Flashback Friday::Denny

I've been talking to Denny this week so I figure it's appropriate to finally get this posted. I've had this as well as a few other's docked for months because Friday's have been so busy.
Oh how I loved me some Denny. :)
I had the biggest crush on him for most of my grade school years. The only problem, he liked Ashleigh. The fact that his mom and Ashleigh's mom were best friends was not helping my case. Well guess what, I prevailed and we have a fun friendship to this day.
My only memory in this house,which was around the corner on another street from mine, was that his mom died of cancer there. She was the first person I ever knew that died of cancer. I was in 6th or 7th grade. His mom was my Merry Miss leader. She did the best object lessons. I still have all of them in a little jewelry box that I keep locked. I really thought a lot of her.
That was so hard on him! He struggled for a long time. It didn't help that his dad married the evil stepmother. That's when they moved here, except when they lived there it was a putrid pink! :)
I'm sure she's not that bad but we, being loyal to our friend, HATED her. She never treated him and his 3 siblings very well. All of them ran away at one point or another and it was heartbreaking for us to watch. Her two daughters took priority and then they'd added a bazillion babies since then. Ok only 6 or 7 but on top of the 6 that already existed, that's a lot. So at one point he was banned from being with me because I was a bad influence. Little did his parents know that he taught me lots of things I didn't know, most of them not good like shop lifting! He is another guy that I loved to make out with. That lasted through junior and high school until I met Bart. We would walk home from church or firesides and stand in this one culdasac under the same light pole and make out while all our friends gawked. After I started driving I'd take a bunch of our buds home and then we'd go to the parking lot in front of the mini golf place on Fairview and make out and then I'd always have to drop him off a few blocks away so we wouldn't get caught together. When I babysat Ali, 1 to 2 years old, he would come over while she napped and we'd make out the entire time she was asleep. Then when Eva would get home he'd sneak out the back and ride home. She finally told me one day that we didn't have to sneak. She knew he was coming over every day and loved watched him 'sneak' off. She said she would never tell either of our parents and to have fun! She was so cool. She is the one who introduced me to Pink Floyd by giving me Dark Side of the Moon for my birthday. I have LOVED them every since. It became great make out music. ;) The Wall aided in my break up with Bart and became an awesome album to draw to.
Anyway, our huge group would sneak out and I believe he was the brains behind the first event. But anyhow, most of the kids were in our ward. My brother and I would wait until our parents were asleep and we'd sneak out to meet our gang. This took place one summer from Memorial Day to Labor day, every Friday and Saturday night! We'd walk around and just chill together. We'd walk in the middle of the road on Cloverdale and when we'd see a car coming we'd all dive into the ditch hoping they didn't see us and try not to land on each other. We'd laugh and laugh. The funny thing is, for about a month we'd meet in the foundation of this housewhich was right across the culdesac from his house. We'd play cards and talk. Those are some of the BEST memories. Eventually we started going to the Wright's every night. Linda decided that if we were going to be out, she'd rather have us in her basement then out causing problems. I'll write more about them later. We all got caught eventually. I remember the first time for my brother and I. We were sitting in that foundation and all of a sudden we see my dad drive by on Cloverdale. Busted. Then a few minutes later we see him drive right in front of us on the other street. Then a few minutes after that we see him drove on Cloverdale again going the opposite direction heading home. By then we were scared to even go home. Finally at 6:00 am we went home to find the doors locked. He locked us out. That way we'd have to wake them up in order to get inside. We were creamed! Eventually they figured out just how big of a group was sneaking out and that they were all from our ward. A few Sundays later they canceled Relief Society and Priesthood and had a big meeting in the chapel for all parents. They all decided they needed to work together and be aware and not let us in their homes at night but send us home and call our parents. All because of us. Oh yeah! Seriously, most of the time it was harmless and I can say those are some of my very best memories. The first few times we went out we would toilet paper houses and tip over Porta Johns(the one by the Yeggy's was hit a few times!:)) but after that novelty wore off it was innocent fun.
Denny was by far my favorite spin the bottle player. When we'd land on each other we'd cheat and stay behind the fence twice as long as we were supposed to and make everyone mad so they'd just continue without us.
They moved to this house while we were in high school and we were so sad to not have him in our ward anymore.
After high school I loved visiting him in Logan on the weekends with Michelle. I wrote him while he was in his mission. We went through so much together, both joy and sorrow and several deep loses. I will forever be grateful for his friendship.
I still love visiting with him and his cute wife and now they have two beautiful kids!
They are coming in a couple of weeks and I am sooo excited to see them!