Last month, one of my best friends, Kamla, and her mom, Sharon, came to town. It is difficult to fully express how much we love these two. When Chris and I moved to New York after graduating from BYU seven years ago, I remember driving in our moving truck across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan and looking over at Chris in sheer panic. What the heck had we gotten ourselves into? We weren't sure how we were going to afford a life in the city. We had no place to live or even go that night. But Sharon and her home ended up being our soft landing. She let us stay with her those first few days--and then over the next five years, treated us like family. Our first summer there, when things were particularly tight financially, I wrote in my journal how grateful I was that Sharon took us to a "really nice Chinese restaurant." We have laughed about this over the years because I'm not sure many would consider Hunan Balcony on 98th Street to be fine dining (though it is yummy). Sharon and Kami took us to Coney Island, to the beach, to the temple in Boston, to upstate New York and all over the city. They taught us pretty much every one of our New York prejudices (sorry, New Jersey and the Upper East Side). Sharon also became Chris' best friend in the city and they played hours and hours and hours of Scrabble. If Sharon had a fan club, Chris would be the president. Simply put, these two hold a special place in our hearts.
We were so excited when they decided to come visit us in Chicago in June. We even got these loyal New Yorkers to admit that Chicago is a pretty cool city. They loved Evanston too. Fun times were had by all.
Chris and Sharon--BFF's
Our little family at the Field Museum (yet another great Chicago museum)
Kamla and me--we've been buddies ever since I "snubbed" her at JFK airport in 1999
Ella at 12 months--and such a toddler!
Ella loved the evolution exhibit (classic)
Ella making faces right back!
I think this was right after she tried to kiss this guy
Being silly with Mommy
So many cool things to see!
My happy girl (eating yogurt bites--her favorite)
Ella and her favorite person. Who doesn't love Chris? I don't blame her. He's my favorite person too.
View of the Chicago skyline from the Planetarium
Is this a beautiful city or what?
Sigh.
It is so beautiful! I cant wait to be there in three weeks. We will miss you guys very much!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures, especially the ones with the city in the background. So so pretty. And you should bring yogurt bites on Thursday - they'll be a good bribe when we do pictures :)
ReplyDeleteWhen you move to Santa Monica (you know, tomorrow?) you should frame that picture of you and Chris w/ the chicago sky line behind you.
ReplyDeleteFIRST---I MISS YOU!!! It makes me so sad thinking that you aren't going to be close anymore. What am I going to do?
ReplyDeleteSecond, those pictures are so beautiful. I love the one of you guys with the city behind. Beautiful. We miss you.
Dang! I can't believe I missed this post! Ella is the cutest little thing! I love that she has Heather curly fry hair! Ahh I miss you, and need to meet this gal!
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