And It's Not Even All Of Them!

One of the reasons the children and I joined Matt on his most recent business trip was the fact that two of my best friends in the world, and their families, live in St. Louis. Tracy and Erin are friends from college and even though it isn't really all that far from here to St. Louis, I don't see them nearly often enough.

It was interesting to get all of the children together - Tracy and Erin and their husbands each have four! My children hadn't seen Tracy or Erin's children in a long time, I wasn't sure how they would do together. As it turns out they children had quite a bit of (loud and rambunctious) fun, and they are mostly old enough that they could run around together while the adults sat in the kitchen and chatted.

We were only ALL together for a couple of hours. Harper and Michael were already operating at a deficit because my family had been in town up until the morning we left. Being already over-tired and sort of birthday-ed out, then spending several hours in the car, and then running around with eight unfamiliar-ish kids is probably not a recipe for everyone being on their best behavior... Even so, I am looking forward to a return visit soon. Maybe when the weather is warmer and the children can go bananas outside?

As we were getting ready to leave Tracy's house we decided to try to get all the children together in a group shot - three of us were standing there snapping away on our phones (I'd left my actual camera in a suitcase).
I believe the ages went like this: a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old (almost eight!), two six-year-olds, a five-year-old, a four-year-old (almost five!), a newly four-year-old, a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a one-year-old...

This is not a good picture, but doesn't it look like the sort of exposure that might accidentally happen with a film camera?

I hope one day all six of my closest college friends, our spouses, significant others, and children can be in the same place together - I'll be sure to get a picture when we do.