the story of two Veronica's

Several months ago I came across a new weekly blog hop called 'McLinky Blog Hop' run by Brent Riggs from The Riggs Family Blog. It's a pretty cool idea in that it's a great tool to help you build and promote your blog. Since hundreds of blog owners participate weekly, you're bound to find a new blog or two to follow and maybe a friend in the process. I was lucky enough to find both.

During my very first week participating in the blog hop, I was scanning through the hundreds of posted blog links and one in particular caught my eye. It was entitled 'The Veronica Blog'. I immediately clicked on it and began reading. It was nice to read about a Christian mother who had recently rekindled her relationship with Christ all because of a blog she had started reading, it was 'Kelly's Korner'. Not only that, I thought it was pretty darn cool that we both had the same name. So I decided to leave her a comment telling her how I enjoyed her blog and that I was adding her to my blog roll.

Within the next couple days, Veronica commented back and mentioned how she thought it was cool that I lived in California like her because most of the blogs she comes across are from people who live in other states no where near California. As we got to chatting, I realized that she lived near one of my dearest friends named Bethany and I had been to a few places she had been to recently that she had blogged about. One place in particular that I hadn't been to was Avila Valley Barn. After reading her post of her fun filled day out with her girls, sister and niece, I really wanted to go! So I immediately thought of October...FALL! That would be the perfect time to head down there for a day visit with Bethany and maybe meet Veronica along the way.

So yesterday was the day and after a long drive, we finally arrived at Bethany's house around 2pm. Evan was in need of a major nap so we put him down and had a nice lunch with Bethany and her husband Nate. Around 4:00 or so we woke Evan from his nap and I gave Veronica a call to let her know we were heading to the barn soon and if she and her family wanted to meet up it would be so fun!

As we arrived it as clear that it was very busy. The parking lot was filled with cars and there were people everywhere. There was a huge wall of pumpkins stacked up and little ones and their families were picking out their pumpkins and having a good time. Around the back side of the barn there were all kinds of different animals to look at and Evan enjoyed pointing at them and laughing. It was really cute. After looking at the animals and snapping a few photos, we headed inside the barn and it was so cute! I absolutely loved it! There was a farmer's market, candy shoppe and a little store with fun baking tools, cookbooks, kitchen ware and so much more! It was too bad there were so many people otherwise we could have looked around a little longer but I loved it!

After leaving the barn, we went out front to take some pictures in front of the pumpkins and suddenly I hear, "Hi, it's Veronica!". I look up and there she was! Veronica from 'The Veronica Blog'! It was so exciting! I went up and gave her a hug and said hello to her little ones and her hubby. I introduced them to Bethany and Nate and to Ben and Evan. It was so fun! I had never met anyone I had met online before so this was all new. It was so funny because Veronica and I both admitted that we were a little nervous about our meeting but we just jumped right in and it was like we were friends for years! We chatted about our kids, church, friends and everything! Did I mention it was fun?

After chatting for a bit, we decided to walk over to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins and take some pics. I got some great photos of Veronica and her family, Bethany and Nate and of Ben and Evan. I loved it! At that point it was getting a little late so Bethany suggested we head over to this great pizza place and have dinner together, so that's what we did. We ordered pizza and just sat around the table and chatted and laughed and well...just had fun! The only bad thing was that Evan had caught a cold earlier in the day and he was getting very cranky and just plain not feeling well so we decided to call it a day. I was a little sad because I knew that our meeting with Veronica and her family was coming to an end and I didn't want it to. We were just having so much fun. I really wish we lived closer because I really think Veronica and I would be great friends. It just clicked so well.

As we walked out of the restaurant, Veronica reminded me that we hadn't taken a picture together yet so we stood in front of the restaurant doors and snapped this photo:



Although it was a very long day for Ben, Evan and I, we had a wonderful time.Veronica is a very special person whom I'm honored to call a friend.