and we're off!

last saturday, quinn and i were excited to get to go visit elisa, ezekiel, and malachi in virginia. john and i became great friends with john and elisa in boston - a friendship that was built on spending time praying for each other and quickly grew into lots of fun memories...some of our favorite boston memories. and now, about 4 years later, a lot has changed in our lives but we are still great friends who support each other, keep each other company when we need it, and pray for each other. and we have been blessed with 3 (almost 4!) beautiful babies who love spending time together too!

watching the airplanes and "dutch" (aka trucks) while we waited to board

watching a little Baby Signing Time on the plane

playing with blocks before church on sunday (not a great picture of either of them, but they were so cute playing together!)

all dressed and ready for church. look at those handsome boys!

happy boys ready to go on a walk

zek and quinn enjoyed lots of snacks together

and elisa did a great job of reading to the boys during snacktime - even the tongue twisters!

quinn was excited to hold malachi ("the baby" as he called him all week)

and he even tried to get malachi to play legos with them

the next morning we took the boys to the library and they had so much fun in the play area

and i got to snuggle with mr. malachi!

of course the boys played with trucks most of the time

sweet friends!

their yard was very well cared for while we were there. quinn mowed the grass and zek edged just about every morning. how cute are these two!quinn got in a little more time with malachi that night...good practice for him!

coloring together

every night, the boys listened to a bedtime story that john has recorded for ezekiel. john and elisa have done such a great job showing zek that he is loved by his daddy very much and that he's still a part of zek's life even though he's not there every day.

mowing the yard...again :)

zek had a virus for part of the time we were there, but thankfully he was better after a day of rest so the boys were able to enjoy one last day of playing before we had to leave.

they had fun going down the slide together

and even held hands on the way down...totally unprompted by us :). i am thankful that the boys bonded the way they did and i know they will look forward to spending more time together soon!

we got an extra hour with our friends because our flight was delayed. elisa, zek, and malachi were kind enough to stay at the airport with us, eat dinner, and run around while we waited for our plane to arrive. the boys had a great time playing chase and got in lots of extra giggles together while we waited!

we love you mabus family and are so thankful for our time with you. we are praying for all 4 of you and can't wait to see you again soon. thank you for your hospitality!!