Visitors from afar

Our dear friends Julie and Chevy are visiting.  We have been friends for nearly 15 years and have sustained this friendship over three continents and great distances, but each and every time we get together it feels like we last saw each other just last week.

We met in Melbourne, Australia in 1999 and the four of us just clicked.  Our children connected and the next 3 years we spent some good times together. It was however, in 2002 when we both had moved to Salt Lake City, Utah - for work - that our friendship blossomed.  Both living in a new place and experiencing new things, meant we spent a lot of time together.

Our move back to Australia and Julie and Chevy's subsequent move to Canada and onto Mongolia has meant that our wonderful Friday Pizza nights together have become less frequent, but the friendship more special.

We last saw Julie in November last year, when she was able to fly down to Los Angeles and share a day with us in Disneyland - how fortuitous that she was in Canada when we were in the USA.

Julie and I together in Disneyland

These last few days have been wonderful - we have caught up on heaps of laughs, shared a few tears and caught up on life in general.  Good friends are one of the greatest blessings in life and Julie and Chevy are our very best friends

A few special moments:

Julie brought me this beautiful felt hat to cover my bald head this coming winter.

 

Chevy and Ivan - toasting with Mongolian Vodka - a special friendship - forged in Copper

 

My friend - rubbing my fuzzy head for luck !

 

The birthday girl with Chevy

 

When Sarah was a little 2 year old - Chevy was her favourite person in the world - now at 16 - she is not so sure!

 

And this is Chevy's "little lady" - this is what Sarah used to call Julie - my friend

 

Our bird-life is the dream of every photographer - so Julie had fun with her zoom lens.

 

And our tropical setting swimming pool - proved a delight for them both - a change from -30 degrees to +30 degrees.

 

And to salute a long friendship - an evening of whiskey tasting by the boys - they both love whiskey and Ivan decided to try out a number of different bottles with Chevy.  It was amazing in a blind taste test that they both ranked and rated the whiskeys in the same order. 

 

So here is to friendship - the trials and tribulations of life and the joy of having people in your life who will stand by you and share your troubles, but more importantly your successes.