Summer sun and friendly fun
There were people and tubes floating the Swan River on Sunday afternoon, and as they passed by me, they passed by my friend and her two boys snorkeling in the current.
They were looking for drowned treasures, all three of them. At first it started with the boys, and then my friend couldn’t take it anymore and had to join them.
Watching from the shore was the rest of the crew, laughing and enjoying the view of three heads bobbing in the river.
Like mother, like children.
It’s a family I used to spend at least three nights a week with when I lived in Missoula, and am lucky to see once a month now.
Maybe you have to know them like I do, but something about that just made me smile. Something about the whole day made me happy from the inside out.
My friends, one with her two kids and dog in tow and one with just a dog, came up to the Flathead for the Keller Williams show on Saturday night and stayed with my fellow Flathead Valley friend and I till Sunday evening.
It was a good dose of familial heaven, ears to talk into and words to drink in from sources close to my heart. A heart that misses its fill of weekly friendships, now must be content with the occassional weekend night and day after.
Like so many other friendships that were eventually split by distance, the time we spend together becomes treasured.
And it almost feels untouchable. The more time we spend together, the further away life becomes. And unfortunately the aftermath is a mixture of both heartache and renewal.
Perhaps part of that is the late night and the full day of emotional chatting that comes afterward. A catching up of the deeper stuff in life, the stuff you don’t just talk to anyone about, that leaves you thinking differently after you’ve spoken with someone who really knows you.
But then again, it could also be the laughter and inside jokes that could keep you going for hours on the same tangent.
There’s just some connection between a zebra striped cowboy hat, an inflatable inner tube, and huge sunglasses that was perfect and hilarious to the three of us friends on the Swan River Sunday afternoon.
And after we moved to The Raven, because we just had to extend our time together, we laughed at my friend’s kids as we watched them try out a paddleboard on Flathead Lake.
It wasn’t their board, of course, and the chair they attempted to set on top of the board and proceeded to try and sit on wasn’t theirs either. But luckily the neighbors thought it was entertaining too.
We ate, drank and took a dip in the water, and as the sun started to set we realized how late it was getting and the drive ahead of my Missoula friends hit home, so we said our goodbyes.
I realize now though that it’s not just the thought of my friends that makes me so happy, it’s the thought of summer. Water, sun, drinks, food, activity and good company.