Meeting the Hubachers in Savannah

Our friendship with the Hubachers goes all the way back to our time spent traveling full-time.    How our kids formed great friendships in just the blink of an eye is nothing short of miraculous! And...how they have actively maintained those friendships over the last two and a half years is amazing!  When Katie was born, they made the trek cross-country to come see us & meet our little miracle.  Now that we're living much closer, we decided to meet up somewhere in the middle over a long weekend. Having agreed upon Savannah, we began to make our plans.

When the Hubachers finally arrived on Saturday afternoon, it was so cute to see how some of their kids were amazed that we had coincidentally ended up in Savannah, at the same place, at the same time as them! ;) They had opted to completely surprise their kids about meeting up with us, while we had opted to tell our kids in advance. Both ways worked for both families!

The remainder of Saturday & Sunday consisted of much, much play! Thanks to Shannon's Marine status, she was able to secure a hotel room for us on base, which was super nice! Unfortunately, while she & Steve were getting checked in, Katie threw up in her seat.  The remainder of the weekend for her was spent on the puny side, with more puking & generally not feeling herself.  Fortunately, that didn't ruin the fun for the other kids! Jake, Genna, Philip, Levi, & David all played war endlessly outside the hotel rooms, while the big girls holed up in their own hotel room getting reacquainted & doing girly stuff!

While I stayed back with a sick Katie, everyone else took a drive around base & got the chance to do a little rope climbing. Steve offered monetary rewards for those who climbed. There was a frayed rope hanging about 2 feet from the top. Anyone who could touch the frayed rope would earn $5. Most everyone tried, but Rachel and Alyssa were the only ones who won the reward.

Later in the day we met up at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens  with some of the Hubachers' old friends who live in the area.  It's definitely still in the planning stages, but it will be amazing when it's complete! The kids had a blast running around, but their favorite part was climbing the giant dirt piles! Watching them all scramble when Shannon cried, "Snake!" was pretty priceless. ;)

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we said our goodbyes. It was a short but fun visit! 

Sleeping beauty at the park while waiting for the Hubachers

The girls were excited to see each other

Shannon helping Phillip and Genna copy what the big kids were doing

Dwight and Phillip relaxing after dinner in their hotel room

Drawing and makeup were the main activities in the girls room

"Someone" loves playing with makeup

Phillip and David in front of a Vietnam-era attack helicopter

Nearly everyone took the rope climbing challenge

Shannon showing off the proper technique to rope climb, leaving her with some battle wounds on her feet

Rachel touched the frayed rope and won a $5 dollar reward

Alyssa also won a $5 reward

The fruit of the child tree is almost ready for harvest

Climbing dirt piles was the kids favorite thing about the botanical gardens