For the first time in a year, we got a taste of what our social life was like pre-COVID. And it was so nice! And expensive…and also tiring (but in all the best ways).

On Thursday evening, we were invited over by a friend from Bible study for dinner. After a year of meeting via Zoom, it was soo nice to finally get to know each other in person. Cindy is really shy and gets really nervous in new social situations, but it was surprisingly nice to feel that nervousness and anticipation. Jake isn’t shy, and he was just excited to hang out and see life slowly return to normal. Overall, we had such a great time! It’s just different getting to know someone over a dinner vs. over a video call. It’s just more organic.

On Saturday, we made the trek out to San Diego to visit one of Cindy’s good friends. It had been about a year since we’d seen her and her husband and baby…not so much because of the pandemic but more so because of how busy life is. The last time we visited was last June to meet the baby. It’s crazy how much babies grow and learn in just their first year! Their baby is so cute and adorable– made us even more excited for our own baby. Cindy’s friend also handed down to us a lot of baby stuff. Soo nice and generous! We’re basically set now!

We switched things up Sunday and hosted Cindy’s Chinese school friend and his fiancé for dinner. It was partly a celebration dinner and partly a catching up dinner. We had such a great time just talking– sharing about pregnant life, hearing about all the details of their engagement and wedding ideas, reminiscing on our own engagement and wedding, and just catching up on life over this past year. It seems like a lot of our friends are either moving, getting married, or having babies! It’s so special to be able to share in these huge life moments and milestones.

This past week and weekend felt pretty close to a classic “Jake and Cindy weekend” — where it’s packed with back to back activities. We’ve got the next few weekends booked and have been jokingly saying to each other, “Well, there goes our free weekend”. But really, we’re loving it. We know life won’t be like this once the baby comes, so we’re trying to hang out and catch up with as many friends as we can until then.