The Free Ice Cream Friendship Truck

I have two friends, Aurielle and Danielle, who might be my spirit animals. They are a more fun, less stressed out version of myself 5-8 years ago. Like imagine me without the trauma of dealing with the trifecta of DHS, a house fire, and Covid during the funnest, craziest season of young mothering. They are energetic and ambitious, and they remind me to be a fun mom. Another bonus is their oldest kids at home line up to play well with my younger kids. 

Yesterday, Aurielle invited us to join them in playing “free ice cream truck”. We arrived empty handed, and there was a DJ beat mix of ice cream truck music blaring on a speaker, a dozen kids dancing in the kitchen and loading ice cream popsicles and dry ice into coolers. The kids made signs and a menu, we loaded the entire crew into the pickup, cranked the stereo up loud enough to be heard 2 streets over, and set out on the road like a pied piper. 

Aurielle had posted on two neighborhood fb pages, so lots of kids and neighbor friends were out waiting. We also texted members of our ward to come outside for a treat. This was honestly the most fun part. I was surprised that my kids requested to visit friends who don’t have small children at home. They wanted to see Tiffany J, Valerie C, Ross C, Amber S, and Gina B. So we did! We also drove by Ganz, Binghams, Fuhriman, Hathaway, Crabb, Stewart, Lee, Grover, Smallwood, Frakes, Johnston, Robinson Fajardo, Dragovich, and Riches residences (and more I’m sure, I don’t even know) to try to catch as many friends as possible, and stopped for any neighbor or worker along the way. The kids learned to say “es gratís!” when a few patrons tried to pay.

I forgot just how geographically concentrated my ward is. Sugar creek is totally stacked with members as neighbors, it’s no wonder they plan all their activities in these three neighborhoods, almost everyone lives in here. I felt like we were still in Daybreak or American Fork! Being able to see so many friends in minutes was a dream. We loved all of it. Soren hopped out at the Frakes about halfway through our adventure. He had already been to early morning cross country practice and mowed two lawns and had enough sun. He stayed to game with Dean and Tanner and some other boys for an hour and was very happy. 

This was just the greatest, and will be added to our summer bucket list, for sure! The kids want to do a primrose free popsicle stand one day, and another ice cream truck to our Bella Vista friends. Thanks Dani and Aurielle for inviting us. They gave away so much more than ice cream. The world needs more women with their joyful and complimentary hearts.