Last week Monday my sweet friend, Katie, came into town for a day and a half. It was WAY too short, but I'm still grateful for every second we had together. She and I were in the same neighborhood in Michigan and best friends from the time I was 12 until...well...we've never stopped being best friends. Things changed quite a bit when I moved to Utah at almost 16, but we've still always kept in touch. That's saying something since it was back-in-the-day. Before internet. Before email. Before (gasp) Facebook. Of course, we each have other best friends too but that doesn't in any way diminish what we have together.
Katie now lives in Pittsburgh and has another friend in Denver. She flew into Denver to spend a week or so with that friend but rented a car to drive here for a little bit. She was enjoying the scenery a little too much and missed a turn, adding an hour or so on to her drive, but she got here nonetheless. It was so fun. She called me in the morning and asked if she could come play. LOL Just like the good 'ole days.
It's amazing that with certain people, you can not see each other for years and yet pick up like you've never been apart. Kindred spirits, as Anne Shirley would say. In our case, the last time I saw Katie in person was when Little One was only 18 months. 7 years ago.
Monday night we visited and had a super yummy dinner (homemade chicken nuggets!) Then we let Katie pick out a movie to watch on the wall. She picked Monster's Inc. Very good choice. We went to bed and then were up pretty early to set out blankets for the Pioneer Day fireworks. We took Little One (and Ira) to her swimming lessons where their dad picked them up. He took them to 7 Peaks for the day. We needed to hit Costco before taking off for the day and Mom came with us. It was fun to end up chatting with a lady there who was trying to decide which furniture to buy for her lake house that she rents.
After that we took off for the day with FAR more things to see and do than we had time for. First off, I wanted to show her some things that are uniquely "Utah." She got to see the Great Salt Lake from the deck and I wanted to show her Temple Square. We parked in the Gateway parking lot and I tried to show her the fountain show. We waited 10 minutes and had the announcement to get out of the water, but then there was no music/show. Very strange. She'll have to catch that the next time.
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| This picture is so very Katie. I love it! |
Next we headed over to Temple Square using Trax. It was so much fun seeing "my town" through tourist eyes.
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| She did a panorama while we waited for the train, catching my lovely forehead. |
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| Forever Friends |
Next we headed over to the Lion House for lunch. I don't often get to go there so it was a treat. :)
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| Famous rolls.... |
Since we were right there we went on a tour of the Beehive House, Brigham Young's home.
After that we took a tour of Temple Square itself. We had three adorable sister missionaries all to ourselves. Two from Hawaii and one from Australia. Katie got to learn a bunch about what we believe in our church.
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| We have pictures of us each taking pictures. LOL |
After another yummy dinner of homemade pizza we got to go see the fireworks. Mom and Dad ended up having to miss and just drop us off but the girls and I met up with Patrice and Ben. It was so fun to introduce Katie to my "sister." They seemed to hit it off really well, as I figured they would.
Wednesday morning Katie had decided that instead of seeing some more of the sights she wanted to play a game together. She and I spent hours and hours and even more hours playing many a board game. Since she said she loves Catan I showed her my Catan card game. We even figure we can play it together over Skype so we're going to try that. :) I wanted to also show her some of Park City so we took separate cars and drove up there. Mom came with us, which made it even better. We ended up just driving around and then catching some lunch at Subway (not exactly very "Utah") before she went one way on I-80 and we went the other.
Before we did that though, we had to get some updated versions of the pictures the night before I moved to Utah. I was about a month away from being 16 and Katie was 13. We took many silly versions but this one has been on my dresser since we moved here. I'm thinking I'll have to get one of those frames with two slots in it (maybe three) because I hate to just replace the old one. We tried to sit in the same way we'd done originally. Katie is now taller than I am though so it was a little off. I love it though!
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| Here is the original. |
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| The updated one. |
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| And the expanded version |
Having Katie here was one of the best things ever. We will have to make sure we find a way to have it not be another 7 years before we see each other. She is such an amazing person and she makes me want to be better. Just like a true friend should. :)
