Good Friends

Over our weekend in Savannah we had the good fortune (and pleasure!) of meeting Courtney and Darin in Jacksonville for lunch. While I loved seeing both of them, the highlight of the visit was meeting their sweet daughter, Whitney.

Whitney is four months old and absolutely precious. She seems so tiny and delicate at 12 lbs. compared to Carver's 20 lbs. She was adorable in her dress and hair bow and I could have cuddled her and loved on her all day :) I was thrilled to finally get to meet her and get to love on her a little. Though the visit was much too short.

I absolutely loved being pregnant at the same time as Courtney. For the last few years our lives have been very intertwined, following much of the same path. We had an instant connection when we met in our first French class at UF. And she is the only true friend that I ever made simply by having a class together in school. I never could have imagined how close we would end up-- but what a friend she became!

The following year after meeting Courtney, I moved into her apartment complex (with Court and Jules), and we took almost all of the same classes and drove together to campus most days. We socialized on the weekends and she was always there to help me through the drama of my life in those days. She is probably the friend I have the most in common with-- we have similar interests and views on life and the same taste in jewelry and handbags.

Possibly the best part of our friendship is how well our husbands get along also. This has been an enormous blessing-- they are, as a couple, our best friends. In January of 2009 we even traveled together for the first time, to Breckenridge, and had an incredible time.

I can't wait for our families to keep growing, both in size, and closeness. I am so excited to keep planning vacations with them and to keep scheduling visits whenever possible. Courtney is one of the very small handful of people in my life that I did not grow up with but who knows me about as well as those that I did grow up with. I love that when I talk about any situation or person from my past, or in my family, she knows exactly who it is because we have spent so many hours talking over the years that we just know almost everything about each other, past and present. She is a very special friend-- she's family.

On that note, here are some pictures from our visit. (I had to steal several from Courtney since mine did not turn out so well). And yes, we are in a department store. We were trying to get us and the kids out of the blazing Florida sun-- it was brutal that day.