This last weekend, Tom and I finally made it up to Indiana to see some close friends of ours. The four of us met in Iowa while Kate and I were working at Iowa State. Tom and Jordan started “The Husband Club.” So naturally the four of us became fast couple friends.

If you have hung around the blog at all, you know that our transition into the Army life has not been all roses and rainbows. Despite the struggles, we are making the best of it and are not quitters. We still put all that we are into the things we have here. There are days, however, when you lose hope and pieces of yourself.

This weekend gave us both a boost that we desperately needed. It reminded us of things and reignited our hope for our future.

(Nothing like a road trip in the middle of no-where to talk about your dream house, especially when someone insists that we take back roads the whole way there. We did successfully make it there by only using an atlas, so there is something we have going for us.)

Being able to spend time with Kate and Jordan was just the refresher that we needed. We were able to relax and chat about nonsense. It was great to be in a college town again, which is something we didn’t realize we missed so much. There is just something in the air in college towns:  always living the dream and pursuing even bigger dreams. It is really energizing (or we are both just huge college nerds…)

They were the greatest hosts who showed us around the area and provided us with great meals and fantastic company. And I am not sure our dogs wanted to leave their cute window filled home.

We hopped up to Indianapolis for a night to see a minor league baseball game. Who doesn’t love baseball and hotdogs?

We had a wonderful Easter brunch including a grown up Easter egg hunt.

I will say that this brunch will always make me chuckle because Tom and I go from Army talk on a normal basis to this brunch where it was mostly doctoral students talking about their trips and plans of study. Two different worlds…

Sometimes you just need little reminders that things will be OK. (God is good like that.)

And sometimes you just need randomness to take stress away and reconnect with those around you.

This was the perfect change of pace for us.

Tom did not win the egg hunt despite his best efforts.

Kate got the most, but she didn’t manage to find any eggs with stuff in it.

We had such a great weekend. And many thanks to our friends for letting us crash in their abode for a few days. Hopefully, we will not wait as long until the next time we reunite.