Baileys Come to Visit

Friends who drive long distances to stay with you in a little Army town without a lot of flair and pizazz are, well... treasures.  How do we deserve them?  We just don't.  But we were truly blessed by getting to host our dear friends from Memphis, Ben and Emily.  We were also thrilled to see again their little guy, Abe, who is just four months younger than William.

Words can't really describe the impact those four years in Memphis had on our lives.  And trying to describe the friendships God gave us there is even more daunting...

We all met through Grace Church.  Emily and I were both crazy busy teachers who longed for the day when we could be moms.  Her smile is contagious and hair = envious!  And don't get me started on her eye for design and delish home cookin'.  We also went to Serbia together to visit a couple of our church's missionaries and encourage them.  I was convinced Emily was Mother Teresa incarnate.  Emily was always there to pray for me and make me laugh, and she got her hands into any mission work she could.  Ben was our fun artsy guy friend who grew up in Guatemala and wore cool glasses, cooked amazing chili, loved the Lord and downtown Memphis with his whole heart, and who always came over to our itty bitty apartment for anything random we would do from fish taco nights to pumpkin carving contests.  Then one day, these two got married.  Then nine months later, they had a beautiful baby.  It's a pretty awesome story...

From sharing meals to sharing stories, a visit to downtown and the local Farmer's Market, a double date to Nashville while babysitter keeps the boys, and to church Sunday morning, the weekend was brief but full!

William enjoyed playing with his new buddy.  They learned about sharing (i.e. stealing) and all sorts of things :)

Rockin out

Breakfast

Tomato, spinach and goat cheese omelets with toast and jam, anyone?

Unfortunately the rain kept us from our original plans of outdoor adventures, so Ben looked up some things for us to do in Nashville instead while I read to the boys (heart and arms = full)

Em and I enjoyed putting together some bacon turkey wraps and spinach fruit salad with some blueberry chutney (hungry yet?)  PS-we also discovered a new way to cook bacon using cookie sheet and cooling rack.  This. changes. everything.

Date night at Burger Up on the "swanky" side of Nashville, as we like to say

What those smiles really mean is, "You have sweet potato fries here? Score!"

Matthew tries out Ben's shades tryin to be "swankier"

And no visit is ever complete without some serious memory snappin and a gift of group photos for the fam. Definitely not a professional, but I'm cheap!  It's hard to get a bad photo with such a good looking group of folks.