A bucket-filling kind of weekend

This weekend is going to go down as one of my all-time favorites.  It was definitely a "bucket-filling" kind of weekend.  The weather has also been absolutely gorgeous, and it just made an amazing weekend even better.

Friday I was thrilled to be finished with working at school at 1 in the afternoon.  I spent a couple of hours at church, then Andrew and I drove to a restaurant where we could sit outside and enjoy the lake view.  Honestly, it was an absolutely delightful afternoon and evening.  It was the best way to start our weekend!

Yesterday Catherine arrived here just in time for us to head north.  We first visited my grandmother (after making a quick stop to see a former neighbor).  Grandma was doing the best I'd seen her in quite some time.  We then went to the graduation party for my cousin's son.  My aunt, the wife of my mom's brother, was there for a brief time.  I'll write my feelings about that another time.  My mom and sister, and a few other family members were there.  Thomas was working, but it was nice to spend the time with the family we could. We brought Catherine home, then went to yet another party.  It was for the daughter of a friend, and I absolutely adore this young lady.  She has been through so very much, and I am so very proud all she has overcome.  We were able to visit with our good friends here in town whom we haven't seen in entirely too long.  We were thrilled to spend hours at this party visiting with everyone!

This morning, the four of us went to church.  It was so very nice to have all of us in church together, which hadn't happened since August.  We then drove to visit my best-friend from high school.   Her daughter graduated and today was her party.  Steph and I have not only been friends for over thirty years, but we lived together after we graduated from college and before we were married.  Her parents moved away nearly twenty years ago.  It was so wonderful to see them again, as well as her siblings and their families.  Her nieces and nephews are all grown up, and I loved seeing them as well.  So many of our other friends were there as well, and some of them we hadn't seen in over two years thanks to COVID.  It was such a fabulous time visiting with everyone.  And of course, there was fabulous weather through all of this!

I've had a crazy couple of weeks, and this coming week is also a little crazy, but at the end of this week will be our vacation.  This weekend gave me exactly what I needed to get through it and ready to hit the road!