Kelsey visits!

Oh do I LOVE my friend Kelsey. We have now been friends for nearly 20 years. She lives in Denver now, and MAN am I glad she didn't end up going "all the way" in being a nun. I jokingly call her my "almost nun friend" which doesn't offend her so that's good. I love what being a sister was for Kelsey and the nine years she spent in the convent. But I missed her. What a commitment it is to the family of people who commit their life to Christ.

Last night (Sunday), we decided to take Kelsey down to Knoxville a bit early. Her flight was scheduled for Monday morning. But between a projected snow storm for East TN and so many flights having been cancelled in the last ten days or soon due to an omicron-variant-covid-spread which is causing staff to be out of work, we really weren't sure she'd get out on Monday morning -- especially if we had to drive the 1:15 from Bulls Gap.

So instead, we went to Knoxville as a family with Kelsey after church on Sunday. (First we made sure we squeezed in a game of Wingspan!! Kelsey loves this game as much as I do. Abigail has also come over and is really getting into it with us. We played a ton of games while she was here.) We made a stop at a flea market where Isaac did some HotWheel car hunting (where Kelsey bought the girls some Australian Shepherd socks), found an aquarium store for Sidge's newfound passion, and then went to dinner at a first for the kiddos: A Brazilian Steakhouse! Quite expensive and not something you do very often, but what FUN!

Afterwards, we took Kelsey to her hotel outside of the Knoxville airport and said good bye. here are some last-minute snapshots in the hotel:

And here are a few photos recollecting our time together. MAN do I love this girl! She is truly a bosom friend of mine. While playing Apples2Apples (another favorite of our family that we played two times with Kelsey), Hannah became very determined to create "proper" bunny ears:

We also took TWO nearly five mile walks while Kelsey was here. The weather was Uh-maz-ing. A little rainy when she first got here, but in the 60's and even 70 while she was here. It ended quickly though with our snow storm!

Anni and Erin joined us for dinner one evening. Little Erin loved Ms. Kelsey: