Even best friends move away :*(

This is Ben and his best friend Lucas, oh and his little sister Delaney.

Before they moved from Texas to Utah near the end of 2011 we had a play date at the Museum.  I'm so glad that they always had fun together, and that more than a year later Ben still considers Lucas his best friend.  

Luke is a year old the Bennyboy, but since their mommies spent so much time together, they did too :)   

I guess Ben sticks his tongue out when concentrating ;)

Tassia made Ben a green Luigi hat since Ben loved Luke's Mario one so much.  They were such hams together, very serious in their roll playing and imaginative games.  When Ben's hat got a small hole in it, he insisted that only Luke's mommy could fix it, not me!  He wouldn't let me take it from him, and he even loved to sleep in it.

And this is the last picture I took of my friend, and it makes me so sad now.  It's definitely a case where you don't know what you have till it's gone, and I did not appreciate her enough when she was here.  I met her at church when we started working in the Primary Presidency together.  Looking back on it now, I can't remember how long it took us to be good friends, or if it happened quickly, I just remember spending lots of time with her in so many aspects of my life.

She was my workout buddy- and running motivator, my neighborhood grocery store, my shopping buddy, my babysitter, an artsy person that got me involved with so many projects, she was my coworker for a while, my shoulder to cry on, my spiritual rock, a backboard to bounce ideas off, and my conscience when I needed to be reminded what was truly important.

I'm not very good at expressing how I feel, and was not very good at showing appreciation.  I've worked on it since she left, because I don't want the people I surround myself with now to ever wonder if I was truly their friend or a just a user.

I've also never had a friend move away before- it's always been me that moves.  This hurts, more then I thought it would.  I still miss her so much, and wish she was around.  I think about her almost every time I run, especially in my neighborhood, and I think about her when I am having a bad day because I know just being around her made me happy, because she was always happy.  I've moved enough to know that we still (and do) contact each other, or visit each other, but it's not the same, and it still makes me sad.