tara in kc

last weekend, one of my dreams came true...one of my very best friends came to visit.

tara and i are like two peas in a pod. we have the same organizational tendencies, we think alike and we just 'get' each other. which is part of the reason i often seek her advice. we met my freshman year of college on a mission trip to croatia. our friendship started with an adventure and we've been having them ever since.

i've been able to make quite a few visits to the arden family over the years, but this was the first time tara's been able to come visit me. matt graciously offered to take on the role of single dad for five whole days to give his wife some time away and make my dream come true.

the preparations

the first couple of days of our visit were pretty relaxing. tara's only request was that she could stay in her bed as late as she wanted. and she took that pretty seriously. we went out to eat with the birthday coupons i scored for her, walked around the neighborhood, had a girls night out with missy and kim. it also just so happened that there were some very important baseball games being played on those days and she graciously spent the evenings cheering on the cardinals with me.

missy, tara and shelly @ mccormick and schmick's for the end of

game six...note my white rally napkin on the left side of the photo

saturday we ignored the staying in bed rule and woke up bright and early for a road trip down to bolivar to relive the glory days. it just so happened to be homecoming weekend at sbu so we got in on some of the festivities. we watched the parade and strolled around campus, telling stories and reminiscing before heading over to jackie and clint's for a mini reunion of sorts. we ate dinner, had a bonfire and proceeded to play mafia until 3:30 in the morning. it was just like college...except for the little kids sleeping all over the house.

@ the sbu alumni soccer game

we managed to squeeze in lunch with tara's family in springfield before heading back to kc for our last night. along with some good conversation, our evening consisted of tara helping me light the ear candles she brought me...during which time we may or may not have accidentally lit the carpet on fire just a little.

it was a fabulous weekend. i can't even explain how thankful i am for her visit and for our friendship. i really don't know what i'd do without her!