The Chugg Family is here!

18 months ago, in December 2009, our friends Jared and Geneva texted us a quick message…  “hey, do you guys want to move to Germany together?”  or something like that.   They are AIR FORCE and we are ARMY and Germany has slots for both.   It was that text that got us thinking about moving overseas and landed us here in Heidelberg a year ago.    I think at the time they were in shock of how fast our decision was made and our orders secure.  We were in shock too.  They had intended the move to be this year (2011) but we jumped the gun a little.   Well, after a hard decision process for them and many little bumps in the road… they are here.  Stationed just an hour from us.  And we couldn’t be more thrilled!

Let me back up a little bit.  We met Jared and Geneva when they moved into our BYU married ward  but were together there just briefly before we both moved across the country to Maryland where Chris and Jared started medical school in the same class.  We both moved into the Montgomery Village ward and spent the next four years becoming best friends.  Jared and Chris carpooled to school, studied, and played basketball together.  Geneva and I met for lunches, play dates and weekly girls nights.   At the beginning, when we had baby Ryan and they didn’t have any yet, we could all fit into Chris’ little neon for our adventures.  Then they had Carter, we had Katie and they had Hanna.  We bawled when we said goodbye during our fourth year of Medical school… both off to different places for specialized rotations.   After graduation we moved to Washington.  They moved to California.  We moved to Georgia.  They moved to Vegas.  We had Emily.  They had Jake.  We had Megan.  They had Josh.  We had Luke.  They had Cole.  We had Matthew.    For the last 9 years we have visited each other’s houses, seen each other’s babies, met each other’s friends and met up for girls trips, couple trips, and guys golf retreats yearly or more.    And now we get to live by them again.  Not in the same ward, unfortunately, but in the same Stake… and only an hour and 15 minutes from door to door.   We’ll take it.

On Sunday they flew into Germany and on Monday, Chris and I drove over to  Schwedelbach to pick up Geneva and kids and bring them back to our place.   They spent the week with us while Jared was busy with in-processing.  Without cars to fit 3 adults and 11 kids, we enjoyed the first few days at home, relaxing, wandering around Sankt Leon and helping Geneva and the kids get adjusted to the new time zone.   It is SOOO great to have them here!!