Friends

While we've been here we haven't been lucky enough to have family come take advantage of our extra bedroom (what were all of you thinking?) but we did have some friends make the journey. Plus we've made a few new friends along the way!

Above is Joseph Kroupa (Esq.), an old BYU PAC crony, who brought his aunt and his brother over for dinner. We offered them a night on our sofas (probably the most uncomfortable sofas in the entire world) but they were too busy staying in castles and catching their first class flights (the aunt works for Delta) to do more than dine and dash. Still, we were delighted to have a chance to see Joe again! We were all good pals back in the folk dance days.

This is Spencer with his BF Liesl Botts. I can't believe I don't have a good pic of the Botts family yet; they live two houses away and we see them every day. I'll work on that. They've been so good to us and I count my blessings a hundred times a day for their presence in our lives!
This is the David and Alex Kelly family, one of the first to befriend us at church. David is one of fifteen Kelly children; his father and mother are basically the patriarch and matriarch of the branch, at least a third of whom are their offspring. Alex is English, has a lovely accent and lovelier hair, and is an AMAZING illustrator. I saw her portfolio and was astounded at what she does. Her kids are Emma, Leah and Eva Greatcheeks. Eva's the one on my lap, who has the munchiest cheeks in the world, tends to scratch your face when frustrated, and who cries when her parents tell her to say goodbye to us. I love them all! We ate at their house out in Ballygary and they ate at ours; the distance between the two is unfortunately too far to bridge often during the week but they were very good to us. Most of the time we got rides home form church, it was them.

I need to get a picture of the Extons as well; their daughter Saorise (pronounced Seer-sha) is in Sophie's class and their son Odhrin (Orin) is in Maggie's. (He's kind of her crush as well; I approve because he's a very good boy! and because her version of having a crush is that they chase each other during big break playing tag.) They've been so good to us as well; knowing that we were strangers in a strange land, they invited us over for dinner, drove us to a farmer's market downtown one Saturday, and had the kids over for birthday parties. What a gift they've been to us. Thanks Geraldine and Chris!