Ode to the Abillas

I have the most amazing friend, Angie. Truly she is one of my greatest heroes. She is loving and generous and kind and strong and so much more. I feel so very blessed to have her as a friend. I know that we were meant to be friends. Heavenly Father has confirmed that to me so many times.

Angie and I met at Denny's, yes Denny's, way back in 1994 when were both new at college. She was there with our friends from the Numbs and it was like instant friendship. I just loved her from the start! We bonded and hung out for a few months before she moved back home. Then she still couldn't get away from us. My roommates and I went out to stay with her awesome family in California and had such a blast! Here's us looking all old school and stuff! Honestly, I had the best hair, right?
Angie and I stayed in touch through letters before the interweb thing came along...some of which I still have and they crack me up! She was there through all the drama and romance of Ben and I. Angie married her high school sweetheart, Pete, when he got home from his mission, and moved a block away from us when they came out to go to school at BYU. Later that year I married my Ben and Angie was there in the temple with us, pregnant with her first baby. We ended up being in the same BYU student stake and although we didn't get together as often as I'd have liked, we saw each other at every stake conference. It was so fun to see Angie's family grow! She had 2 babies and one on the way before they left BYU and their littles were so darn adorable! I think Ben's big push to begin a family came from seeing just how fun Pete and Angie's family was. Pete and Angie moved back to Chicago for graduate school and sadly, we lost contact.

Then one night I had a crazy dream about Angie and hanging out in San Fransisco with her! I woke up the next morning and knew I had to find my long lost friend. I googled her, found her blog, started reading it, and noticed the most amazing thing ever. Her son's baptism pictures were in front of our stake center! I could not believe it! I commented and asked where the heck their family was and Angie replied and we found out we lived 2 blocks away from each other!! I was in awe that we had been so close for a couple of years and hadn't every known. We quickly got together and bonded all over again!

Angie's sweet family had grown from 3 babies to 6 by then! Over the last few years she's added 3 more babies to her beautiful family and it's been so wonderful to see their family so happy! I totally stole this picture, Angie, but I had to show off your gorgeous family!! All so adorable!!

One of the best bonuses of finding Angie again was that her boys are the perfect friends for my boys. They've had so much fun throughout the years going to preschool together, playing soccer together, and having all sorts of fun play dates. We love the Abilla boys!!

Well, all good things can not last and sadly we had to say goodbye (for now) to our dear friends, the Abillas. They got a great job opportunity and have moved to Tennessee for awhile and then will be headed onto Asia! Wow! I'm not sure we'll end up living in the same stake again, but you never know!

We hardly had any time to prepare for the Abillas moving before it actually came but we tried to soak up as much play time as we could while they were still here.

Here's Kade & Preston:
Here's Nick with the twins, Caden & Carsen!
Two nights before they left on their new adventure we had the boys over for a late over! We had a blast playing games, watching movies, and I'm pretty sure those 5 boys consumed their weight in junk food!
Alexis is sure going to miss Preston! He's always so sweet to her and includes her. I think she has a major crush on him!Then it was time to say goodbye! There were lots of hugs and wrestling all around...and I was the only that had some tears, even though I know my boys were heartbroken to say goodbye to their awesome friends. We are soooo going to miss having the Abillas to play with. I made them promise to come visit all of the time and it's already been decided that they will all be college roommates when they come back to go to BYU.
The next day it was time for me to sneak to Angie's and say our goodbyes. Her house looked so empty and I was so afraid I'd just start sobbing. I held it together though and even though it took a hundred hugs, I finally said goodbye to my sweet friend.Angie, I love you. I will miss our long talks with our kids dying from boredom while waiting for us to stop. I will miss the love and understanding that you have always shown me. I will miss being able to just get my Angie fill whenever I need it. I'm so glad we have texting and e-mail now to stay in touch across the many, many miles. I'm so thankful that you are my friend and I know that you have truly been a gift from our Heavenly Father. You have helped me through so much, dried my tears, and shared so many laughs with me. I miss you so much already but I know that we'll forever be friends! Here's to us, sitting on the porch when we're 80 in our Converse! Love you, love you, love you!!