Near and Dear

Where do I begin?

I had the wonderful honor in capturing this beautiful family last week....

A family that is near and dear to my heart....

You see, I have known her for a very long time.....

Since age 3...which, really, is practically my whole life......

As kids, we spent pretty much every waking day together.....

Playing house, school, and office....

Making delicious stews out of grass, dirt, water, and old meat from the fridge....

Making up games while swinging on the swing-set....escaping from space aliens for example...

Playing on "the mountain" in her backyard, which was really just a mound of dirt and grass......

Climbing trees.....

Running wild in our neighborhood.....I am honestly not sure today how our neighbors truly felt about that....we were pretty much in everyone's yards!

Making fantastic sliding luges down our street in the winter......our street was freaky steep!

As you can see, I could go on and on......

At one point, I moved but we remained pen pals and saw each other when we could.

Then came high school and college.... where we still managed to email, talk on the phone, and see each other now and then....

Then came marriage.... where we were maid/matrons of honor in each other's weddings.... (and I must add she married a wonderful man--I am so glad to know him!)

And moves across country....where I still managed to visit her...  It was a very Mary Tyler Moore moment for me....I took a plane all by myself to the Big Apple.... and managed to get a taxi to get to her apartment in Manhattan....the scariest taxi ride I've ever encountered.  :)

As you can see....many memories I have that include her.....

Here we are today....with families....

Continuing on this journey of life as we are all grown up....

We now live close enough where I can see her more often.....

Now, we let our children play.......

I do hope our children can follow down the same path.....

For our everlasting friendship is priceless..... and I am blessed to have her in my life.

Thank you again dear friends for the honor!