should old acquaintance be forgot?

my answer to that question is a firm "no."  at least when it comes to old buddies

like the bates. 

when we heard that our favorite ohana would be coming back

to the mainland for the holidays we jumped at the opportunity of getting the old gang

from our former sacred student ward back together (minus a few key players like the

geddes's, who had family in town, and the bishopric). we literally had this day of fun

planned for months - almost five hours of driving seems like nothing when your besties

live on an island!

the day started with just us and the bates taking it easy at richard's parents' house (while

the whole family was out and about).  it was so fun to meet adorable little jenna, and catch

up with sam & melissa!  the coleman's met us a bit later, and we headed to cafe rio for

lunch.  next it was on to an amazing park where our numbers grew even more when the

stevensons showed up.

the park is amazing because it has toys that even us big kids can play on...

you can't really celebrate without something sweet, so we made our way to

menchie's, where we sampled the flavors until we were full, and then went on

to buy large tubs with ample toppings to make sure we were completely stuffed.

i have to thank katie for introducing me to menchie's in seattle - my love for

self-serve frozen yogurt has grown tenfold.

the morgans caught up with us at menchie's, finally making it a real party.

there were a couple of precious hours until the bates had to get back to their

family, so we decided to spend it like we did in the old days...playing some

wicked rounds of around-the-world-ping-pong, of course.

jenna and i became fast friends

we were sad to see them go, but so happy that we got to spend the day with them!

it was a special feeling having all of our friends back together for a day, and fun to

see and hear how things have changed over these last two years (almost).  the babies

are getting bigger, the husbands are getting funnier and less hairy, and the wives

clearly look better than ever.

i'm so thankful for the time we spent in the university 1st ward, where we made

friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime.  we said "aloha" to the bates, but

will hopefully be saying it again on a cruise in 2013!