in real life

Sometimes following through on a crazy idea really pays off.

A couple months ago Kim and Michelle were planning a last-minute rendezvous via Twitter (lucky ducks live really close to each other!) and I jumped in and voiced my jealousy that I couldn't participate. They were both quick to point out I should just hop in my car and head south. So in January I sent them an email with the subject line "Where I invite myself over to your house." And then on Friday I went ahead and jumped in my car and headed south.

And it was awesome.

We ate a lot of food. We shopped at antique malls and thrift stores. We squeezed in lots of puppy snuggling! We saw each other's houses in real life for the first time (AND LOVED THEM).

We talked about houses and husbands and paint colors and puppies and jobs and dreams and what we liked to eat.

And we laughed.

And we snuggled puppies again.

Without a doubt, the people are my absolute favorite part of blogging. The relief of knowing we're not the only ones tiling until late at night, or spending our date nights at Home Depot. Getting a "you can do it!" over Twitter when I'm so done with the mess and the chaos. I love the community this creates. But taking it offline and bringing it into real life has to be a million times better. Or at least it is when you're hanging out with these two ladies. (Plus, their puppies were even cuter in real life.)

This weekend was so.much.fun. The seed has been planted for a sequel to the story up here in Minnesota, so I'm hoping to coerce them to come visit me soon. Feel free to encourage them to that end in the comments.

Kim and Michelle, thanks for introducing me to your hometown and hosting an incredible weekend! I'm so glad we made it happen and can't wait for the next one.

Check out Kim's post about the weekend here and Michelle's post about the weekend here. All photos are courtesy of Kim, because we only took 3 pictures the entire weekend between the three of us. And by "between the three of us" I mean Kim took 3 pictures. I carried my camera around the entire time but failed to take a single picture. Impressive!

Have you ever arranged a meet-up with another blogger? Were their puppies as cute as Ike, Franco and Lola?