The friendliest

Our very good friends/downstairs neighbors/matchmakers deluxe came to town last week. (Have I mentioned that I love living here? EVERYONE visits L.A. at one point or another.)

When I take some time to think about the miraculousness of our living arrangements in Utah, I'm astounded by it. I remember when I was house hunting. Initially I hated the apartment (I detested the kitchen cabinets and that was almost a deal breaker for me), but then got a strong hunch that it just might be the right place. Turns out I was right. The downstairs neighbors (it was a duplex) had girls the same age as my girls. We soon started referring to the house as the compound. There was a non-stop flux of children going in and out all doors. They were best friends. When we were packing up to move away last summer there was a collective sadness. I told the downstairs neighbors that they had their father to blame for our departure since he had introduced me to Tod and Tod was taking a new job in California. Anyway, for thousands of reasons (besides the matchmaking one) it was a perfect living arrangement for us. I have a very tender heart for these fine neighbors. I know we'll always call them some of our best friends. Tod has a history with them that goes back many years before I even met them. 

It was great to see them again. The girls had a sleepover at our house. I let my girls skip school the next day. I mean academics are very important, but so is living. There's a time and place for skipping school. This was definitely one. We cruised around Manhattan Beach for a while.

And swam in the ocean. It was cold and foggy, but they didn't care a bit. They were swimming in big waves while their classmates were in math.

And we went to the science center downtown. It's such a great museum and it's free. The kids were swinging on these ropes and lifting a full size truck off the ground.

Laura & Drew standing outside the science center.

All the kids rode the high wire bike.

Then we picked up Tod from work and ate at our favorite downtown eatery, Bottega Louie. It's like our show off restaurant. We take all visitors there. I wasn't as confident as I usually am with this choice because Drew is a phenomenal chef and a total food snob. He was completely sold, though. Phew.

After dinner we had to part ways. It will likely be a very, very long time until we see them again. It was tough to rip the kids apart. Here are my girls trying to escape with them.

What would we do without the love and happiness of good friends? I'm so grateful to know so many marvelous people!

Random footnote. Tod got me these flowers one day. I already had flowers in the kitchen, so I put them in my bathroom. We have FANTASTIC light in my bathroom (Tod ALWAYS notices the way light hits things, he's an artists after all. It's so endearing to me.) and we were both dying over how lovely the flowers were in the light. We would sometimes sit on the bathtub together and admire them. Dorky, I know!

 

Okaybye.