vacation post part 2- friends!

so here are a few of the people we were able to see during our short time in utah.  i literally crammed in as many visits with friends as i could!  why?

because my kids weren't sick.

LET ME REPEAT THAT.

my kids didn't get sick on the entire trip!  and they didn't come home sick either!  long-time readers know that this is a strader miracle if i've ever seen one.  i kid you not, this is the first time that i can remember in a long, long time that we've survived a lengthy vacation while everyone stayed healthy.  hooray!

so, here are a few of our pictures, the one person i forgot to get a picture of is my long-time friend and old college roommate, tara.  bummer!

before ben left and flew back home, we were able to go to a barbecue with all of his old high school friends and their families.  we had a great time, and were so happy to be able to see all of them.  ben told me on the way home just how much these guys mean to him....they were kind of his solid rocks during a shaky time of his life.

we also had lunch with the always hilarious, always impeccably dressed davey....

then after ben went back to arizona, i saw my other two roommates from college, christy and mindy and their cute kids....

and got to spend a couple of hours with the barbers, 

our arizona-friends-newly-relocated-to-utah...

was able to meet up with my friend from high school {and now blogging buddy} rachel and my kids had such a fun time with her 6 {six!}......

and then had dessert with the hilarious and sweet christian 

{sorry about the red-eye weirdness}....

got together with my sweet aunt sue and favorite girlie cousins shellee & aimee, some of my most fun childhood memories involved these ladies....

and then rounded off the friends visit with some of my girls from high school, getting to see them again reminded me of why i loved being around them so much so long ago......

sick of pictures yet??  well if you are, take a big sigh of relief.  

vacation pictures part 2 is done!