Sad Goodbyes to Great Friends

The past 6 months we have seen some great friends leave Northwest Arkansas for different places.  Both Lyndee and Katelyn have had many friends leave.  The end of September our good friends the Huffords left for Kansas City.  Thank goodness it is only a few hours away and they are building a temple there so we'll have excuses to go visit the Huffords.  The Huffords were here when we moved here to Northwest Arkansas.  Not many families were here before us and so we became friends.  Maren was very nice and we both had young kids....I only had Lyndee, 2 1/2 and she had Ethan 2 1/2 and Matthew who was a baby.  Lyndee and Ethan are only a couple weeks apart in age and have been really good friends since the beginning.  Maren and I had Katelyn and Megan next, who are only a few months apart in age, and then Brooklyn and Lanie who are only a couple weeks apart as well.  We've seen the changes this area and our ward has gone through.  We've served in tough callings together and see tough times during the 7 years together here.  I think this is why it has been really hard for me to see her go.  I've looked up to Maren for a long time for many reasons.  It was fun having 3 of our children the same ages....and now she is having another baby so her new little girl will only be 6 months younger than Joseph.  We already miss the Hufford family being near by.  Here are some pictures the last day they were here.

 Lyndee, Ethan, and Matthew

 Megan and Katelyn.  They really fought a lot when they were babies, but have become really good friends in the past couple of years.  They are so much alike and really enjoy playing together.  This picture is really funny because you would think that they were sad and mad because they had to say goodbye to each other, but that is not the case at all.  They were fighting over the darn swing!!!  Classic picture that we won't forget!

 Brooklyn and Lanie.  They were really becoming good friends as well. 

 This is another really great family that we were extremely sad to see leave this summer.  The Bradfords.  This is Kate and Katelyn together.  The Bradfords also had 3 kids our kids' ages.  They moved to Utah, so maybe we'll be able to see them again in Utah. 

Lyndee and McKay were only about a month or so apart in age (yes, Lyndee is taller than most of the boys her age).  Lyndee was sad to see McKay go.  I miss Amy as well.  I wish she was here to help get me back in shape and doing yoga again.  She had an awesome yoga program for kids as well. 

We lost 2 other great families this past summer (and I am sad that I didn't get pictures), the DeLongs who were here for almost a year and the Smiths who have been here for a long time as well.  Both had kids my kids' ages and were great friends.  I guess sometimes it's time to move on in life.  It was hard to see so many go in such a short amount of time.  (This didn't include all the others who left 6 months to a year ago).  We are getting new families moving in their place and look forward to still meeting more friends.