley treated us to a delicious breakfast, complete with monkey bread. and here is our hostess adding my favorite part... powdered sugar!



ethan was ecstatic that sifters don't come with lids.


after our morning sugar rush, kim's family came over and we all headed out to a really great discovery center in ashley's town. it was worth our admission fee just to get this shot of all of our busy kids in one picture! (L-R: caroline, noah, ethan, paxton, lorelei) (christy's sweet girl sadie was back home with her daddy, and amelia was snoozing in her stroller)



my kids loved this little market area.



the girls stayed busy doing girl things.



and the boys stayed busy doing boy things.





and nobody had to tell them what to do. it's like they were Made that way.
after a busy day at the discovery center, we came back to ashley's for a quick lunch. after we scarfed down our sandwiches, ashley brought out a cake for my birthday the week before! (remember, this all happened way back in june!) her bundt pan really saw some action that weekend! :) you know i am not one to turn down cake, especially this cake! thanks, girls, for remembering my birthday!


the rest of the weekend, we pretty much ate, talked, and kissed on each others' babies. here's kim's husband, josh, meeting amelia...



and while he kissed on my baby, i gave my kisses to this precious fella...


isn't noah so sweet!? he was so tolerant of my kids invading his space for the weekend! noah was just an infant last year, and it was so fun to see him growing so big!

this post does not really do the weekend justice. even though it was a busy time with wedding activities and kids in our faces every 30 seconds, my friends and i found a way to squeeze in little conversations here and there. and then after the kids finally fell asleep, we'd dive right in to our heavy late-night chats. i love these girls, and i am already looking forward to next summer's reunion!!