Saying goodbye to friends

Image via WikipediaWe live in a military town... home of the Blue Angels Flight demonstration team :-)...unfortunately that also means we have families that come in and out of our lives on a regular basis. We are saying goodbye to one of those special families this week. It's been a sad, sad time around here as we prepare to say our final goodbyes tomorrow night at church.

Bryan and Tess Clay are a young military family with 3 boys. They are being transferred to Arizona. Their oldest son is one of Dakota's best friends. The last several months he has come home with us every Sunday after church or spent Saturday evenings with us. He and Dakota both share a love of video games and can spend hours playing together. Damion came home with us this past Sunday and spent the night with Dakota. They played together all day Monday until late in the evening when his parents came to pick him up. The boys were trying to figure out a way that Dakota could "hide" Damion so he didn't have to leave.
I have been blessed to get to know Tess and to be able to consider her one of my closest friends over the last couple of years. We have gone on retreats, overnights, and extended weekends together. We have gone through several Bible Studies, sang in choir, worked on multiple children's functions together and socialized outside of church. We had our last fling this past Saturday. Eight of us got together for Mexican food and a couple of games of bowling one last time. I LOVE to watch Tess bowl - she has the cutest little hop/skip thing she does right before she throws the ball! Cracks me up everytime!

Here's a look back at some of our time together in pictures....I am going to miss you girlfriend, more than you'll ever know!
From a Married Couples Banquet at church (I remember how you guys kept posing while we were taking the pictures...and Greg was teasing Bryan about his perfect "military" pose)


Hiding Easter eggs at church for the children's party...


Greg caught us all laughing after we finished setting up for an event (Sportsmen Spectacular) that our church was sponsoring...


From our Marriage Retreat in February - we had such a great time! This is a sweet picture of Tess & Bryan during our Bible Study time.


Tess (on the left) and Bryan (in camo) skiing on the marriage retreat...


We are heading into the Smokey Mts for the day...


There goes that perfect posing again....gotta love it! LOL


Tess and I learned how to play Guitar Hero together - we both loved it!
We played until the wee hours of the morning...Bryan gave up on his lovely wife, as you can see he didn't quite make it before falling asleep in the chair.


Playing putt-putt... Tess, me and BJ.


Dakota and Damion went skiing last year (both for the first time) and they both discovered they didn't like it. Tess went as a chaperone and she made sure she got some pictures for me of Dakota.


Tess came to my surprise birthday party last year - we met at our favorite Mexican place and went bowling (same thing we just did for her going away party this past Saturday night)

Right before I went to Brazil last year, we had a ladies' weekend at my dad's beach house. Spent a couple days out there just relaxing, boating, and skiing before I left the next week on my mission trip. I was honored to have Tess come join me that weekend! She and I laughed so much during our time together! (Me, Elaine, Nancy, Tess)