wiggle room: kindred spirits, soul sisters, and so much more.

everything went wrong, and yet everything was exactly right. our trip to the waterfall was cut short due to a crying baby and slightly ambitious dreams to fit all eight people onto three bicycles, it rained on the neighborhood petting zoo party, and we visited the apple orchard on a "no apple picking" day. peter choked on a hot dog, and quinn woke up nearly every hour, every night.

but, the missed waterfall led to a stop at the dam, with its barges and elevators and long ramps and waving captains, and our little boys' hearts swelled with glee. the rained out petting zoo resulted in shared conspiracies to watch another caillou on the ipad, and probably a dinosaur train, too. the "no apple picking" rule at the apple orchard didn't apply to those deep bins of honeycrips in the barn, which was all our boys wanted anyway. and peter, well, peter was okay, and anne's heart will be too, though maybe it isn't yet today.

and quinn. quinn, in all her indescribable beauty and cuteness and serenity and smiles, was driving mommy off the deep end with her nighttime nursing. five times on friday night, six on saturday. and then, anne and i treated ourselves to a special mommy-only dinner on sunday night, which, in itself, renewed my heart and soul in a way that only a dinner with anne could. during this dinner, during which the dads cared for and put the children to bed, something mysterious and unspeakable occurred. it's a secret tom, colin, and quinn will take to the grave, and i believe involved some crying, but lo and behold: quinn now sleeps. nearly through the night. it's incredible. i might survive, afterall.

there's a bigger story here, though, than the events of the weekend, which were, in themselves, legendary. the bigger story is about friendship; friendship in multiple shapes and depths and people. friendship of the heart, which is the best kind, the most real kind, maybe the only kind. the kind of friendship that makes it all worthwhile, the kind that life is all about.

there's me and anne, of course, and tom and colin, and adam and will, and petey and quinn, but then there's also will and anne, petey and me, tom and quinn, and adam and colin, and so on and so on. in small moments and big moments, brief hugs and full on kisses, friendship bloomed and flourished and touched us all.

it's hard to write about, hard to fully capture, because there's an element of the experience, or, more specifically, of the experience of my friendship with anne, which has, for the most part, existed in writing, and has involved and required examining the deepest parts of our worlds and beings; there's an element of it all that surpasses words. it surpasses language. it just is, we just are, and that's the way it is. and it's pretty awesome.

here are a few photos from our weekend in saint paul.