Guess I'll start first since this was my idea. Recall that the prompt is "First/favorite memories of April, Amy, and Julie." I'm starting with April, super glad for the opportunity that I gave myself b/c I had to share some words at April's engagement dinner and didn't have any idea until the day of. And I did a terrible job - luckily, April doesn't remember much about it. :) So here's to redeeming myself for my own satisfaction. Ha!
April, I think, has always marched to the beat of her own drum. I don't think she ever felt compelled to do anything just because other people were doing it. And she didn't back down from doing anything she took it in her mind to do even if it was possibly weird.
A prime example of this is something that she did in 6th or 7th grade I think. We lived in Boise at the time and April's best friend was Deanna Foutz. I have no idea where they learned it, but they sang a little song called "The Hairy Blues." Lyrics are as follows:
I've got it all over my belly, I've got it all over my back. You better watch out, I'm gonna have a hair attack! I've got the hairy blues, I've got the hairy, hairy blues.They had some actions, too! April sang it with gusto. The memory of it totally makes me giggle. One other fun fact, that may be surprising to some of you - April played football with the boys in elementary. It's true. :)
Julie had me impressed from the beginning. My first recollection of her is that she dared to mock Raymond. I enjoyed it b/c before Julie entered our lives Raymond was just an idol (at least to me). I loved him a lot - how could I not? He proudly claimed me as his birthday present every time he introduced me to someone! But everything Mom said about him painted him in the light of perfection. Kind of hard to relate to, y'know? She made fun of him, and it humanized him for me! It simultaneously made both Julie and Raymond relatable.
I have been racking my brain for very specific memories of Amy, but I can't really think of any that are specific! Nathan and Amy got married during my freshman year at BYU, and I plunged head first into dating after I arrived there. As was inevitable, I had many dating woes that needed talking over and Amy was a sympathetic and helpful listener having fairly recently just exited the dating game herself. And I don't recall that I met her that night, but the first night I saw her was onstage with Nathan and the rest of Dancer's Company. I was instantly in love with her hair (duh), but we found out later that we unknowingly witnessed hers and Nathan's first kiss; he stole one behind the cowboy hat that was part of his costume for a dance they did to Aaron Copland's Rodeo. *gasp*
