Blog friends. For real.

The past two months have been downright delightful… for many reasons… but for one in particular that I want to share with you today.

The last two months have been amazing because I’ve gotten to meet and hang out with so many of my blog friends in person.

Notice I didn’t say “I got to see my blog friends in real life” because blogging IS real life people. It’s not like when I blog I go through a wardrobe and write posts for my faun friends in Narnia. My blog friends are my real friends. It just so happens that most of them live far away from me and we communicate mostly through social media, text messages, and email. Oh wait, almost all my friends {blog or not} live far away from me and we communicate via social media, email, and text messages… that’s the way real life works.

So since August, I’ve gotten to meet one amazing blog friend after another and I’m just ecstatic about it. And don’t go all 1990s on me and freak out saying “You met your ‘internet friends’ in person?! You stayed the night at a blog friend’s house?!?” Yes, yes I did. And it was really fun. Welcome to 2012.

Here was the spectacular line-up of blog friend goodness:

My sister and I road-tripped from Washington to Arizona. You can read about it here. On our first night, we stayed with my darling friend Jenna. She lives in Utah; I live in Arizona. We have been dreaming of meeting up forever… The road trip gave me the perfect reason to hit up Jenna’s hood. My sister and I stayed the night at her house, talked family, faith and trashy reality TV. I got to meet her husband and her adorable son, Davis. She introduced me to Kneaders and amazing $4 French toast, and she sent my sister and me on the road with some new arm candy from her shop Neon and Nude. It was so fun!

The very next night of our road trip we stayed at our grandma’s house in Vegas. Well, you know I couldn’t spend a night in Nevada without seeing my friend, Jessi. She met my sister and me for dessert at BJ’s Brewhouse, so please imagine us inhaling a pizookie while we talked about our faith, families, etc. etc. Love this woman and her heart and that precious baby inside her belly!

A few weeks ago, I went to Texas. I knew my friend Caroline lived in Fort Worth, but I didn’t really know if I would have time to meet up with her on such a short trip to my college town with so much already on my agenda for the weekend. Well, the Lord had other plans. My very first night there I went to a benefit concert at a local brewery. I’m standing there talking to my best friend when out of the corner of my eye I see a tall, beautiful brunette wearing a paper bag skirt. Is it Caroline? There is a man standing next to her that looks just like her husband according to my Instagram knowledge. “What do I do?” “Do I go and talk to her?” “Is it really her?”  The Aggie ring on her husband’s hand confirms it to me and I go in the for the kill… meaning I go up to her and tap her on the shoulder. We freak out. We hug. We chat for the next 20-30 minutes. Thankfully, her husband is already friends with a bunch of my friends and she is now going to my old church. I foresee lots of other Fort Worth reunions with Caroline in the future!

And, finally, a sweet reunion. If you guys haven’t figured it out yet, Heather is my best blogging friend in the whole wide world. We may have met through blogging, but if we knew each other in a world without computers we would still be kindred spirits. Thankfully, we only live about two hours apart and can sneak in a visit to each other every few months or so. Our most recent visit two weeks ago was the BEST because I finally got to meet Heather’s brand new baby girl, Eden Grace!!! I rushed to the gym on my way home from work so I could get a quick workout in before Heather, Josh and baby showed up at my house. Heather was surprised when she arrived to see me freshly showered with make-up on my face and a cute outfit on, rather than the gym clothes or PJs I typically wear past 5pm every single night of my life. I just looked at her and said “You know I had to primp for my photo shoot with Eden, right?” It’s true. I blow dried my hair faster than I ever have in my life to capture some Instas with that sweet babe! I love Heather, love her hubs, love her daughter. I’m so blessed to have her in my life… In fact, this month marks our one year anniversary of meeting in person. Read about our first “internet date” here!

So that’s it. My blog friends. I love them. I wished they all lived right next door to me. No, really I do. I have met the most amazing women on the Internet and I am blessed to have them in my life. They just live tooooo far away. I can’t wait for my next blog friend meeting. I love real life.