Val was here midday Wednesday through this afternoon, and we had such a wonderful time together!

Before this trip I assumed we’d spend most of our time painting rocks, but we did so much more!

Wednesday

I picked Val up from the Milwaukee airport, and we went to the Third Ward to eat lunch and check out the shops. We got some new drawing books to try:

Val remet the indoor cats, then met all the outdoor cats. When we were outside the two planes that Steven flies flew over our house one after another. Val is SUCH a trooper for all my aviation talk this week. Eesh!

We painted, toured Steven’s warehouse, then got El Famous for dinner (naturally).

Thursday

We ran at Van Patten Woods. I love showing people our amazing preserve system!

It’s so lovely to run with a friend! It was cool when we started, then quickly heated up (it’s been in the 80s for a while here). We both already had headaches, but finished strong and rehydrated later and felt better.

Then more painting, and a picnic at the beach! The beach was gorgeous in the shade with the lake breeze.

We stopped at Starbucks to get the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai. Have you had it? SO SO GOOD.

Then we were off to mani/pedis! Val’s got done before mine so she sat and chatted with me and Lorena for a long time and I loved having two of my fave people meet each other and hit it off!

We had crunchwraps for dinner then painted a bit more and called it an early night because…

Friday

We went to the 5:00 am Lower Body class at WWM! Val kicked major butt. I’m proud of her! She loved class and wishes she could come more often (but… she lives in Denver, CO). I do too. I’d love if she found something like this by her. WWM is really special, but there has got to be more amazing places like this around the world.

After class we cleaned up and met my snis for lunch at Wildberry! She was in town for work in Chicago the night before and drove up to Libertyville to see us. We had a great time eating then doing some shopping. Our fun time together made me even more excited for our November Seattle trip together (with Tiff too!).

We had a little bit of time at home (painting!) when we got back, then left to meet Steven at the airport. We had originally planned to take Val on a flight Saturday am but it was showing that it would be windy, so Steven moved our reservation to Friday night.

We had a beautiful (although hazy) flight. We flew down to the city,

then along the state line to show Val what our neck of the woods looks like from above. It was fun pointing out the places we’d gone to from the sky!

We were so excited to have our first passenger!!!!!!!! And Val loved it!

We got pizza for dinner, then hung out and painted a bit.

Saturday

Since we no longer had Saturday plans we slept in a bit, then just painted all morning until I drove Val to the airport around 2:30! It was a perfect end to the trip, just sitting and chatting for most of the morning.

I’m so grateful Val came out. I suggested this trip to her because her husband Steve was flying out here for a skydiving event, and I was like “you could fly together and he’ll go to his thing and I’ll pick you up!” But then she booked a separate flight to a different airport, so she could get in earlier and fly to the airport closest to my house. I appreciate her so much! Our time together is always wonderful and this time was no different, except we were missing our other Musketeer, Tiff!

But really. I always feel so relaxed and happy when I am with Val (and Tiff) and after our time together. I’m so grateful for our friendship.