Erick’s cousin Niki got married on Saturday so his parents & sister came up from California for the festivities.  Joshua had a great time playing with his “shortest Grandma & Grandpa,” as he’s started affectionately calling them.  They all had fun hanging out with him as well—what’s not to enjoy, though?  Joshua was pretty well-behaved (at least for a 3-year-old) at the wedding, only needing Erick to take him out a couple of times during the ceremony.  Those times were pretty much because he wanted to stand up in the front with Bailey & Dawson, who were the flower girl & ring bearer.  At the reception, Joshua was happy to run around & play on the dance floor.  We finally met Erick’s youngest cousin Samantha, who is a few months younger than Joshua.  Josh went up to Sammy to give her a big hug but she wasn’t quite ready to be hugged by a strange kid so she started crying.  In trying to comfort her, Joshua hugged her again & he just didn’t realize why that didn’t work!  The whole rest of the time, Sammy would run away from Joshua or hold her hand behind her back so he couldn’t grab ahold of it.  It was hilarious to watch them interact!  Joshua was so excited to get to dance with “Princess Niki” during the dollar dance (with me standing close by just in case).  He had the biggest smile on his face, like he was so special that she was dancing with him.  It was a very long day & by the time we got back home, it was nearly 11pm so Joshua slept very well that night.

The next morning, we got together with Norman, one of Erick’s best friends from high school, at a park.  We got to meet Norman’s wife & their cute little baby, Charlie.  It was nice to catch up since we haven’t seen each other since our wedding over 9 years ago.  I enjoyed watching the guys pushing their sons on the swings & wondering if they ever imagined they’d be doing that back when they were kids.  Then last night, a college friend of Erick’s (Rick), was up in Seattle visiting family so we got together with him & his family as well.  How funny that we had such a blast from the past twice in one week after not having seen these guys in many, many years!  Again, what a wonderful perk of finally living back on the this side of the country (although we still miss our Maryland friends a lot!).