Asia, or something like it

Man y'all, I gotta tell you. All this chronology is making my blogger heart feel so balanced, so linear, so happy and in order.
We're still in June according to the iPhoto dates.

A couple days after the Beefa left, some friends of ours who live in another part of Asia came to see us. Their Asia has split pants, snow, bicycles on the roads, and Taobao (aka- Chinese Amazon). We met when we were all childless and the last time we saw them, there was only one small 10-day-old baby Eden and a 25-week-gestation-baby Isaac between us.  Basically we had no clue just what "free time" really meant when we hugged their necks last.

Despite the run-of-the-mill insanity 6 small children can bring to a joint, I think we had a great time overall. I say "think" because I KNOW we did, but you gotta wonder if you're having a great time and they're just thinking your house smells like vitamins and that our kids ruined theirs in some sort of permanent fashion. Irrevocable damage from us saying the word, "crap" too often in front of their kids aside, their visit did us a lot of good. 

Their lives are just so dang similar to ours. I'd bore you if I listed it all out.

Just read these, you'll see...
* Our kids' ages... 4, 2, 7 months.
Their kids' ages..4, 2 (but he turned 3 during their trip), 9 months.

* Our 1st and 3rd children were born in Asia. Our 2nd's were born in America.

* We both think driving an hour to the beach only to have it pour down raining, eating a picnic in the car, not even removing our seat belts and then turning around to recover the trip at a jungle waterfall is as memorable as a day at the beach. Probably.

* We own the same stroller

* Our kids ride bikes without pedals.

* We could win the Amazing Race blindfolded. (this one may or may not be a fact. But it is a similarity.) What else do skills like speaking Chinese, peeing anywhere and on anything that the locals call toilets, heat tolerance and our vast driving experience on the other side of the road get you but 1st place?

* We continue to live in Asia despite the toilets.

*  Our husbands are total coffee snobs (post to come later) and have unbeknownst to the other, chosen nearly identical coffee paraphernalia to carry out their snobbery.

April's pictures are much better than mine and while doing this blogpost, I was reminded just how often I said, "Hey April, you take pictures because our camera battery is dead and your camera is better anyway."  We did some fun stuff and April was my 8th friend to go to the Winnie Salon in the Capital. She changed her hair color (which is hard to do no matter which continent you're on) and I dropped her off and said goodbye just after so I can't confirm or deny if I'm still batting a thousand with the Winnie Salon...but Iiiiii thought she looked great. April, you've worn it for a couple weeks now, growing on you? You sexy no matter friend...Russian Prositute blonde or "I look like my sister" brown low-lights. (Yes, I DID just go there.) It's all gravy.

It was a great week hanging out with yall and actually meeting your kids in person.  Don't worry, we'll be bringing our circus crew your way sooner or later. I think it's perfectly possible to make all   this craziness fun a transcontinental event.