...And the other, gold.

You know the song, right?

I met Leslie when we moved to Texas. I was 10 years old. I walked into my church class and saw this little girl with very blond hair wearing a frilly red dress. I still remember it. We became fast friends. We lived in the same neighborhood and were the same age, but more than that we had a lot in common. We made up dances--in fact we involved all of the girls our age in our own little ballet production that we orchestrated for the church talent show. We wrote novels together--she wrote one, I wrote the sequel. We would go to the library in the summer and set our summer reading goals--always higher than anyone else's. I think one year it was 85. Of course we both reached it. We grew up together. We fought, we made up, we went to camp, we went to dances, we went to high school, we went to college. After we both got married, we ended up living across the street from each other. No matter how long it has been, or how far we have "roamed", we have always been able to pick up as if it has only been a matter of hours. And I got to see her yesterday for the first time in almost 10 years!!!!!

Leslie took our book writing adventures as 12 year olds to a whole new level. She is a published author! (Well, technically she has been a published author for a long time in magazines, but now she has a book!!) She published a book, The Journey Takers and is on her book tour. She happened to be stopping in Colorado for a day, so we drove up to Estes Park to meet her and spend the day with her family. We had so much fun! I got to meet her three youngest and she met my three youngest. The last time we saw each other we each only had one little baby. It was really great to reminisce and catch up. Her mom was with her and pointed out to us that we are the same age our parents were when we met. That seems so crazy to me (my parents seemed OLD back then!! I'm certainly not that old!!)

We went into Rocky Mountain National Park for the afternoon. We stopped off at the visitor's center so our kids could get their Junior Ranger badges. Then we hiked to Alberta Falls. Unfortunately, it rained on us for most of the hike, but we survived. We also stopped off to see Bear Lake before we headed back down into Estes for a nice BBQ dinner. The kids hit it off and were fast friends by the end of the night. We got back late (10:00 pm on a school night!!) but it was soooo much fun!

At the visitor's center--the ranger is inspecting the kids' work.
Before the rain started.

It was sunny, but raining. Here we are at Alberta Falls.
The kids at Bear Lake.And I just had to do this...

Us, 10 years old. She is the one with the really blond hair. I'm the scary looking one next to her.

12 years old. Gotta love the hair...
14 years old.
15 years old
17 years old (Remember, we lived in Texas.)
At my wedding. She was pregnant with her oldest.
And yesterday!!