A Weekend in February

Wow. It has been longer than I thought since I last posted. Sorry about that. It seems that it is incredibly difficult for me to be motivated to upload pictures. Something about the process is agonizing for me. Probably due to the fact that I have the patience of a two year old, and I hate waiting for them to finish uploading. It seems like it takes h o u r s. It only takes 15 minutes. Why must I be so annoying to myself?  Thank you Lauren, for the kick I needed.
So. February. That was quite the month. My best friend came for a visit. My sister(s) came for a visit. We had a party. We had professional family pictures taken in the rain. I got to see my best friend for a good amount of time + play with her adorable little girl. We all got sick. We watched a TON of M*A*S*H.
Where to start? I guess at the beginnig of the list. My friend Jessi is a talented photographer who lives in Seattle WA. She grew up here, and her family lives here, and they  know a lot of people who wanted to have family pictures taken. So she came down for a week + a couple extra days, to catch up with her family and take pictures for people. I was so excited that she was coming! I don't get to see her often.
Lauren was also coming that weekend, and we had been looking forward to it since Christmas.  Kerri decided to surprise us, and she flew into Portland, and drove down with Lauren. Mom and Dad were the only ones that knew she was coming, and I about had a heart attack when she walked through the door. She could only be here for the weekend, so we didn't get a ton of time together, but it was very nice to see here again.
We had been wanting to do a game night with all our old youth group for a long time, but hadn't been able to find a time for everyone to get together. When we knew 2 months in advance that Lauren would be here, we got in touch with everyone, and planned one. It worked out perfectly that Kerri was here, it was a great way for everyone to see her again. It was so good to be with the old group again! It had been almost 3 years since we had all been toether. We were missing a few, but the majority of us were there.
When Kerri showd up, I texted Jess, and asked if she could fit our family pictures into her shcedual. We hadn't had pictures taken professionaly since I was 13-ish. It is really nice to have a beautiful, updated portait hanging on our wall. The weekend that Kerr was here, it was very gray and wet. When we took the pictures, we had to do it in between heavy downpours. Poor Jess. She had her work cut out for her!  We took the pictures down in a wooded area behind our house, so there was a lot of cover over our heads, the branches did a decent job of blocking the water.  We still got pretty wet, though. By the time were done, my hair was dripping, and our clothes were soaked! I love how they turned out though, Jess did such a great job!
I was able to spend some time with her after she was through with her picture sessions, and it was so nice to be able to catch up with her! Her daughter, Aeralise, is so precious. I love her to pieces. She is so adorable, and smart! I was amazed at how much she knew, and how much she talked! Jess had to translate for me, but I was able to understand some of her words.
A few weeks later, I got sick, and then Mom got sick, and then Meg got sick. We spent a good solid week in our pajamas, wrapped in quilts, and watching a lot of M*A*S*H.
I'm going to use this as a summary of the weekend, and post the pictures after, seperated into activities.