Atlanta

Once upon a time, in the fall of 2001, God placed Abby and I on the same floor of the same dorm building because He knew how much we would need each other to survive freshman year.  We were instant friends, bonding over our love of the Backstreet Boys and our preference to stay in watching the Bachelor instead of getting drunk at a frat party.  She was my best friend and I could go on and on about our fun memories.

In 2004 we became roomies living in a house together with two other friends, working together part time at New Balance, and planning Abby's wedding.  I was honored to have my first bridesmaid gig at her wedding in 2005, and when I got engaged a week before her nuptials I knew I'd be asking her to stand up with me at my wedding a few months later too.

Confession time, I didn't do a great job of staying in touch with anyone once I was out of school.  It was so much easier when I had tons of free time and roommates to make everyday instantly social without having to do any work or planning to get together.  "Adult life" sort of took over and we didn't see each other as often and then we moved away.

The great thing about our friendship though, is that it is one of those where you can pick up right where you left off even if it has been years.  In this case, it had been years, but ever since Abby and Josh moved to Atlanta last year I have been wanting to visit them and introduce our kids (Noelle is 5 and Louie is 2- a perfect pairing for my hooligans).  Atlanta is only about three and a half hours away, and we decided to leave after work Friday hoping to avoid hitting Atlanta during too crazy a time of day and maybe the kids would sleep some on the drive.  Since we didn't know how late we'd be arriving we did something extra special- we stayed in a hotel with the kids for the first time.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Fascinating

I wish I had taken a picture of Kate's face when she watched the sleeper couch turn into a bed.  Pure amazement.  On Saturday we spent the whole day hanging out with Abby, Josh, Noelle, and Louie and it was so fun to see old friends and catch up.  We even got to see some of Abby's family- Judy, Meagan and Milo!

The kids slowly warmed up to each other, and by the end of the day they were having a dance party in the living room together.

Life gets busy and it's unfortunately very easy for way too much time to pass without checking in with some of my favorite friends.  Last weekend reminded me that making the effort to reconnect is always worth it!

Love this lady