Some of my besties

I don't know why it takes us moving across the country for certain events to take place, but this is another of those things.  My friend Carla and I have been friends since way too long to even really remember.  I have a vague memory of being in the same seminary class at some point my freshman year of high school, but before then she was my sister's friend from band.  They started out best buddies and I was kind of the tag along younger sister that would go places with them.  Such as to YSAP activities when I was really not even a senior in high school, or on combo date nights with the older super cool {or sometimes not so cool} boys, or just to hit up Jamba Juice/ Bahama Bucks and chat about life together.  Somewhere along the line we picked up our friendship and became besties as we worked through boy drama, wardrobe malfunctions, hair dye jobs gone bad {at least I had my fair share of these}, growing personal testimonies of our Lord Jesus Christ through life challenges/trials, dealing with college schoolwork, etc.  The amazing part about our friendship is that we grew the closest while Carla was at NAU and I was down in the valley attending ASU.  I can remember multiple phone conversations we had together about real and meaningful things.  I have frequently told my hubby that out of all my non-family friends, I am able to connect strongest spiritually with Carla.  She tends to bring out the best in me, the non-selfish side, and I frequently admire her willingness to not settle for anything but the best!  She held out and found a great man that was worthy of her. Another great part about Carla is that she introduced me to another great friend of ours, Janelle.  Although we didn't meet until college, we have also formed a great bond together.  It seems like we have done almost everything together the past ten years.  We both dated our husbands at the exact same time, ended up getting married six days apart, had our first child two days apart, had our second child three months apart, and had our third child within six months of each other.  We also each have two boys and one girl.  It has been so fun to share so much in common with each other and I can still remember all the phone calls back and forth when we were pregnant with our first. 

So, when we found out we were moving I knew that we needed to get together with each other.  Somehow we managed to plan a date night and after we got there, we realized that this is our first date night that all of us have gone out together.  The icing on the cake was that my sissy, Loriann, was also able to come with her hubby.  We went to dinner and laughed and talked as if we went out every week together, instead of once in a blue moon.  It was such a fun memory to spend some extra time with these ladies and I sure miss each of them :)

 Janelle, Tiffany, Loriann, and Carla!

 "Girls definitely take better pictures than boys, right Jesse?"