Our next set of visitors!

My best friend, H, and her 4 kids: CJ, BE, CG, EM - came to visit. I have to use middle initials to clarify b/c our B's have the same name and 2 of her kids have C as their first initial, so this works. :) CJ is B's very first friend. When he was 13 months old (I know this b/c it was before Brian deployed) he could say her full name, and it's not an easy name to say. We then lived together for a few weeks - H, CJ, BE, B, and me - it was hard b/c our husbands were gone, but it was wonderful to have that kind of support. Anyway, now our boys are best friends, plus B considers CJ still one of his best friends, and our girls (CG and E) are the best of friends. You have never seen 2 kids of this age play so angelically for so long. :)

Anyway, we loved having them all here for the week. Unfortunately B had school all week so we were a little limited with the school calendar, but my B is a bit of a home body so he was happy that he got to be here to play at home most of the time. While they visited we were able to get into Tucson to do some shopping (we did birthday and Christmas shopping for each other's kids so we didn't have to send packages this year - did I mention that 5 of our six kids plus H and her husband M have their birthdays in just over a 2 month time span right around Christmas?).
We also went to Tombstone (we did that after school b/c B really enjoys it) and walked around. We didn't go to the OK Corral (we did with my parents) b/c it's a bit long for some of the younger kids, but we did enjoy the early part of it where they do the fighting in the streets. Plus there was fudge and sasparilla in Tombstone, so lots of fun was had by all. We went to Bisbee later in the week and walked all around. Such a cute area. Not entirely kid friendly to be honest, but we had fun all the same.

On Friday we went back to Tucson to pick up M from the airport. We were so happy to have the opportunity to see him, but we wish it was for longer. It was also nice that he was able to drive back with H b/c it's a long drive by yourself with 4 kids. :) Our husbands get along really well, but they often don't get to join us for visits. :(

We wish that we could live near them, and see them on a regular basis. It is really hard to see them go and get back into routine after 3 weeks of visitors. But I think it feels a little more like home to us after having everyone here.