Special Friends

One of the hardest things about moving away from Utah was saying goodbye to so many special people in our lives. Not only did we leave family behind but friends that had had such a tremendous influence in our lives. We attended our old ward while we were in Utah and it felt like we had never left. Although the ward has gotten even smaller, if that's possible, there were still so many wonderful people that we got to hug and reconnect with. After church we spent several hours at the home of our good friends the Ipsens. We laughed and talked and the hours just flew by. We have missed that family so much!

Andrew was so sweet and gave Noah some toys from his wonderful toy collection.

One night I was able to meet up with some of my sweet friends. While eating dinner we caught up on all that has been going on in each other's lives for the past few years. Although we do keep in touch via Facebook and occasional phone calls it was nice to actually talk face to face. We had such a great time!

Connie was such a good friend that I got to know by serving as one of her counselors in the YW program and David served with her husband Larry in the bishopric. Connie also had a great relationship with Savannah and has yet to miss sending her a special present each year for her birthday. What fun it was to visit with them!

And then there is the Yen family, some of our most favorite people in Utah! Pete and David have been friends since David was young; in fact, David was the one who baptized Pete when he joined the church. We love them and have really missed having them close. We spent an evening with them and their cute kids and I think it was this evening in particular that had David so sad when we came back to Baltimore. We definitely feel their physical absence in our lives. For not remembering each other (it has been 7 years), Savannah, Xander, and Noah got along really well with their kids. They played throughout the evening and then watched a movie together. It started like this...

and ended like this. So cute!

Visiting with our special friends and family members was definitely the highlight of our Utah trip!