Friends from home...

In August and September after my parents returned home, we had another three or four weeks worth of out of town company. We hosted several great couples from the States who all came through London on their way various places. It was WONDERFUL to see dear friends, share our new city with them and catch up on all the latest news from back home. Some visits were low-key, others were a bit faster-paced. Sometimes we played tourist with them, other times we just handed them a map and let them explore on their own. Over all, it reminded me how lucky we are to be living in such a world-class city AND how fortunate we are to have such sweet friends who got to visit us here in our London home.

First in were Rick and Kara Kosloskus, on their way to Paris for a baby-moon... Kara was one of my earliest friends in Chicago - part of the Saturday morning girls group that became my first real home in the Windy City. Unfortunately, my camera was dead during their entire visit, but here's one of their shots of Rick and Brooks dancing and laughing together.


There was a lot of this that weekend. Rick is particularly fantastic with pre-schoolers, and Brooks is still asking about "Wick!" even almost four months later. We also enjoyed meeting some of Kara's friends who are living here in London expecting their first child, and we also did a bit of downtown strolling with them.

Tom and Susan Zidlicky, who were in a PCC small group with us, came through next on their way to Scotland with Tom's mom... Here's me and Susan and Brooks at the Tower of London.


We enjoyed a quick tour of the tower, complete with the Crown Jewels, and met Eric for lunch downtown. And then later in their visit, we took them to a tasty local Persian restaurant and then for a drop-in visit to the Waffle House - our favorite take-away dessert in London.


So, any of you former guests, are your mouths watering?!? And YES, Brooks already has some "locklet" on his mouth. He always asks Dada for a bite, because he already knows that Eric will give him more of the melty chocolatey goodness than I will!

Next were Troy, Elisa, and Lydia Van Voorhis, on their way to Spain for Troy's work conference. You may remember Troy from our wedding weekend, he's the funny MIT professor who tells good stories on Eric from their year of living together at Rice. Elisa and I have become dear friends through the yearly Rice Crew Reunion. Their daughter Lydia is a joy, so easy going! She and Brooks played quite well together and we enjoyed laying low and just catching up, a lot like our previous vacations with them. One outing took us to Regents Park to enjoy the flowers and the sunshine.


A bit later on, Lydia and Brooks shared a bath... everyone's all smiles before the pooping incident! :)


We had a busy few weeks, but such easy and welcome guests meant that hosting was treat, and not hectic! More photos to come of our visit with our last fall guests, my sister-in-law Molly and her husband, Trace.

And while discussing visitors from home, this week I found a favorite photo from back in the spring - this is my friend Katy from Nashville. She and Brooks are playing at our front window in March. The weather outside was chilly so she's blowing on the window and then drawing smileys in the fog for him. Too sweet!


We love living at an international cross-roads! We're taking reservations for 2009 - so, when are *you* coming through?! :)