Tribute Tuesday

After coming across Les Blake's beautiful tribute to President Hinckley, I've been thinking about how great it would be to post some tributes of my own. I'm not going to promise a tribute every Tuesday, but we hear so much about the bad things people do out there that I'd like to highlight some of the great people in my circle.

My first tribute goes to my long-time friends. I grew up as one of those friend savers and still keep in touch with people I've known since I was five years old. It's been a blessing to watch each other grow up. This is a picture of some great long-time friends (we met when I was 14) on the night the first of us got married:

(Front: Jill Tranter, Melissa Ricord Lemon, Anika Darley, Ashlie Taylor. Back: Kendi Phillips, Jessica, Maria Dalton)

Here we are together this last April:

(Maria Harwood, Jessica, Ashlie Taylor, Melissa Lemon, Kendi Gailey, Jill Comerell)

These girls have always inspired me and made it easy for me to be my best self. I feel so lucky to have been able to grow up with them and to still know them. We've had a lot of crazy fun together and the best part of it is that I don't think we ever did anything I would now regret. We've played a lot of weird games, had crushes on a lot of boys, and had a lot of adventures, and I'm so grateful to have them as friends. I love you, my friends!