Friends, and The "Lake Weekend"

We have to have the best neighbors and friends. We have to. When we left Wisconsin ten years ago, I couldn't have imagined making friends like the ones I spent 26 years making in Sun Prairie. I honestly couldn't have asked for better friends at that time.  To this day, we keep in touch, make sure to see each other as often as possible - many of us gather at least once a year for New Year's Eve - and many of them just got done visiting with each other this month around Madison - for which I wish I could've been around.

My friends mostly all got married within a few years of each other, included each other in wedding plans - either in the wedding itself, or in some manner - and all of us in some form or fashion became friends with spouses and children. When we moved four hours away from the only home town I had ever really known, I didn't know what to expect. I don't make friends easily. That's not something you say a lot as an adult, but it's true.

Thank God for where we chose to live, for the people that have befriended us as neighbors or through our work, church, and children. Oh. My. Gosh. Take, for instance, this weekend:

My wife has been out of town for a week in Australia. (Thankfully, we picked her up from the airport Sunday night. Yeah! She's home!) What do my neighbors and friends do? With the remodeling, I've had no less than five invitations to do laundry at people's homes. Our friends have helped us move stuff and invited the kids over to play. And then, this weekend, they invite the kids and I to the lake on Saturday on the spur of the moment (check the last blog entry for that day). Then another set of friends invite us over Sunday to THEIR lake home. And we get another great afternoon on the lake with them. My son got to try water-skiing again. My daughter got to do 'disking' with me. Both of them got a chance to go tubing, swimming, and sailing. It was just plain cool.

It is unreal what hospitality and friendship our family receives from our friends and neighbors. To be able to have friends that I made in elementary school, junior high and high school continue to keep up with us, and then add such great neighbors and friends from our 'new' home is ... well ... awesome. I am beyond words. My cup runneth over. OUR cups runneth over. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Maybe I'm not the greatest at making friends, but apparently God has a plan for us and helps make them for us :)

.... and it continues today, as another neighbor and friend took our boys to the Twins baseball camp at Target Field!

Here are a few pics from Saturday (Thanks Rhonda!) ...