Who’d a Thunk?

Have you ever hung out with a family for years on end?  Played together, grown up together, cried together, vacationed together, through thick and thin?  And, what if that family happened to have kids the same age as your own kids?  And what if some of their kids were girl kids and some of your kids were boy kids?

I think it would be understandable, even NATURAL if the moms (who are inclined toward this kind of thing) kind of started thinking (when the kids are like 2 or 3)…

“Matchmaker, Matchmaker…”

But, *sigh*, you know those things NEVER work out.

Usually as soon as soon as I mention a girl might be cute, my boys start running as hard as they can in the OPPOSITE direction.  Don’t they know I have EXCELLENT taste!!!?

So imagine my surprise when Tyler comes to me a few weeks ago and says:

“So. Would it be ok if I went to Winter Formal?”

Me:  “Uh, sure.  When is it?”

Tyler:  “Dunno.”

Me:  “Uh, OK.  Who are you gonna ask?”

Tyler:  “Aralie.”

Me: (keeping my cool) “Oh. OK”

Miss Aralie is a Hoskins.  We’ve known the Hoskins since 1994 or 1995.  Tyler and Aralie were 2 and we lived in Lakewood.  We served in church callings together and became lifelong friends.  Jeff and Leonard work at the same company.  We moved to Santa Clarita in 1997, they moved to Santa Clarita a few years later.  We have been together for most major life events (and a lot of stuff in between) ever since.

I should have become suspicious, take a look at some of our vacation photos—Mazatlan, 2005:

And, more recently, Rancho Mirage last summer:

You get the idea.  Somehow in every group picture, they end up being RIGHT NEXT to each other.  Coincidence?  Not so much, I’m thinking now.

So, back to the dance.  He went with an “Elf” theme to decorate her room (he must have thought she would not have to consider her answer very long, since the dance was only 10 DAYS AWAY at this point):

        

Her reply:

Daleen and I just keep marveling that we didn’t do even have to do a THING!  Look at these cuties!

    

Things couldn’t have worked out any BETTER if we’d planned them ourselves!! (But don’t tell Tyler that, hehe).