… to visit the Diercks in Minnesota!
When Emily and Dan (our besties in Ohio) announced they’d decided to make the trek to MN to visit Jen and Dave (our other besties from Ohio, who moved away shortly after we did), we decided we needed to join in the fun, too! (Actually, I basically TOLD Andrew we were going, and that was that. It just would not have been the same!)
We booked airfare for the first weekend in October and started counting the days until we would see our friends.
You know how some people describe interacting with friends they haven’t seen in awhile as ‘it’s like no time had passed?’ That could not have been more true. From the second Dave picked us up from the airport (OK, it was a little weird riding in the backseat with a small child who wasn’t even BORN YET the last time we saw them), it was literally as if we still lived across the road from them back in Ohio.
Andrew and I arrived on Thursday, one day before the Wilhelms, and we were excited to receive a special delivery in the mail that night: Graeter’s Ice Cream. It’s an Ohio speciality, and Dave and I will tell you that Black Raspberry Chip is THE BEST FLAVOR. We quickly transferred the pints (one for each of us!) to the freezer and Andrew helped the kiddos play with the dry ice.
The next morning, Jen and I went off on a run and the boys visited the ‘man mall’ later in the afternoon. The ‘man mall’ (the real name of which I have forgotten) can be compared to Tractor Supply, and they came home with firestarter logs and gummy candies. Go figure.
Once Emily and Dan arrived that evening, the party really started. Or, rather, we all just hung around visiting and snacking and keeping small children entertained. And it was glorious.
Highlights included:
Guitar-playing…
Boys throwing foam darts at each other…
Covert snacking…
Book-reading (mostly about birds)…
Game-playing…
And even some vacuuming.
Our friends live in walking distance to a small park, where we took the kids a couple of times. They loved playing in the leaves.
We snapped some group shots before Andrew and I left on Sunday night.
We did not want to leave! Friends so dear don’t come along that often, and when they do, you better hold on! As I said, we all kept repeating ‘I can’t believe it’s been so long” the entire weekend. I think we all came away realizing that we need to make sure we take time to visit more frequently.
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