As I sit here on a thursday night i wonder how we got to thursday? the last week and a half has been a blur.

On August 9th some of our best friends returned home from a two week vacation to Greece. We dreaded their return home. Yea, you read that right. We hated to see them come home because we knew it meant in only 10 days they’d be leaving again….and this time for good. They were being relocated to Dallas. And although Dallas is only 5 short hours away, when you see people every single day and spend nearly every single weekend together……dallas might as well be Greece.

In an effort to spend as much time as possible together over the next 10 days we’ve pretty much threw out any sort of “rules” we might usually adhere to in regards to the kids and the amount of time they spent together and what they spent that time doing.  For example, I’m pretty sure all of the kids went close to 4 days without bathing. There simply was not enough time in the day to spend in the shower.  There were several days I’m sure the boys were in their pj’s until dinner.  Running in and out between houses was tolerated and video games and super hero kung foo kicks were encouraged. The girls managed to keep the drama to a minimun too…..nearly unheard of around here. We had more sleepovers in the last 10 days than we did the entire summer. We built “forts” in the living room and a couple in the theater room….yea, even I got in on that action…I am like a serious fort builder now….errr, well according to mark i have no skillz at all but i managed to construct one that made it the entire night so i’m going pro.

We have a total of 4 families we regularly spend time with in the neighborhood. Between the four of us…there are 10 children. So 10 children pretty much ran wild on the street between 4 houses for 10 days, grabbing a handful of chips or an occssional pop tart along the way.  yea, i’m pretty sure child protective services would’ve had a hay day with us.

the adults have had some good fun too. double doses of BBQ fun, lots of laughs, lots of drinks. the girls managed to sneak in a girls night at the melting pot on sunday. the husbands decided we needed to get out more since we were gone for almost 6 hours for dinner.  we were the very last group to leave the restaurant at almost midnight. 

we spent the last four days in denial as we would see the big giant moving truck pull up each day. we just went about the day as if it wasn’t there…..until today…when we could deny it no longer.

today was the day. they rolled out around 3:30 and the tears flowed freely. it was hard, maybe harder than i even expected and i’m not sure that it really has fully set in yet. but tomorrow when we wake up and the house has 4 fewer little feet running in and out of it and this weekend there are 2 more open chairs around the patio fire where the adults usually sit………well, maybe then.

here’s to future roadtrips to dallas and friends that can never be replaced.

here are some favorite shots from the last year.

smooches to kristina, tasos, sofia & christos!

here’s a shot of the four of us on new year’s eve…..pardon mark’s inability to focus…i think it’s probably a good indication that this shot was probably taken WELL after midnight.

Kristina & Tasos…notice the difference in photographic quality cuz mama had the camera!

the kids after our christmas party. little p-diddy isn’t pictured…he must’ve missed out on all the fun.

hudson’s bday party

kids’ at the ranch

the big kids at the ranch.

just a typical saturday afternoon.

the boys w/ Michael Finley.

the kids in mama’s fort.

one last BBQ night

drams queens best friends