A tribe

First we got to see Leif (and David) when we took him to the MTC.

Then we've had Gavin (which is delightful).

Sunday, the Germers came to visit.  Miles had family commitments so it was Amy and the kids.  It did my heart a lot of good to walk in to sacrament meeting and see them seated on the front row.  (Amy had asked me if we still sit there and I said these tigers can't change their stripes.)

After passing the sacrament, Mark went and sat between Finn and Gavin.  You've never seen such a happy Mark.  I whispered to Adam that if Braeden were here too, Mark's head would probably explode.

They all came over for lunch after church.  Amy wanted to sit outside (because she grew up in Texas and the temperature in Seattle has struggled to reach 70 lately and she wanted to thaw out).  The July sun obliged.

Until I said, "I'm too hot!" and we had to go inside. (Because it was in the upper 90s.)

We've known the Germers for 11 years.  Old friends like that are the very best kind.  Amy and I discussed the marriages we would like to arrange for our children and what I should do with the next phase of my life and what she's doing with the next phase of her life.

Emma asked, "Are you having an identity crisis?"

(Which is the same thing Janet mentioned the other day on the phone.)

I'm a slow learner and trying to figure out what's next.

It's nice to have friends to bounce ideas off of.  Friends who get it.

We also took some pictures:

The boys

The girls

 

The moms

I look like a giant next to Amy.  I'm taking her to my next family reunion so I will feel tall.

We ended up having Finn stay the night.  The boys were out on the trampoline still at 11:00 when I was going to bed.  They had a notebook and were alternatively bouncing on the trampoline and writing a story together for the video game they're going to create when they're older.  (They've been working on the idea for years.)

I love when kids' shoes are piled up by the front door.  These three now wear man-sized shoes though.

Weird.