We’ve been having a lot of fun seeing all of our friends and family in the area, so I thought it’d be fun to tell you all about some of it!
First off, obviously, we’ve been staying with Cassie’s sister and brother-in-law, Candace and Tim. They’ve been outrageously gracious hosts – Tim’s probably too generous – and it’s been a lot of fun just kinda living casually with them for a while. Watching shows, playing card games, seeing impromptu movies.
We’ve also gone up to Cassie’s mom’s house a couple times now and played board games there with her other siblings, Drew and Pam. Mostly Seafall, but Drew also showed me how to play Final Girl, and Cassie went with her mom and Pam to some Harry Potter festival nearby. Once while we were there, we also went up to see Cassie’s grandma and celebrated her birthday!
Speaking of grandmas, last Saturday we drove up to Maryland and saw mine, and then helped my cousin move into her new place, which was fun. Plus, while we were there, we did dinner with my friend Joey and his wife Yssa at a German place (The Rathskeller; very good!).
We’ve been hanging out with friends in the area; we did dinner with the Gilchrests, hung out all day Monday with the Comptons, hung out Tuesday night with the Brenons, and had a hot pot brunch with my sister Janine and her boyfriend Jeremy on Wednesday. Last night we went to Meghan Heaton’s birthday party, and got to see a lot more people there, too!
It’s also been a lot of fun just living live down here again – going to church at Crossway, getting lunch with people afterwards (Siam Classic in Old Town Manassas still has it!), doing community group at the Tatums’, even bumping into people randomly while we’re out and about.
It’s honestly been kind of packed, and is getting more so as we approach the end of our time here. So if we happened to miss you, we’re very sorry, and we promise it wasn’t intentional! We thought five weeks in VA was going to be plenty, but it’s turned out to barely be enough!
We’re looking forward to Los Angeles, but we’re worried that three weeks there is going to feel like nothing. There’s just so many people, places, and experiences to say goodbye to! But you know what? Having a hard time saying goodbye definitely beats the alternative!