Far-Away Friends

Charleston is a wonderful place to live, but unfortunately it's often a transient place to live (with a medical school and a law school) and a professional soccer team :)), which means we have met, and said goodbye to, a number of wonderful friends down here. Combine this with my family living hundreds of miles away, I thought a good way to introduce these facts of life to sean would be through talking about "far-away friends."   This summer he met a number of far-away friends at Denise's wedding (e.g., Baby Mckenna, his second cousin) and at the cottage, not to mention first cousins and uncle who live in Michigan.  We now have a huge map of the U.S. in our dining room with pictures of far-away friends dotting the landscape.

We were so lucky to have a number of far-away friends come back to Charleston to visit us last weekend.  Two of the featured map-friends actually came and saw Sean's map which was so fun.  Our very first friends we made in Charleston, Luke and Andrea, and Paul and Gretchen were here with their respective progeny, along with Jenny and Roman who have since moved to Orlando, and their two muffin-pies.  I did not take enough pictures.  At brunch on Sunday there were 14 children here, plus their parents, and Sean was the oldest.  In fact, sean was the only 3 year old!  Sean is a hospitable, social child and he loved having all of his friends at his house at once.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are some of the few shots from the weekend:

Yes, other friends came to visit last weekend, but Greta (and those related to her) hold a special spot in Sean's heart, therefore, they got a sign.

I mentioned in a previous post that at times while they were playing Sean would just stop, hug Greta, close his eyes and drink in her Greta-ness.  I am lucky enough to actually have found a picture of this event.  Greta was kind enough to tolerate it!

Just catching up.

As I said, Sean was the oldest of the crew all weekend-- a role he very much enjoyed.  "Guys, this is how you unlock the door to let yourself out onto the balcony."

Sean and Greta with their old Nanny, Valerie, who was also in town for the weekend, sort of, during her world travels.  Val kept these two when they were itty-bitty---it is wonderful that she gets to see them grow every so often like this!

Not even all of the ladies and babies-- just a random shot of who was around at the moment.  there were many more babies and ladies.

Practicing driving his lady on the handle bars.

The original 3 Amigos.  These guys just picked up where they left off. 

For some reason, our group is really boy-heavy right now.  Here's Greta surrounded by her subjects. 

My how we've grown (2007 below, 2011 above--note that both of these pictures were taken with a timer and I recall much laughing and several attempts at getting everyone in a shot both times.  Note also that I'm glad having two kids has taught Paul how to smile :).)

we LOVED having our far-away and our in-town friends all so close last weekend!  Lets do it again soon!