Never Missing A Beat

It isn't everyday that you make friends in your life that you know you will be friends with forever. I can say that from personal experience, I have been lucky to have small handful of friends that I keep in touch with who have become our family. We have been so fortunate to have made these amazing relationships, not only in Pittsburgh (miss you Julie and Rochelle!), but in San Diego, too (you know who you are!)

And it's not often that your child gets to experience that same feeling of genuine friendship, so of course, we all feel blessed that our families have been remained friends 2400 miles away.



You can only imagine our excitement when the Trecker's told us last year when we moved from San Diego, yeah, on March 25th, 2007 -- that they had purchased a timeshare in Orlando and would come to see us when they were in Florida! Well, a year went by pretty fast and it wouldn't be long before the trio of Ryan, Riley T. and Riley E. would be back together again for another hurrah.


If you would have seen the happiness in Riley's eyes when she saw them standing at the door, you would've cried. It was even cooler to see Ronan as excited as he was, considering the last time he saw them, he was only 5 months. But, he jumped into the playtime as if he had always been a part of it and it was true utopia in our house for a short 3 hours.


Ronan barely cried for us all night -- like he usually does! He was so enamored by all three kids wanting to play with him and do things with him, that all we saw him do was run right along with them wherever they were going.



The highlight of the night must have been when Riley T. came out and said, "Maria, can you come here for a minute?" I followed her into Ronan's room (aka the play room) and no joke, that room was spotless. Toys were put away, blankets folded, everything was in its place. Ten minutes later, we were all called into Riley's bedroom where the four of them "played" and I swear, Riley's room was cleaner than when we had moved in. (Yes, after the Trecker's left, Ryan and I looked at each other and said their house must be immaculate due to the 'Santa's Elves' magic those twins pulled in our house.) Hey Jill, what do you make those kids do at home!?! Please share.

Jill and I had such a nice time catching up... I miss my friend already! Hopefully we'll get to meet up again (in the middle somewhere, like Minnesota?) for a scrapbooking expo or weekend retreat. And yes, Kurt was here, too. He and Ryan were discussing what rationale and argument he needs to have in trying to convince Jill to obtain a flatscreen HDTV, Bose surround sound system and XBox360. I'm thinking that when Uncle George sends him his rebate in May, those Trecker's will have a new media center in that house of theirs. Either that, or Jill is going to grab that money and get herself another new camera. What do you think?

What I do know is that we're hoping those Trecker's use that timeshare of theirs again in Orlando so we can get a four R's (Riley, Ronan, Ryan and Riley) back together again... Miss you!