Young Love

I've been thinking about this post and somewhat dreading it for about two months.  The second family we had to say farewell to tonight was our great friends the Ho Family.  Kimmy and I met at our mutual friend, Jenni's baby shower in the winter of 2009.  Our children were two months apart and we instantly hit it off.  I thought the best way to describe what our families have been through together in our short friendship was through pictures. 
Clare and Ayden have grown to be sweet little friends and watching their friendship has been one of my very favorite things.  Here is how it all began ....

This was our very first "playdate".  We went to ImaginOn and thought it would be fun to take the light rail uptown.  All was great until we were on our way back and a man decided to CHASE us with our strollers and babies!!!  Yes, fully CHASE! We are protective mamas and it was incredibly scary, so we did what any sane mother would do....called the police and stopped traffic on a major road and asked a sweet lady to wait with us until the police were there.  Yes...that was our first time together and I'm amazed Min ever let Kimmy hang out with me again!!!

This was before the scary chase when we were safe inside the library. 

This was our next playdate where we went to an indoor swimming pool at the Y.  So fun!!

Sweet friends playing at our house together!

One of my favorite pictures of the two of them.  They had been playing outside and their clothes were all wet...so they just hung out in diapers :)

And Clare got her first kiss ... haha

Fourth of July Parade in Indian Trail...I mean what else do you do on the 4th of July?!?

For Clare's 2nd Birthday the Ho family went with us to Lazy 5 Ranch to celebrate!  As you can tell I was very pregnant.  Kimmy is also pregnant, but not quite so far along....or so big!

This began the hand holding...its so cute...and it continues :)

They were sleepy after a big day at the Ranch so they snuggled!

Then....Elle was born!!  And we hung out on Halloween at Trunk or Treat!

Sweet as ever...

Kimmy, Min and Ayden spent Christmas with us last year, which was a huge blessing.  With their family in California and ours in Michigan it meant so much to spend such a special day with them!

And Kimmy made Clare and Ayden these super cute shirts!!

Clare LOVES Mr. Min.  It is going to be hard for her to not have him around :)

Then sweet Azariah was born!!!!

And we were invited to spend Easter at the Ho's house....another HUGE blessing!

I remember shortly after Azariah was born a few weeks went by that we didn't see Ayden.  Clare was having major withdrawls.

I totally remember this day, meeting at the park and it was like the two of them had so much to catch up on now that they were both older siblings.  Clare was just laying it all out there.

 

And here we are back celebrating the 4th of July at the Indian Trail Parade!!

In September we went to the zoo and Clare and Ayden got to ride horses!

And we celebrated Clare's THIRD birthday! 

When Clare had her first ballet recital Ayden showed up all dressed up....bearing sweet flowers for the ballet dancer :)  It was seriously one of THE sweetest things EVER!!

 

Kimmy grabbed this pictures of Ayden and Clare on a rainy day before we headed into a craft or story time...its one of my favorites and is on Clare's wall.

Then we celebrated Aydens THIRD birthday!!!

And our two little peanuts, Elle and Azariah had such a fun time playing together!!  Aren't they so cute???  I think one of the saddest things for me is that they won't have the sweet friendship that Clare and Ayden share.

So now you can see the difficulty our family is having with the Ho family moving to California.  In our short friendship we have experienced a LOT of life together.  We are so blessed by their friendship and have no doubt we will remain great friends (thanks to Skype!).  Tonight we had a final dinner them and shed a few tears (I shed a lot on the way home), knowing and trusting God has ordained this new journey.

We love you Min, Kimmy, Ayden and Azariah and you will forever hold a dear place in our hearts!  Ayden will always be Clare's first sweet friend (and first love...shhh!)