Friends

Sometimes, it doesn't take long for friendship to blossom. These two girls have only known each other for a year or so, but the picture says it all.

Piper Absher is the girl on the right wearing the pink shirt. She's six years old and a part of our church, Fort Valley Methodist. The daughter of Hugh and Jenny Absher, Piper is one of my favorite people in the world, even though she sometimes tells me that she's just not in the mood to deal with me. I must confess that I really do like to aggravate Miss Piper.

Hazel Flanders, wearing the pink skirt, is on the left. She's from Valley, Alabama, and she's the daughter of Cole and Alecia Flanders, which makes her our granddaughter. Yes, she's also one of my favorite people in the world. And, yes, I aggravate her sometimes, too. Oh, Miss Hazel is five years old.

Two or three times a year, Regina and I hold what we like to call Camp Fort Valley, which means the grandkids who are old enough come stay with us for a few days. Telling Hazel and her little brother, Alden, that they are going to camp sounds a lot more exciting than telling them they're being shuttled off to hang out with two old people. At least it has so far.

Every camp director knows that you've got to come up with activities and adventures to keep the little crumb crunchers busy and hopefully happy. Alden is only two and he's pretty easy. Keep the rascal fed and let him look at the Richard Scarry book on cars and trucks and he's a happy camper. And make sure his sister is nearby. The boy adores big sister, which is great, plus she's bilingual - understanding both English and her little brother's personal language - which is even better.

Popsicles go a long way toward keeping Hazel smiling, but she expects a bit more from camp. So, her grandmother sets up a gardening activity and the two of them plant seeds together. We also include a trip to visit Grammy, Regina's mom and their great-grandmother, and that always comes with Mellow Mushroom pizza and a cooking activity - Hazel and Grammy bake strawberry muffins. That means Alden gets more to eat, and Hazel takes a break from Popsicles, at least until we get home.

We also ride by the Bluebird Bus plant here in Fort Valley so Hazel can search for buses painted colors other than traditional yellow or white. Miss Hazel loves school buses. We've found brown, black, blue, gray, green, and red. If Bluebird ever produces a pink one, I know who will try to buy it! Since Fort Valley is in the heart of peach country, we have to go to Pearson's and to Lane's to eat ice cream and to watch them pack peaches. And this year we added a trip to the Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins Air Force Base. All that is designed to wear out the little boogers, so they fall asleep at night.

But there's one activity that Hazel insisted we add to the schedule during our last two sessions of Camp Fort Valley. Having met Piper at church some time back, they've become buddies, and the two of them want to get together to play. At our spring session of camp, they played on Piper's inflatable bouncy house. This session, we met at the church and the three kids had the run of the church nursery toys. An hour and a half later, the adults were ready for a nap and the kids were still going strong. But it was time to go home.

So, we walked out of the church, the adults chatting, someone toting Alden, and the girls walking ahead of us. Jenny snapped a couple of pictures, first the one at the top of the article and then the one below. And that's what friendship looks like.