My Favorite Little Brother

Last weekend Dan and I had the opportunity to make the wonderful 7 1/2 hour drive to my beloved state of Washington. Visiting my family is always so fun, I absolutely love being with my parents, sisters and brothers. We usually always get a volleyball game and hardly ever get to bed before midnight as we stay up playing games and usually laughing all night. Everything is ten times funnier after eleven or midnight. The purpose of this {short} trip home was to celebrate a new chapter in my little brother James' life. He will be leaving later this month to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake City Utah {south} mission. We are so proud and excited for him! I was so happy I had one last time to see him before he is leaves for two years. In case you haven't met James, here is a prime photo:

He was so cute, what happened?

 I'd like to think that James and I have always been pretty good friends. We're almost exactly a year and a half apart and did most of our growing up playing together.

 As we got older we became better friends and pretty much hung out all throughout high school, even though sometimes I couldn't stand him or his {girl}friends.

 It was especially fun when we were both in Rexburg together. He was always welcome at my apartment and enjoyed many meals, by the hands of my roommates :) We were even FHE brother and sister for a semester.

  Pretty much I have lots of good memories with my little brother and I can't wait till he gets back so we can make more. Here are just a couple of my favorites:

• When we were super little and shared a room james always fell off his bed at night with a loud thump but he hardly ever woke up, thats usually when hannah would get out of bed and put him back in bed
•  Pretty sure we wanted to hatch our own chicks and so we took eggs from the fridge and hid them in our sock drawers so they would hatch, sadly they never did...
• Though I hate to admit it {and haven't until now} I made James and I late to seminary regularly in high school. Luckily his teachers knew it wasn't his fault so they let him off easy :)
• Biggest fight I've ever had with a sibling was with James. It ended in a concussion for me, but hey I got the day off of work
• As we got older and more mature we had some pretty good heart-to-hearts

I just love this little guy and I'm so happy and proud of him for going on a mission. I'm glad that we grew out of our angry teenager phases {he's almost there} and became really good friends. I know I'm gonna miss him lots!