We Are Family (Vacation Recap)

Make new friends, but keep the old;
one is silver and the other is gold.

There is a song I learned in Girl Scouts called "Make New Friends (But Keep The Old)" that I got to sing to my friend Sarah on her birthday this past Saturday. It was hard to sing it without getting all choked up because she seriously has been one of the biggest pieces of my heart. We've been best friends for the past 10 years and have been through a lot together. We push each other to be better and we comfort each other in tough times. No matter what life has thrown at us, we have been constants for each other and our friendship just continues to get stronger and stronger.

I got to spend this last weekend in Baltimore with her and her family and it was such a refreshing time. We seriously are two peas in a pod. Over the next few posts, I'll share some pictures from our adventures and some fun stories.

I flew out on the red-eye last Wednesday night in order to spend the MOST amount of time with Sarah and her family as I could. They are just another extension of my blood relatives. They make me laugh, make me feel valued, and teach me the power of love by the way they live their lives. When I got in to Baltimore, I was greeted with a giant tackle hug from Sarah!

When we got to her parent's new townhouse around 6:45 a.m., I sat around in the living room with her family as we all enjoyed some delicious coffee and we caught up on all the latest that was going on in each of our lives. Then around mid-morning, the jet lag started taking effect and as much as I tried to fight it, I couldn't. After my little nap, we decided to go grab some lunch at Don Pablo's. The Warners also invited their friend Liz to meet us up for lunch because they really wanted us to meet each other. I can totally see why now—she's AMAZING and such a wonderful new friend!

If you know me, you know that I'm silly and I enjoy being spontaneous and making others laugh. The great thing is, the Warners are the same way! Our lunch date was full of jokes and randomness. Here are just some of the shenanigans that went down:

Hoping this frog turns into Ben Affleck

Sarah's Chip Face

Ms. Shelley's Chip Face

We got to spend a fun day together just hanging out and catching up. And then they surprised me by throwing me a surprise Half Birthday Party! It was so clever and so much fun!

We spent the evening playing a fun new game called QUELF. It's seriously the funnest, most random game I've ever played! All through the game you pick cards that correspond with the color block you land on and you have to do what the card says. One of the things I had to do was randomly pretend to be Frankenstein throughout the game. I couldn't let others know what I was doing and I had to stay in character. It caught everyone off guard and made us laugh so hard through the night. There were times I seriously had to cover my eyes so I wouldn't look at them because it would make me laugh and break character.

This is a picture from a part of the game where I had to find some random material in the room and make it into a tie to wear around my neck. I had to wear this trash bag tie the ENTIRE game! If I took it off, I had to go back 3 spaces. It was such a fun game night with my extended family!

I consider myself incredibly blessed to have a friend like Sarah and a family like the Warners. They are seriously pure gold in my life!