Our Favorite Swimming Hole and A Happy Homecoming!

Nathan Phillips came back this week from his long exile to Tyler, Texas. He spent two long months there getting trauma experience. We celebrated his return with a trip to our favorite swimming hole on Anderson Island. I am ashamed to say I have no idea what the poor lakes' name is. We just fondly refer to it as the swimming hole.

When I married Dave I was instantly "jealous" (it's the right word unfortunately) of his family's lasting friendships with other families. They have family friends, The Bennett's, in Henderson, Nevada that have been friends since the Dad's were in Dental school together! I wanted that. Moving around all your life, and being in a not so social family (sorry fam) can really make you crave a good friendship!

The Phillips family is that family for us. Dave and Nathan met while at OBC (officer basic course for you nonmilitary types). Dave was so lonely. He and Nathan totally bonded. And then we found out he was LDS and then we found out they were going to be stationed in Ft. Lewis with us. I can remember the first time I called Rachel on the phone to talk about our upcoming moves to Washington. I had just glued my foot to our kitchen chair (another story...). I felt a huge pressure that we HAD to be friends since our hubbies were now eternally bound as battle buddies.

We then spent the next year seeing each other through a long residency year. The church sisters were slow to accept us. (I like to say they lost interest when they found out we weren't BYU alumni...but in reality it was such a huge ward, we were just two more families to add to the mix and we were only staying for a year...maybe not worth the investment) Anyway, when we left we knew we would be back and that the Phillips family would still be there waiting. It was a huge relief.

While we were away for a year Rachel built our house in our absence. We kept in touch-not enough-and then we were back. Our house was right around the corner from them again. Now three years later we are that much closer. It's funny because we do most of our "stuff" with other families. Camping, hiking, canoeing ect... but when it comes to hanging out and just spending time the Phillips are always our "go to" people. We love to have dinner and a good game of Cities and Knights (Settlers of Catan) with them.

So when Nathan came home, it was like family came home. I was only too happy that Rachel was willing to share him with us. It was a perfect day. Family, friends, a beautiful lake and delicious ribs and corn casserole.