Friendship

Will and I have always been a couple that has loved spending time with friends... (don't get me wrong, we also adore alone time) but there is something so special about maintaining and growing lifelong friendships. Will and I were lucky enough to start dating in High School and we had a really great tight nit group of friends who we still talk to today. Since Remi is visiting right now, it always brings me back to 16... almost 10 years ago! I think your High School friends keep you honest.. Ours have seen us transform from an awkward track couple to a couple that has been married almost three years with an almost two year. Crazy.

In college we both, again, formed a close group surrounded around common interests.... My girlfriends are all Gamma Phis- the best sorority at Wisconsin (sorry Bern! just kidding!) and Will has a group of college friends that formed through track/cross country.... (and we are lucky enough to be stationed with some of them now here in Hawaii!). These friends know us so well... I think they saw both of us embrace adulthood and encouraged us along the way. College was a time of enormous growth for me and I was so happy to spend those best four years with my girlfriends. And all of us traveled around Europe our Junior year of college. Amazing.

Army friendships are the "new friends" in life. I think finding "battle buddies" (or those who will help you when you are in a pickle during a loooong deployment) are essential to the lifestyle we live. Spouses come and go with long training sessions, deployments, etc. and you just need that additional support network. I have the best Hawaiian Ohana in my neighborhood and on the North Shore; we will help each other with anything! Ha during the deployment some of them might have helped me smash my house window to break in after a long "locked out" session. See, true friendship! I also have a great group of Mommy Friends who I adore spending time with; these are the friends who you can talk endlessly with about kid stuff. An important topic to all moms and really only moms. These are the ones that can relate to my day to day life with Toddler H.

Anyway, having Rem here just makes me reflect on the importance of maintaining friendships. Thank goodness for social media, airplanes, cell phones, and emails because I feel like I chat with most of my friends (or see their status updates!) all the time. And we have been lucky enough to have a couple visit us here in Hawaii!

I had to include a couple of Remi and us over the years! 

I am sure I have tons more but these are the only ones I could find in a quick search.

College Friends!

These were my lovely ladies from Flight School. I was so lucky to spend that 1.5 years with them and I so hope our army journey reunites us at some point. 

(and yes, I have a huge pregnant stomach in this photo!)

and.. I was just looking for photos of all of my Hawaii friends. I don't seem to have many photos of all of us, so that will be my goal at our next gathering.

and what are Remi, Harps, and I doing this afternoon? Rem started the day with a long bike ride and this afternoon we are going to start baking bread and check out the Dole Plantation. Baking Bread is one of Remi's specialties so we are looking forward to learning his technique. 

Rem looking at cookbooks. 

xoxo,

allie