What a Weekend!
We had a great time here in Milwaukee last weekend as we had a crew of our Minnesota friends in to visit and all three couples brought babies with them! As some background, I still keep in close contact with a variety of people from high school, but there has been a gang of five of us who have been close since our days wandering the halls of Lakeville High School. Today, 12 years (!) after graduation two of us, myself and Josh Silva (married to Andrea), live here in Milwaukee while the other three, Chris Ellsworth (married to Brea), Josh Wilske (married to Grace) and Pete Feig (married to Emily, who was also a Panther), live in Minnesota. We’re all happily married (each playing well above the rim) and four of us have children (the Silvas have a dog, Nike) 13 months and younger.
Both we and the Silvas have purchased homes recently and the arrival of Elliott spurred the visit. They all got into town late Friday night and the first mass gathering of the babies happened in the Silva’s living room. Ethan (Josh and Grace’s 13-month old son) and Zachary (Pete and Emily’s 9-month old son) were all wound up from sitting in the car for 5 ½ hours so they came out guns blazing. Crawling everywhere, piling on top of each other and have a grand old time. Piper (Chris and Brea’s 8-month old daughter) had been in town for a few extra days but wasn’t to be left out from the fun. Elliott, at just nine weeks, was comfortably sleeping and couldn’t care less about the madness happening at carpet level.
Piper trying to figure out why her Mom is holding another baby...
Pete pointed out early on how now that we have kids, our gatherings will gravitate to the floor as we all watch, laugh and separate the kids as they roll around each other. His observation would be confirmed a number of times throughout the weekend. We didn’t stay too late Friday night but the festivities continued Saturday.
With Piper (she likes to stand)
Kari and Zachary
Pete and Elliott
The group met at our house for lunch and the kids were reunited. We moved everything in our entertainment center above three feet to protect it from Zach - one of his favorite things to do is to crawl to furniture and pull himself up to stand and grab. Ethan is able to go down stairs so him and his Dad took a trip (intentional) down our stairs as we have about twice the amount that the Wilske’s split level has. His smile going down made me appreciate the wonder of stairs all over again. Elliott got in the act by laying on her activity mat in the midst of it all. Piper and Ethan both joined in on the fun by tugging on her mat’s various hanging sea creatures.
Elliott and Ethan playing on the activity mat!
Piper and Zachary getting in on the activity mat action
We then ventured back to the Silva’s house (after a few naps mixed in for good measure) for a BBQ and to enjoy the night. The party moved from the carpet to the grass in the backyard. We finally got a group photo of all the kids together (Nike even joined in!) and just had an all around great night of cornhole, good food, cold beer and great friends.
It was a weekend full of moments where you step back and really appreciate your life and how things have progressed. It really is remarkable for this group to still be such good friends and still be so close after all these years and all the miles we’ve all traveled. We spent countless hours in high school and college playing basketball, volleyball, video games and cards. We didn’t let the fact that we were going to schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Massachusetts get in the way. We all met wonderful women and they have all become friends along the way. Now we’re starting our families and it was amazing to see our kids “playing” together now.
The Kids (from left): Nike, Piper, Elliott, Ethan, Zachary
We joked around that our kids don’t have a choice about being friends so we’re starting them young. Two boys and two girls - Piper was happy to have Elliott join the gang so she was no longer outnumbered - now it’s up to the Silvas to break the tie. Right now the developmental differences are pretty profound, but in reality they are all essentially the same age. Elliott and Piper will be in the same grade (we’ll see which class Zachary ends up in with his August birthday) and Ethan will be the “old” one as he’s a whole 3-4 months older than Zach and Piper and ten months older than Elliott.
As a father, it was crazy to see the kids as they all seemed so big compared to Elliott, but I remembering holding all of them when they were her size. To think about her being that big, or her crawling all over the place or even walking is almost too much to think about. Right now, time with Elle is measured in days as she always seems to be reaching milestones or having a “first.” Kari mentioned to me how proud she felt just to see our daughter amongst all these other wonderful kids - it really was a special weekend.
I feel so blessed and so lucky to have friends like these in my life. To keep any friend for 10 - 15 years is remarkable, and to have a group this large manage to stay together is wonderful. As our lives continue to get more complicated with marriages, houses and children, we’ve managed to stay close and include all the wonderful new parts of our lives in our friendship. To my good friends - thanks so much for making the trip, can’t wait to see you again!