Mikey: A Tribute

Earlier this month we said a final good-bye to a dear friend. It was time for him to move on, and we knew this was coming... but we're still a little sad to see him go.

We first met Mikey just over 8 years ago. He became a part of our lives a couple weeks before Dave even proposed. He was already 11 years old at that time, fairly old, but still doing well. Mikey proved to be a loyal companion and often exceeded our expectations.

Mikey joined us on our honeymoon in Lake Tahoe, he traveled with us to Iowa several times, as well as to Oregon, Washington & California many times. He remained healthy through most of these trips, and his maintenance, upkeep and healthcare were more minimal than we ever thought possible. As our family grew, we trusted Mikey with the care of our first two daughters. When we graduated from BYU and moved to Oregon, Mikey came with us. When we packed up and moved back to Utah... Mikey came back with us.

Unfortunately, while in Oregon, we had our third child... and we began to feel Mikey's limits. He had great difficulty providing for our family of 5 and we were forced to find a new companion. Though Mikey could not fill the needs of our whole family and I saw less and less of him, he and Dave remained close for another couple of years. As our family grew to 7 with the birth of our twin princes, we realized that the costs of providing for a now 19 year old Mikey were more than we could deal with.

We decided it was time to let Mikey go... but he still seemed to have so much life in him that we didn't feel it was right to put him down. The first week of February we found a new home for him. A nice young mechanic offered him a home with his family.

It has been bittersweet to see Mikey go. We are grateful that we have found him a good home, but we are sad to see him leave our family. Mikey's new family has given him a makeover and he now looks half his age, and is almost unrecognizable as our lovable Mikey. He and his new family will be moving across the country to New York in a few months and Mikey will be able to enjoy even more of this beautiful country. We wish him well on his new adventures and hope that he has a wonderful time with his new family and enjoys the last of his (hopefully) many more miles.

Thank you for a wonderful 8 years, Mikey!

Mikey - Our 1991 Toyota Camry Wagon

January 2002 - 98,000 miles

to

February 2010 - 209,000 miles