bfaf's (best far away friends)

Little Jordan, who used to babysit around in our neighborhood, got married last month. The Wagners used to be our neighbors and our friends. Now they're just our friends. The neighbor concept got thrown out the window when they moved 1853 miles away to Georgia. Stopping by for late night ice cream ended that very day. But since then, we have gone cruising with them and we survived a cross-country road trip to New York with them (not just adults, that would have been easy . . . we toted seven kids with us too).
It's hard for us to maintain long distance friendships with people. We've never been very good at it except for sending an occasional Christmas card. Luckily for us, Joe and Madeline are both very good at keeping in touch. And luckily, they travel for business and stay with us when they are working here or traveling through. Dave and Joe talk on the phone all the time. I can always tell when Dave is talking to Joe, his voice tone is different, more animated than with the run-of-the-mill business client.
So - little Jordan grew up and got married. And what a beautiful bride she was.Dave got a chance to fly back to Georgia and attend the wedding reception and then fly down to Florida to spend a few days with his brother. (Yes, he took a lovely vacation while I was slaving away here in the office. But I hold no bitterness, really.)
Joe is a proud and weepy daddy. Joe, it's not just because your daughter is getting married, but we all know your background (and Dave's too) of weepiness. You two are cut from the same cloth.
The one difficult thing to explain about this family, is that they were a little family of 5 when they lived here, and now their household consists of these 11 people, 9 of which still sit around the dinner table every night. There were no babies involved and there is no math calculation to explain it. Madeline, I'll be curious to see how many people are standing in the family photo at the next wedding event.

Madeline is visiting with us this weekend. In casual conversation, Dave said to Madeline, "I was talking to your son-in-law the other day . . . " She had an absolute blank look on her face for a moment until she realized "OH, I have a son-in-law now!"

Little tiny Grant, who I still envision in my head as a sweet adorable little 2nd grader has an gorgeous girlfriend and here he is attending the Senior formal. Somehow, 2nd graders shouldn't have girlfriends.

Ok Madeline, I know you read this blog regularly. I'm giving you an assignment to leave a comment once in a while :) It's fun having you here!