bo

One of my best friends growing up - Bo Pennington - passed away two years ago today.  When I found out, I was in Puerto Rico with my family.  We were leaving on a cruise to the Caribbean the next day.  Dustin arrived later that evening and I was so incredibly grateful to have him there to comfort me.  We missed the funeral but I heard it was really nice.  However, that week on the cruise, I got engaged to Dustin!  So this was a really poignant time of life for me.  

My brother Trevor was on his mission at the time, serving in Malaysia, and I wrote him this email:

Mom told me she wrote you an email about Bo yesterday. It really hit me hard yesterday. I was crying for a long time and then I talked with a bunch of my friends. I called bean first and told her and we were both crying. It was just such a shock. Especially since I just saw him Wednesday night at an institute fireside. I talked to him for a while and he said he was going to start coming to my singles ward. He was even joking with me about needing to play my harp more.

I have so many memories of Bo and I know you do too. 

playing street hockey
running the race for the cure
helping him and kasey pass Spanish in middle school
boating
driving you to school when he was a sr and you were a soph and blasting josh groban every day
when he taught everyone how to hold hands at jp's house
making cookies
when he taught me how to wakeboard
eating at cafe rio
the big jumpy thing in our backyard in the rain
choir tour
he made me lots of mix cd's
getting snow cones
john schmidt concerts
jericho road
his summer of corn throwing
youth conference
stake dances
"i like the way you move"
stake dances - we went to A LOT
pool parties at his house
high school dances - halloween dance soph year and jr prom!
going for drives in the "rabbit"
swing dancing - we won a cafe rio gift card once!
him singing to me and playing the piano for me many many many times
trek - he carried me across the sweet water river 
when i carried his big head poster around for a week when he ran for sbo pres 
taking walks in our neighborhood
lots more. 

Bo had a big heart and was kind to everyone!  He really influenced my life and I will miss him and I feel awful for his fam. It will take me a while to really get over this. I know that he is in a better place though and I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation.