Nostalgia

Last weekend I went to a family wedding reception with Maddie, my parents and my sister. We decided to grab a bite to eat at Hires. While we were there we ran into some friends from the ward I grew up in. I consider myself incredibly blessed to have grown up in the T-ville 20th ward. One of the guys I ran into lived across the street from us and we talked about the fun times we had as kids/teenagers. It brought back a lot of good memories.

We moved into the neighborhood when I was 8 years old. Almost right away I became friends with Amy, who is and will always be my BFF. :) We had a few other girlfriends we hung out with but I haven't kept in touch with them like I have with her. When we became Young Women at 12 years old we were included in a very large, tight-knit group of youth. My favorite memories of my teenage years involve Girls Camp and Youth Conference and all of our other activities. We were blessed with some inspired leaders whom I still look up to that really helped me become who I am today. Aaron also grew up in the same ward. It is so fun to share some of the same memories with him. Our closest friends, family really, are also from the 20th ward. They have been there in good times and bad and I don't see that ever changing.

One of the biggest factors we considered in our home purchase was a community with lots of children our girls' age. We have definitely found that and I hope that they will be able to have similar experiences as they grow up here. It has made all the difference in my life. As I was driving through Mom and Dad's neighborhood today I thought about all of the people who have touched my life. Many of them have moved on, some have passed away, some of them I will very likely not see again in this lifetime. I know some of them may happen to find my blog and I just wanted to say thanks. :)