It seems as though every stage of life we’ve been in as a married couple we have found those friends that we treasure. We found them in college. We found them in Wisconsin. We have them in Arizona. The older I get, the more I realize these relationships are not common, and yet we’ve found them over and over again. (In fact after being in Arizona for a couple years I didn’t know if we would find those friends here – perhaps our stage of life and kids ages didn’t accommodate making adult friends – and then we found them yet again. Prayers answered!)

These are the type of friendships you long for and hate to move away from – but life takes us in all directions and we live far away from many of our very favorite people. And yet – our friendships are strong and we reconnect any chance we can get.

We were lucky to have some of our college friends come for a visit this weekend. He was here for work and his wife jumped at the chance to join for a short weekend. We had two nights and one full day to catch up and talk about all the things we need to talk about as well as show them the beauty of Arizona. Thanks to some really, really late nights we were able to maximize that time – although it made for a tough recovery after they left!

Camelback Hike

We hiked Camelback – which happens to be the “it” hike if you’re here for a short visit. It’s close and you get to see views of the whole valley – but its not an easy hike. It’s relatively short – and yet it packs in difficulty with every boulder you climb to the top. If you ever come visit us, chances are it’s on our itinerary!

Camelback Hike

We ate good food and talked late into the night: Kids, work, family, neighborhood life, church, vacations, dreams, ideas, hardships – nothing was off the table. These are two people that knew us when we had our nightmare child. They held that crying baby for us. They visited us in the hospital. We worked together. We have vacationed together. They are the definition of lifetime friends. So grateful for opportunities to reconnect.