The Lakenan (+Johnson) Family

To begin with, sorry for the long post with no pictures, but it all happened so spontaneously that I wasn't prepared with my camera.

So yesterday when Joe and I got home from work, we were welcomed by a great surprise! New neighbors!  Their names are Josh & Jocelyn Lakenan and they were moving in to the apartment complex right next door to us.  The couple is just barely younger than us and are also in their first year of marriage.  Josh & Jocelyn have two dogs, Pouch and Burton, whom they adore and even though I don't like dogs too much, I have to admit that their little pups are cute.

When Joe and I showed up, they were in the process of unloading the family trailer.  Joe and I helped them carry their things into the new apartment and sort the remaining items based on which child's stuff it was (the family currently has three children attending Brigham Young University, two of which are married).  We were with them for most of the afternoon and enjoyed talking to them throughout the time.  After introducing themselves as Lakenan family, the parents and six kids told us all about their family and their trip to Utah as we unpacked, sorted, and repacked the trailer.  We were able to tell them about us as well and found that we actually had a lot in common.  It turns out that their family does homeschool, so with my Elementary Education background, Sister Lakenan and I definitely had a lot to talk about.

The Lakenans are such a bright and cheerful family that we loved being with them!  They made us laugh and feel comfortable around them so easily.  One funny coincidence was that their youngest daughter was named Emily as well.  She is six years old and along with her eight year old sister, Hannah, the two were delightful and fun little girls to be around.  They had fun being the "water girls" and always made sure people's water cups were full from the family water jug and were running around being great little helpers!  Being at college and in a Young Married Ward, I don't get to be around kids this age much, so that was fun for me.  I formed a fun friendship with these girls and completely adored each one of them!

Another thing I noticed about the Lakenan family was the love that they had for each other.  Not only were they all smiley and playful, but they never said a negative comment about each other or complained about the work they were doing.  They worked together as a family and everyone happily did their part.  Joe and I felt lucky to be included as a part of this for a while.  Also, Hannah was cute as she talked about how much she was going to miss her older sister who is moving out to college for the first time.  After listing off a whole number of things that she loved, she said that she would miss her sister more than all of those before running and hopping onto her sister's lap.

Once all of the stuff had been taken into the apartment or reorganized into the trailer, we all stood and enjoyed talking to each other just a little bit longer.  Who knew moving could be so much fun!?!?  But we really had made some great genuine friends and the time had escaped us as we worked together, laughed, and chatted away as if we were the oldest of friends.

Then to Joe and I's surprise, they decided to continue the fun and spoil us by taking everyone out to dinner.  Although we insisted they didn't need to do that, they wanted us to come and told us that not only was this a family activity, but Joe and I were now considered "part of the family!"  We couldn't say no to that.  So we piled on in the family van and after dropping the trailer off at the hotel, made our way over to Provo's famous Brick Oven!!!!

Yumm.

Our party (family) of ten stuffed our stomachs full of pizzas, garlic bread, pasta, sandwiches, calzones, salads, and Brick Oven's Old Fashioned Root Beer.  We all enjoyed every single bite and left full of the cheesy pizza goodness (and PLENTY of leftover boxes as well).

Unfortunately the family fun had to come to an end at some point.  The family still had some errands to run, so Joe and I along with Josh & Jocelyn (our two new neighbors) were dropped back off at home.  One thing we had learned at this point was that one thing we had in common was our sense of humor.  All four of us were able to tease, laugh, and joke with one another, which we did for the remainder of the night.

We had an absolutely fantastic day and are extremely excited about our new friendship!  We will hopefully get back together with them soon and have more fun times like we did today.