trip thoughts and love to my friends

We got back from our trip to California last night.  We had a simply wonderful time!

It was great to see the family, and sit and chat and just hang out together, since we hadn't had a chance to do that over the holidays.  I attempted to teach E's cousin Juanita to knit, and ended up with his Aunt Bonnie picking it back up instead.  Family time is fun.

The play we went to see was "The King and I" and it was a really great experience - I loved the story (hadn't seen the movie or anything previously) and our friend Greg who was the King did a great job.  The singing was really nice.  I enjoyed the way the stage was set up to rotate for the different rooms, that was really interesting to watch.  It really was a highlight of our trip and something I'll remember for a long time.

A big part of the trip reminded me how much I love *our* friends.  At the beginning of our relationship, I thought of them as Eric's friends... but I feel so much a part of the group at this point, it's a big blessing to me.  We don't have close friends up here besides my family, but our California friends are so amazing and really, who could need more than that?  Even meeting a new friend of the group was really nice and I feel like I walked away with one more super cool person that I know.  These guys are people with withstood a trip from down south to up here for our wedding squashed into a little car listening to crazy music almost 8 years ago and still are be-moaning it but still like us!  These girls are so sweet to me, make me blush, and I feel like I could tell them anything.  They are all a bit geeky and crazy, just like E and me.  They laugh with us and at us, but it's all in good fun.  Many of them drive a long ways each time we come down just so we can all meet up and spend an evening and better parts of the night together, laughing and talking and of course, gaming.  I just came home feeling so blessed.

The weather was fabulous the whole time we were there, and we got to do a lot of great things the whole time we were gone, including a date afternoon with just me and E (and Cheesecake Factory and Ben & Jerry's and the outdoor mall, woo!).  The flights were okay (ok, the second one was not as good as the first but whatever), and we weren't delayed in Ontario this time for a change.

I've got a bit of catching up to do now that I'm home, with piles of mail and newspapers, as well as a ton of digital catching up with my Vox reads and my newreader (yay, the strike is OVER!), but that'll come.  We grocery shopped tonight so we actually have food again, and I took an extra nap this afternoon, so that all helps with catching up.  Happy trips are GOOD!