Then and Now

Holli, Kayelynn, and I decided to have a girls-only weekend since we moms never seem to get a substantive break. Since I am a frequent visitor of Disneyland (comes with the season pass), the girls wanted my "insider tips" on the parks for future trips with their own families. I was happy to oblige. For goodness sakes . . . Disneyland with no kids, no strollers, no backpacks full to the brim, and the potential to go on rides with actual height requirements? What would I do with myself? However, as someone commented -- and I won't name names -- "Three adult women going to Disneyland is the stupidest thing in the world." (or something close to that). Well, we showed her -- stupid or not, we had a great time. :)

First, the boilerplate: Holli and I hung out sporadically over the years. We were friends in high school, but we were the kind of friends that didn't hang out much but liked each other anyway. In college, our big bonding experience was a wild weekend in Vegas when we decided to ditch our friends who went camping (I still laugh when I think about that trip -- don't worry, nothing too wild -- although I still wonder if my friend Reggie has ever forgiven my part in the whole episode). However, when she married Reggie, I knew I could never escape her (thankfully). I was happy for their union. Kayelynn and I go way back to Dixon Junior High when we were in an art project group together in Miss Cahoon's class. I was impressed with her back then . . . so nice and fun. In high school we became better friends as our social groups merged. However, college did it for us. As our friends were marrying off, we wallowed in dating confusion together. I invited her and one of our friends to a family cabin up in Waterton National Park (Alberta, Canada), and we had such fun being giddy and hyper -- I'm sure annoying our male companion. I've traveled with both of these girls and had lots of fun, so we had to do it again.

Here we are in our high school glory days. The first picture is of Reggie and Holli at a Valentine's Day Dance. I'm not sure why Reg is sticking out his tongue . . . but little did we know they'd be future spouses. In the next picture Kayelynn is looking amused as it appears Philip and Reg have some romantic rivalry going. Doesn't Phil look jealous as he looks at Reg leaning on Kayelynn? Honestly, they were all just friends, but I've always thought that pic was hilarious. And then there's my Senior Class picture, which is annoying. Why did they pose us so silly? And, yes, my hair really did glow back then. :)

And here we are more than a decade later (we haven't aged a day!).