Furore and Frenzy

We had the pleasure of hosting our friend Cornelia (Nell) this weekend. We’ve known Nell for years and spent many summers working together at 4-H Camp before we all moved on to college, marriage, and most recently children.

Nell made the trip from Webster, NY (near Rochester) with her son Owen. Her husband Jason opted to stay home. Who could blame the guy for a weekend to himself?

We hadn’t seen Nell since her wedding two summers ago which also means that in that time her son Owen was Catherine’s current age, Catherine was a mere 10 months old and Max wasn’t here yet.

We had a great visit. The kids played wonderfully together. Owen was excited to have other children to play with, and Max was very excited to have an older boy around to follow. Owen taught him how to catch (and we think possibly kill) a toad, how to catch and release a grasshopper, how to build with K’nex, and how to play hide and seek. In return Owen learned that girls are VERY dramatic, that younger siblings steal your toys and hide them, and that little guys Max’s size like to bite and hit without provocation.

The adults spent two late nights reminiscing, having drinks, and catching up as though nothing had ever changed. We noted that 4-H Camp relationships are strange creatures. We were used to working together in the summer and then spending a large portion of the year being nowhere near one another. I think that’s part of the reason those friendships have withstood the test of time. Unlike college and high school friendships that relied on your ability to see each other regularly, camp people were used to picking up their friendships right where they left off. We also all worked together while working with children…is it any wonder that most of our friends with kids are also camp people?

We were sad to see Nell and Owen leave this morning but confident that our friendship will only continue to mature as we do.

Tags: family, friends

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 11:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.