My BFF & Her Beautiful Family

I was so excited to spend last weekend visiting my best friend Jamie, and her beautiful family. Jamie and I met 9 1/2 years ago at Coconut Joe’s bar in LaCrosse, WI. And for those of you with a good memory and stellar math skills–yes, that means I was only 19 at the time. So in my continuing quest to keep my Presidential aspirations alive I must tell you that we were both working there at the time. This is a picture of us (right) from Jamie’s Hawaiian-themed bachelorette party I threw for her about 7 years ago (math junkies–does “7 years ago” put me at legal drinking age? If not I’ll edit). Jamie is 6 feet tall and gorgeous, which–under normal circumstances would mean I hate her–but amazingly enough we were instant friends. And although her name is Jamie, I like to call her Louise (long story–the gist of it being I like to make up random nicknames for people).

So Louise got married to Terry (who I call Ter-Bear) about 7 years ago and they wasted no time in starting their gorgeous family. And with kids this cute, who can blame them? First they had Gracey, who is currently 6 years old. Then came Zackry, who just turned 4. And the newest member of the family is Rory–only 6 weeks old.

Which leads me to picture time!

Here’s a picture of the whole family right after Jamie gave birth to Rory. They should breed for a living, don’t you think? And seriously–how is it possible that Jamie looks this gorgeous after giving birth? I want to be her when I grow up.

And here’s Grace and Zack holding little Rory:

And another shot of the kids (love that orange!):

They used to live 4 hours away from me, but just a couple of weeks ago they moved and are now only 2 hours from me–woohoo!

Which brings me to my visit last weekend. Here are some pics of me and kids goofing around while Rory was napping. First Gracey kept trying to give me bunny ears (pic 1). Then Zack ran by and slapped this blue sticky stuff on my forehead right before I was about to snap a shot of Grace & I (pic 2). And then I finally got Zack to take a picture with me, but we had to do a silly face picture first (pic 3). Cutest. Kids. Ever. We had such a fun time together!

Later while the kids were inside with Terry, getting settled in for bed, Jamie and I went outside to start a bonfire and have a few (ha) beers. Well the kids couldn’t resist coming outside, too. And I couldn’t resist snapping pics of them in their pj’s! Zack was telling me a story in that middle pic–he’s quite the little chatterbox! And check out those shoes–so cute!

And now back to pics of the (trying hard to be) grown-ups. We decided to build a fire in the fire pit, but first we had to go get wood. Louise informs me we need to take this cart thingy, which instantly scares the crap out of me because I can still vividly remember her driving from my college days. So we hop in the cart and take off–Louise with a beer in her hand, and me holding on for dear life–and drive approximately 20 feet. When I ask her why we had to drive a whole 20 feet to the wood pile Louise replies, “Well I didn’t want to have to carry the wood.” Spoken like a true diva. And now you know why we’re such good friends.

Jamie starting the fire…and success! Sort of. This one burned out in about a minute so we had to have Ter-Bear take over. He’s such a good hubby!

And one last pic. While Jamie looks stunning in this picture, you can already see the Miller Lite working its magic on me. I’ve got that Kim Kardashian-No-Life-Behind-The-Eyes look going on.

Yep–the window of opportunity for sober photos had closed for the evening. Time to put the camera to bed while we stay up and a have a blast! I already can’t wait for my next visit!

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