Old friends, new friends

We've done some good visiting this past month. While Tres was away for two weeks for work, my mom came up to visit for a few days and we constructed Silas's Tripp Trapp (my childhood chair), made jam, and did our best to stay cool.

Trying out his "new" chair

I didn't get one of them during the visit, but
here's one from the wedding this summer

The next week, Silas and I then made a quick trip down to see the folks. We had a dear friend and her son, who is just one month older than Silas, over for a visit. It was pretty funny to watch the little boys play "together" and of course a welcome opportunity to do a little catching up with each other's lives. The next day, Silas and I met another old friend (she and I met in Camp Fire in 3rd grade!) for a lovely walk and picnic in the park.

Silas and Landon last November

And a few weeks ago

The following weekend, we had a quick visit from good friends from Seattle - I taught Z for two years (first in preschool and then Pre-Kindergarten) and, in the process of getting to know her, also became friends with her mother (and later the rest of their lovely family too). They came bearing gifts, sweet dears, of a hand-me-down bed for Silas (it's super sweet - it has a slide!) and a hat for me. We tried to repay them slightly, with some tasty treats from the garden. It was really wonderful to see them and share a bit of our life here and I hope that there will be another opportunity for all of them to come out and stay with us sometime.

I (foolishly)failed to take any photos of our visit,

but you can admire my sweet hat!

Over labor day weekend, we had a visit from one of our oldest friends. We kept her busy, hiking, visiting an outdoor music festival, cooking, and making peach butter (and of course, the ever popular emptying the dishwasher), but still had plenty of time for visiting and hearing about her exciting future life changes too.

Regrettably, this is the only photo that
I have from her visit (silly!)

A few days later, we had yet another old dear friend (I know that those adjectives are becoming repetitive, but I can't come up with any as appropriate) and his new fiancee stop by. It was really fun to show them the house and the property, hear about their recent road trip, and for them to see how much Silas has grown and changed in the past few months. Added bonus: banjo time!

Learning to play the banjo

There must have been something
interesting on the ground. . .

Finally, Tres's dad was out this past weekend to finish our deck, by building a bench in one corner. It turned out beautifully and we promptly put it to good use, eating dinner on it that night. It is most excellent and I look forward to many more family meals on it.

Trying out the bench

Since moving out here, it's been my hope that (despite being a significant distance from all of our friends and family) our home could be a desirable weekend destination. I feel like we finally got a taste of what that could be like these past few weeks and it was really great. Life can feel pretty isolating out here sometimes and there's nothing like having some guests to rekindle your social skills and, most importantly, reconnect you with people you love. While many of them live near each other, it is rare that we get to visit everyone when we are nearby and it's been really nice to be able to focus our attention on individuals while they were here. Hosting visitors can really give a wonderful perspective on what you love in your life too. While I can often feel overwhelmed by the seemingly never-ending process of moving in and setting things up (we have been in the house for over a year now and still have almost nothing on the walls, except for in Silas's room), our house is comfortable, we get to do lots of things that we love to do here (cook, preserve, garden, raise animals, eat, spend time together), and it really is slowly coming together too. So, thank you everyone for coming out to see us and if you're reading this and haven't made it out yet, what's keeping you?