BeSt fRiEnDs

Day 3-A picture of you and your friends

How could I just choose 1 picture? I've had the BEST friends over the years.

"A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be." ~Douglas Pagels

My Best Friend was Camille Branch for lots of years. We bonded instantly when I moved to Taylorsville over hours and hours of playing chinese jump rope with my sisters. We were inseparable. We played house, doctor, school, run-away-from the orphanage, board games, night games and sleepovers. We started a neighborhood lemonade club and stamp club to earn some extra cash. We even dressed like twins every single day for at least two years. We walked around school before it started greeting everyone we passed with, "Hi, we're twins." She was like one of my sisters.

And then, as it always does, after 6 great years of being the two peas in a pod things start to change. People grow up. People part ways. You no longer want to share lockers, eat lunch together, borrow clothes, or tell your deepest secrets. Slowly other people fill those roles. And it's not like you got in a fight or dont want to be friends with them anymore, you just arent.

Luckily in 8th grade there was a group of girls that reached out to me. I had known them all before but never really been friends with them. One day after school Caitlyn Jones and I walked the long route home from jr. high. As we were cutting through fields we discussed how happy we were to be best friends and discovered that we'd be best friends forever and ever. We had classes together all day long but we still had more to say, the second the bus dropped us off at home we were on the phone with each other until we met half way and hung out together. Some of our funnest times were winning Nationals on Academic Team, school plays, classes and projects where we worked and studied together, choir tour in San Diego, visits in Cedar City and so many more. We could talk about any topic in the world. We are very different but yet very similar at the same time. She is definitely one of my favorite people in the world and has been my best friend ever since. Sometimes we discuss interesting topics for hours and hours that we talk until the sun rises and when all is said and done we turn to each other and say, "We really should have recorded that." Because it is so good! As we get older and move apart we dont hang out as much but we are still always there for each other. No matter if it was boy problems, family fights, anything we were always there for each other. We maybe didnt always say what we wanted to hear, but what we needed to hear. Thats really what a best friend does. Normally though she has the best reactions and that is why I love talking to her so much. She was a bridesmaid when I got married and sang us a beautiful song. We are going to be best friends forever!

Now Matt is my best friend in the whole world! We know what the other person is thinking without even talking. But we talk all the time. We have so much fun and have overcome so many challenges together. He is so loving and supportive. We go on the funnest dates ever and even just sitting on the couch in our little apartment is the best.

In college I met SO many wonderful people and many great friends and sisters. My freshman year Camille Branch and I reunited as best friends. We were roommates and both joined Alpha Phi. I am so happy we are friends still and know we will be even when we are old grandmas. My sophomore year in college Camille was engaged to a wonderful guy and I became good friends with Sally Hallows. I wasnt one of the 6 "autobots" but I love those girls so much and I'm glad for all the times they were there for me and the fun times we had.
I LOVE my A-Phi Family!

Jonada (Ada) Munk became one of my best friends and like an adopted older sister. I love her. We would do homework together all the time and she and her husband would take me to dinner, help me break into my car when I locked the keys in it and work out with me.

In Mexico my best friends with Andrea and Miia. I miss them SOO much. Maybe I'll go to Mexico and Finland one day to visit them. My junior and senior year Alicia Janes and Kady Welch were my best friends. Miss you Kady! And SO glad I work with you Alicia. Kady you were seriously my favorite roommate of all time. Thanks for putting up with me and always listening to my problems. You are the best!

I'm so thankful for all the good friends I've had over the years! I've had so many good friends throughout my life that I didn’t mention yet. Like Sharli Williams, Nikki Larsen, Ashly Blackburn, Whitney Houser, Jessica Neeley, Adam McMillan, Lance McKinnon, Nick Shober, Hayley Anderson, Kandise Newby, Brandon Counts, Anna Swigart, and definitely my 3 sisters- Melinda, Jessica and Sabrina.

THANKS guys for being such great friends!

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. ~Elisabeth Foley