Sacramento

I let Eddie take the lead on this trip to Sacramento to visit and stay with his college buddy, Jacob and his family. I didn’t really know the wife at all.   Our kids are not exactly quiet or clean, and they’ve got a long way to go on obeying “quickly, cheerfully and completely.” And I’ve kinda forgot how to be a friend since moving to Utah and having kids. Maybe I'm busy or the stage of life we're in or maybe it's Utah culture or maybe it's our expectations of depth in friendship.  Oh and our friends were fasting with their church and we really like (NEED) coffee. So yea, I was nervous to show up at their home , plop down for the long weekend, and be our loud selves. But I had a last minute thought just before we left that maybe we could be a blessing, just maybe we could give something. And maybe we need this too. And I remembered that Ed had sneaked onto my 40 before 40 list to “make a new friend.” A hope sparked.

To say the least, we had a wonderful time with the Cantu’s. Stephanie and Jacob are the most gracious and natural hosts. They went far out of their way to make us feel at home, sleep in their cozy bed, and drink their fancy coffee.  They never once judged our parenting or our misbehaved kids. We soaked in the depth of late night heart-to-hearts over whiskey and laughed and rolled our eyes at our mishaps and wild life turns.  We shared the comfort of God shaping our futures and we hope that those futures intertwine a bit more regularly. We got to exercise outside and were sweetly surprised by a break in the clouds and rain and were kissed by the sun's rays.  I feel like I'm suffocating in the smog in Salt Lake this winter, but this weekend the sunshine, green grass, and freshness after the rain were absolutely life giving to me.  We even got to join in their Jesus Culture church worship  (I got a visitor's mug!) and run into other friends from Hope in the City in Austin who church there.  And the sweetest of all, Berty kept calling Emma and Justus her "cousins" which just fits when your friends become family.   To say if Shep had a good time, well, he kept asking if we could stay for an entire year.  And me? Yes, I made a new friend.  

After we said our sad goodbyes, yes there were tears from Shep who really did want to stay for a year, we went to the airport to find that our flight was cancelled due to frozen runways in Salt Lake. How could this be? It was beautiful in Sac!  Nonetheless, we made the most of it and rode the bu into Old Sacramento.  We meandered the streets, ducked into coffee shops and walked across the bridge.  We ended up renting Uber bikes and riding around town to the state capital building.