Long goodbyes

This weekend marked one of the saddest occasions of my entire life. Seriously EVER.

Despite Josh and I praying with real intent somehow Cameron and Jamie couldn't find anything to keep them in Utah any longer. Cameron succesfully passed all of his classes resulting in graduation from the U. None of their families moved to Utah. The Ocean didn't flood all of the states between Washington and Utah (creating a beach closer to Utah). The climate didn't change to constant rain and real green trees (I vividly remember being 16 years old, driving to California for a school trip and realizing that trees and grass were really green. I'd never seen the color green in real life before - just Utah's pathetic attempt). The Columbia River didn't change it's course and start running through Salt Lake City, and Cameron's dream job didn't fall into his lap (without him applying anywhere) offering to pay him disgustingly huge amounts of money that he couldn't turn down. Since NONE of these prayers were answered in the affirmative, Jamie and Cameron are leaving. They are moving to Richland (or somewhere close to that) Washington AND we aren't.

Jamie and I met during my second year at college and she has been my very best friend ever since. We moved out of the dorms together, and we were roommates until Cameron stole her from me. I got married just after she did, and we've both been there for all of the big things in each other's life since then (broken hearts, weddings, first beach experiences, babies, moving, job changes, losing our husbands to school/work, getting our husbands back, the list goes on and on). Fortunately Josh and Cameron get along (which isn't surprising given that they both get along with virtually everyone they meet) just as well, and we have seriously had more fun together than I ever could have imagined. I can't even begin to list the fun things we've done together - in fact it's probably easier to list the fun things we haven't done together which includes: leaving the country, and.....well that's all I can think of. I think we've done everything else. The boys go shooting, play nintendo, and covet guns on the internet, while Jamie and reminisce (who knew that was such an ugly looking word?), color, cook, play with Evie, and covet house stuff on the internet. This was seriously the perfect match and I'm struggling to realize that it won't be quite like that anymore.

Saturday we celebrated our birthdays (mine last week, Jamie's next week, it's like fate!) by going out to dinner, and coming back to our place for games. We played, ate ice cream, and hung out for probably the last time like that. We'll see them again, but with graduation, Evie's blessing, and them getting ready to move (on top of the horrible schedules of Josh and Cameron) that was probably the last time the 4 of us had game night. As they were leaving I started to go upstairs and just cried. Fortunately Josh is kind and understanding and he let me cry for longer than I probably needed to, but it felt good to know at least he wasn't leaving me. I just don't do well with change, and this is like losing a sister. Fortunately there is no doubt in my mind that we will keep in touch. Our kids will know each other, and we will be life long "family friends" where everybody gets along (our kids will like each other, and THEY WILL LIKE IT!). Who knows, maybe we'll follow them to Washington eventually, but in the mean time, I'm getting used to saying goodbye, and trying to come to terms with the fact that they won't live 5 minutes away anymore.