Grateful for: Good Friends

I've really been blessed with good friends all my life. As a kid, through high school, at college, on the mission and more. I've had really awesome people in my life.

Childhood friends
Some of these friends I don't really get to see anymore, but I sure had some good times with Krista, Heidi, Alicia, Kaitlin, and others. I especially remember playing school (often outside, writing on leaves with mud and sticks) with Krista, and jumping on the tramp! Heidi and I loved playing with dolls. I think we sent them to boarding school a lot. And Alicia and I would always dance around. Some of my childhood friends I do see quite frequently because they're in my ward right now...Jeremy and Ben...I love that. It's so fun to have them around!

Middle school to high school
My best friend for years was Kimberly, who today had her second child, a little girl! I'm so excited for her! I just wish I could meet this little one, but they live on the other side of the country! Kim and I met in 5th grade on a field trip. My family had bought her family's house when we moved. We discovered many things in common on the bus ride home, including the same house, same bedroom, being the oldest, only one boy in the family, wearing glasses, etc. We became best of friends and have been through so many fun adventures. We even went to college together and were roommates for a couple years.
Another bestie was Jill. She and I became friends in high school and soon enough were super close. We would talk for hours about everything. We also enjoyed ballroom dance together, school musicals, and of course, marching band. We were recruited senior year to do percussion. We were glad to have each other as we learned how to play everything.
Catherine and I became friends in junior high, I think. We were in choir together. We kind of drifted apart for a while, but then later in high school we became good friends again. Most of our time together was musically based...or talking about boys...and we went on a spontaneous date once. That was pretty fun.
There were also Arthella, Shara, Rachel, Trissa, Kadie, Kaitlin, Dani, Courtney, Stacy, Shawni, Aleena, Ashley, Kathryn and many more girlfriends with whom many good times were shared. All of these lovely people were involved in choir, drama, or dance, and we had a lot of fun experiences.
There were also a great number of guys in our group...Jeff, Ryan, Alex, Allen, Mark, Nathan, Jason, Josh, Greg, Sam, Nic, Kris, Spencer, Jordan...I'm probably forgetting somebody...we had a lot of fun dates and parties. We were quite creative.
My high school friends were just awesome. Again, I don't keep in great contact with all of them, but they were an important part of my life.

just a few of the high school gang

BYU
I made some great friends at BYU. Spencer, Matt, Lori, all my friends from SHA, who I've blogged about before...my ward when I lived at Stonebridge...had the best home teachers of my life there, Nathan and Mike. (P.S. Kim, if you read this, remember when they came over the first time?) Post mission friends include those at the Bookstore: Emily, Skyler, Melissa, Tracie. My ward is great, and I have my roommates, "the box," and many more from there. And I've already blogged about my mission friends and how great it is to have several of them around here. Friends are awesome.

Moral of the story, I've been blessed with many wonderful people in my life!