Tis the season for...visitors!

I love spring time in Florida!  Not only does my Bougainvillea bloom and look absolutely beautiful, but we always look forward to welcoming visitors from out of town who are either here on vacation and stop by or are coming to stay with us. Of course this spring I was most excited to have my cubs retuning back to the den from BYU.

The third was the charm for Rachel and Justyn who finally made it out on their long awaited trip after having to cancel last minute the two prior times. How fun it was having them here with us and getting to spend time with them.  Of course Sage was thrilled that on this final booking they added Issy to the itinerary.  These girls have been face timing each other for years, spending hours talking about their crushes to playing online games together so you can only imagine the excitement of these two to hang out together in person.  Jack was also happy to hang out with someone as excited about light sabers as him... haha! 

Next up was The Howards who are dear friends we became close to during our NYC days.  While they didn't stay in the City nearly as long as we did, our friendship has remained strong until this day.  Usually every one to two years we meet up in Utah but how fun it was to host them for a day on their recent trip out to Florida.  Of course Sage loves any family that shows up with a bunch of girls!

True friendship is going years even decades without seeing or talking to someone yet once you get together it's like no time has passed.  I finally reconnected with Stacy and Noelle last summer and at that time we had planned a girls trip in Florida.  Unfortunately Noelle was unable to make it but Stacy came and what a great time we had.  We pretty much just visited and hung out in the backyard but you can't come to Florida and not see an alligator so I took her to Blue Springs and on a drive through the Apopka nature reserve where you get to see plenty of gators out in the wild!  How much fun we had reminiscing and laughing about old times and reconnecting!

Speaking of childhood friends, how fun it was to host one of my high school best friend's daughter. Michele and I were in each other's weddings, she visited me in NYC, and we met up for one of our high school reunions but with her having remained in California and me never returning after my parents moved, our paths don't really cross.  Of course our friendship has remained strong so when she asked if her daughter Jaidyn could come hang out with us for a week to get out of the California lockdowns of course I was thrilled.  And it really was like having Michele with me being that the two share so many of the same mannerisms and even talk the same! Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate perfectly so we didn't make it to the beach but between spending time in the pool and on the lake and a trip to SeaWorld, I think she really had a good time and how thrilled Sage was to have her here. They hit it off perfectly.  Thankfully Jaidyn has a sister sage's age so she was equally as happy to hang out with Sage!

Friends forever!

While I truly love our Florida lifestyle admittedly, I look forward to being out in Utah, close to the things that matter most...my family and my friends.  In a perfect world I'd be able to plop our house and yard down on a lake in Heber but since that is not an option I continue to look forward to the groundbreaking on our lot in Heber.  In the meantime though I will focus on the things I continue to love about being in Florida and that includes this beautiful Bougainvillea that really starts to bloom so beautifully in the spring.  This is definitely something I won't be able to replicate in Utah.