We met Devon and Sean Allen during graduate school at UNC.  They say that "friends are the family you choose for yourself."  Definitely the case with Devon and Sean.  We were family in no time.  Towards the end of graduate school I think we spent every weekend together...and it had nothing (well, very little) to do with the fact that Devon and Sean had an EXCELLENT house in the woods of Pittsboro, NC.   We got our dog, Karenin just a few months before they got their golden retriever, Sienna.  And Karenin and Sienna took no time to adopt one another either.  Of all our friends in the states, we miss Devon and Sean the most.  And we hope one day to move back to NC and live on their street!  Until then, we are trying to convince them to visit us in Australia...how I wish that money grew on trees...

Below are photos of Devon and Sean and Sienna.  They don't do the Allens justice (they are far more beautiful than mere pictures can portray), but they are all I have here in Australia.  They were taken when we returned to the states in September (1999) for Mike's brother's wedding...Devon and Sean picked us up at RDU airport in Raleigh and spent the first weekend with us at Mom Bunin's house in Martinsville. Then we spent two days at their lovely new house in Durham.

Photos with Devon and Sean: from our return visit to the states in September, 1999 A beautiful couple, don't you think? Mike and Sean with da Nonner (S&D's golden)--we miss her!

Photo from our return trip to the states in September--taken in Mom B.'s backyard with the Ninnen...Makes me nostalgic just looking at it!

Melissa's looking more and more like a hippy with every passing day! Or, as her brother says, a "huppy"--a combination of a hippy and a yuppy...seems like quite a contradiction in terms!