"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you."

~Philippians 1:3

Mom started reading Jewels' blog several years ago. When we stumbled across them on Facebook, we promptly sent friend requests to Jewels, Rosie, Joe and Julia.

Julia and I exchanged snail mail, and we all exchanged friendly messages and such on Facebook. Messages turned to chats and occasional Skyping and we soon began planning a get together. Our plans to visit them during the summer didn't quite work out, so Joe, Rosie and Julia planned a trip to visit us.

They arrived on a Saturday afternoon and I felt like I had known them for years.

My pictures, as usual, are in no particular order as I was too lazy to upload them in a way that actually made sense.

We gathered on the front porch for a cigar smoking- or rather, to watch Mac and Joe smoke. I gave it a try and it didn't end well.

They brought a hilarious game with them- Curses. We spent a good amount of time laughing!

It didn't take Joe long to catch onto swing dancing- all of them are great dancers!

After church on Sunday, we went roller skating at the local rink and then stopped at a mill in the park on the way home.

Joe gave Abigail the nickname of Abbs- she wasn't amused.

I crocheted shawls for Rosie and Julia and their mom and sisters, too- Collin helped me pick out yarn colors, and they said that the colors were chosen perfectly, much to our delight.

I gave Joe a quilt in his favorite colors. Rose knit me a pair of the coziest socks and Julia sewed me a bag that holds my laptop perfectly (I *will* take pictures and share them!)

Walking in the park.

Swing dancing.

We were sad to see them go, and can't wait to see them again! February, perhaps? =P

You can read Mom's post about our visit here and here, and Rosie wrote about it here.