Natalie with Ellie and Lydia. This was the girls' last day at school. I went to say goodbye to the wonderful teachers and friends and to grab a couple last shots of the girls with their friends. Of course, I cried as I walked out of the beautiful school the girls were lucky enough to attend for two years. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good there. It's funny how leaving something makes you realize just what an awesome thing you had. Great friends, community, teachers and a gorgeous new building.
Natalie and Emma, who became good friends last year in first grade.
Mallory, Jenna, Sarah, Jensen and Lauren. The cutest girls ever and such great friends for my Sarah. I wanted to bring them with us.
I look so tired in this picture - emotionally spent. Melanie was so sweet to come pick up Angela for one last reading "school" day. Julie, who is just awesome and was mentioned in a previous post, was doing a once a week reading enrichment "school" for these old preschool pals. Angela only got to attend a couple weeks. It was such a neat idea and fun way for the girls to stay connected and enrich their reading skills at the same time. We were so crazy on this day, but I wanted to girls to do each and every last thing before we went. Melanie very kindly picked up Angela and brought her back. Then I had to say goodbye to her. )o: She has been such an incredible friend and inspiration to me for years. We lived in the Quatama ward where her sweet Paige and Sarah became best buds. They were so much alike and even after we moved to Hillsboro, still stayed connected and went to each other's birthday parties. Melanie and I stayed connected as well especially when we had Lucy and Angela in the same preschool group. I have always loved and adored Melanie. She is such an awesome mother and has the most hilarious sense of humor about motherhood. I always felt refreshed and inspired to be a better mom when I was around her. The way she joked about all the things that were hard about being a mom made me feel better when I had hard days. The day I found out her awesome family was moving to our ward was such a wonderful day. I smiled every time I thought about it. I was so excited. When I look back, it is so weird to think just how perfect everything seemed to be going right before we left. We had Melanie and her family over for a BBQ one night in the summer after they moved down the street from us. It seemed like the beginning of getting to be even better friends now that we had them in our ward again. We had a blast and played Rockband until the kids were ready to go. (o: Sarah and Paige were in heaven - I don't recall seeing much of them that night. It really does seem so unfair how great everything was going when this job opportunity happened. I will miss the fun memories we could have made! Melanie is just a gem and I'll miss her so much.
Little Lucy and Angela - both have the nickname of "Loo". (O:
That afternoon, the truck was officially packed and ready to go. It was weird watching it pull away with all our belongings. I mostly worried about my piano on that long trip and in storage for so long.
Soon after, I took Sarah for her last activity day. It was a surprise party for her! She was very surprised! All the girls were so cute and made her feel so loved.
Look at these adorable girls.
I love this one. (O:
Angie was the most awesome activity day leader. (That's my new calling in our new ward and I know I will never be as awesome as Angie was! But I'll try!) I'm so glad Sarah got to know her. Angie was also one of my dear friends in our ward. I got to be her visiting teacher the entire time I lived in our
Hillsboro house! Over four years. Somehow Cherie (my awesome companion) and I got to be together that entire time as well. The three of us had so many great conversations about life, the gospel and family. Angie is such a talented person. She is artistic, has a great sense of style and color, makes the most adorable blankets, throws the most incredibly creative parties and spent so much of her life making everyone around her feel special. I was always in awe of what Angie could do and love thinking back on when we did enrichment together (planning the relief society activities and events). Her amazing creativity and ideas for design made our relief society dinners extra special and fun. My favorite was our cruise ship night where we decorated the gym like a cruise ship - she had the cute idea of using foam homemade life preservers as centerpieces. Seriously, she could do parties professionally the way her mind worked. Besides all those things, Angie has a very spiritual side as well. She has so much wisdom and taught me so much. I know I've said this about so many of my friends, but seriously, Angie is incredible and her friendship made me a better person. I don't know how I was so blessed to be surrounded by such exemplary women.
I ran into Amy at the church while she picked up
Eaden and got to give her one last hug goodbye. I loved getting to know her over the years. She is such a hoot to be around and has an infectious laugh. I got to take pictures of her adorable family several times and we always had fun. My favorite has to be the motorcycle pictures with Wayne's Harley. Amy is so spirited and so fun to be around. Our families got along so great and we had some fun dinners together. Amy always made me feel so at ease and was such a great mom. Amy and I always laughed a lot. One time, during the winter freeze of '08 - she walked about a mile to our house with her two girls to pick up some pictures, get together for hot chocolate and just get out of the house! I can't believe she did it! She carried Abby all the way home that afternoon - luckily I found a little baby backpack that Abby was little enough to fit in. What a pioneer woman! What a fun memory.
This is
Rebecca. I know - it's a little silly having so many pictures of me hugging people and it might be getting old, but I wanted pictures with as many of my friends as I could get. I still remember the first time I saw
Rebecca at church when we first went to the Dawson Creek ward. She walked in with her six kids and sat behind us. I remember that the look in her eyes and her face impressed me. She had such a gentle and kind spirit and it showed from the first time I saw her. I thought to myself that she seemed like such a Christ-like person and I couldn't wait to get to know her better. Honestly, I was so impressed by her right from the start. And every single one of those qualities is
Rebecca. She is kind, gentle and so Christ-like toward others. She gives and gives to her beautiful family, friends, neighbors and everyone she meets. I think the world of
Rebecca and have always wanted to
emanate that peaceful and loving countenance like she does. She has never been unkind, is always concerned for others (even when she is overwhelmed with her very busy life) and is a dear friend. I loved having her as my visiting teacher and getting to talk with her. Over the summer, we went on an impromptu bike ride to a relief society gathering and then went for a run at a nearby track. It was so fun and we planned to do it more regularly over the summer, but then he move took over. Riding together that summer night and just talking about life and people we wanted to help was so awesome. We had great plans to reach out to others - some of which we did, like a baby shower for our cute Indian neighbor, Jyoti - and some will never be - like our idea to have weekly lunches and invite a new sisters in the ward or others who might be needing a friend. I am so grateful for Rebecca's amazing example of charity and as old and cliche as it may sound again and again - I mean it with all sincerity - I am better because of
Rebecca.
After a long and emotionally exhausting day, Kelly very sweetly invited us over for dinner. We enjoyed ourselves so much we wondered why we didn't do it more often. It was one last kind gesture from a dear friend and neighbor. I felt very melancholy as we walked home at dusk through the neighborhood I knew so well for the last time. Back to our beautiful house for the last time. Our empty beautiful house. It was such a strange and empty feeling.
Soon a couple more friends came to drop by for one last goodbye. Elizabeth couldn't make it to the farewell party and wanted to come by before we left. She and sweet, little Lauren stopped by with the best bag of goodies for us to munch on during our long drive to Utah. It was so thoughtful and sweet. It seemed like every goodbye was just getting harder and harder. I was overwhelmed by the realization of how many dear friends I had made in Oregon. Elizabeth and I have a strange story. I have actually known Elizabeth since we first moved to Oregon. She was in my first ward. I had a handful a close friends I made in that ward - the group of us who had just moved from Utah after Intel hired our husbands out of BYU. I never got to be friends with Elizabeth back then, but I admired her from afar. One of our first Sundays, she spoke. She was a Sunday School teacher for some teens in the ward. She talked about that class with so much love. I was so impressed with her kind heart and testimony as she spoke. Then for many months following, I heard several of the kids in her Sunday school class get up in testimony meetings and thank her for being such a wonderful teacher. I was so impressed with her and thought she seemed like the neatest lady. As luck would have it, I ended up being in the same ward as her over 5 years later. I saw her walk into sacrament meeting with an adorable baby girl always wrapped up in the cutest blankets and I remembered who she was. Eventually, I introduced myself and told her we had been in the Rock Creek ward together. I don't remember much after that - it was like we were instant friends. I have always felt such a connection with Elizabeth and have found her to be the most genuine and honest friend. She is a friend who really gets to know the real you. We have had so many awesome conversations. She took me out to lunch two years ago for lunch at one of her favorite restaurants in Hillsboro which soon became mine too. It was such a special treat. She threw such fun holiday parties that the girls and I attended - Easter, Christmas, school starting . . . and we loved having her over to our house. There were a few times I helped watch Lauren - the cutest little curly headed, energetic, funny girl I've ever met. We all loved Lauren so much. We loved having Elizabeth and Lauren over for dinner or to visit after watching Lauren. One particularly memorable warm evening, Elizabeth, Ned* and I stood on the driveway just talking. Meanwhile, the girls stripped down - some in swimsuits, but Lauren in her underwear - and started running through the sprinkler watering our front lawn with umbrellas just laughing and screaming. It was so funny. I grabbed my camera and those pictures make me laugh when I look back on them. I was so sad to say goodbye to Elizabeth and just love her so much. I always felt so grateful that I got a second chance to get to know this amazing woman.
Tina and I had said goodbye about 10 times by this night. (o: Not really, we were really just procrastinating the inevitable. A few nights earlier, we had a lovely girls night at the Venetian restaurant. (the one I mentioned above that Elizabeth introduced me to!) So often our converstations are during playdates, or on the phone with kids around. We had a great time just talking with no interruptions while eating great food. She gave me a card and a beautiful angel statue that made me cry. I have that little angel right in my window by my kitchen sink. I'm glad I read the card later or I really would have been a wreck. Tina has been such a dedicated and true friend in every sense of the word for so many years. She knew I had always wanted to move back to Utah, but we really never thought the day would actually come. So strange that I finally got what I wanted and it ended up being one of the hardest things I've ever done. I was so tired and emotional with this being our last night at "home", I don't even really remember saying goodbye. I just know that it really, really stunk. In a way, I didn't feel too sad because Tina is a friend I will always keep in touch with. She is too good of a friend for that to just be the end. I knew we would talk on the phone just like we always did. And I knew she would visit family in Utah (and hopefully me! (o: ). Tina will be a life long friend for sure.
Cute kids: Angela up top, Lauren, Natalie, Maddie, Tori and Sarah at the bottom.
At the end of a very exhausting day, we snuggled up by the fireplace in our sleeping bags for one last night in our house. Several people invited us over to their houses (as we had no beds), which we so appreciated, but we really wanted one last night in our home. The girls thought it was fun and we all slept very good that night.
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