My Childhood Friend Janet

One day when I was about 5 or 6 a little girl came to our door delivering something for her mother.  I was sitting at the kitchen table (I can remember this like it was yesterday) separating the marshmallows from the cereal from a box of Lucky Charms.  I remember this because I was embarrassed that I was doing it and tried to hide it.  She asked if I could come out to play and well that was the beginning of a life long friendship.  Sadly I don't have any pictures of us when we were little.  I think these photo booth shots are the youngest that I have and they are from our Jr. High days.

                                                                                     Janet                             1968                            Kim

Looking back it seems like we were together more than not.  We spent the night at each other houses, we wrote letters, we talked on the phone.  I remember when we would hear our favorite song on the radio we would quickly call each other on the phone to let the other know it was playing.  She was good in school and I struggled.  I was more athletic.  I remember when she would write me letters she would ask me to let her win once in a while when we played tether ball.  We used to get together after school and we would make cookies, rice crispy treats, suckers, scones or just eat ice cream.  We used to love to get together and play the guitar and sing.  We loved having our little brothers John and Todd join it.  We were always tape recording ourselves singing and we thought we really rocked.  Listening to those tapes now....... we definitely did not rock.... but we had fun.  I remember the laughing.  Janet would come camping with my family and I used to go to the river with her family.  Someone once called us salt and pepper I guess because we were always together.

             

   
Here is a shot of Janet and Mom eating some of our homemade suckers.

                                                                                                         Camping

                                                                                                               The River

After high school we went off to Ricks college together.  The Best Two Years.  We had some good times there.  We added a new best friend to our duo and became a trio.

                                                                                                         Janet               Tammy                 Kim

Just a couple of weeks ago Janet and I took a road trip up to Manteca, CA to spend a few days with Tammy.   Together again after 16 years.  The last time the three of us got together was in 1993.  It was like no time had passed.  It was the same but different..... we are older.  We were not the silly teenagers we were when we went to college together.   We spent the our time together mostly talking.  We spent a day driving around San Francisco and we went to see "Wicked" at the Orpheum Theater.  Such a fun few days.  

I am so grateful that I was able to have a close friend while growing up.  Through the years we did have our ups and downs but for the most part we were always there for each other, always a good influence in each others lives.  I remember a time when I was so down that I just couldn't even get myself out of bed.  Janet was there to get me up and moving and going.  And a time when her heart was broken and I was there with her.  We always said that we would live close together all our lives.... well that didn't happen but we have stayed in contact.  We were really like sisters..... and when our parents ended up married we became sisters.  Well, it was really my mom and her father-in-law but that's close enough.  Thanks Janet for being my best friend forever.

Family Road Trip

Last week the family got together and went on a short road trip.  Short as in the amount of time but not short in distance.  We drove a lot of miles.  We were going to head up to Yosemite but we decided that we would do that another time when we could be gone longer.  So we spent the first night in Bakersfield at Janet and Brads bed and breakfast.  Friday morning we got up and drove to Sequoia National Park.  The weather was around 108 in Riverside when we left home.  Bakersfield wasn't very different.  As we got closer to the park the temp started dropping.  By the time we got up there it was somewhere in the 70s with a thunder storm looming off in the distance.  We had a little bit of rain but for the most part it was just about perfect.  Those giant redwoods were just amazing to look at.  I was a little sad to leave there so soon.  I think I would have liked to have a few more hours to wander around and see more but we had to go find someplace to stay.  We drove down to Fresno for dinner and to look for a hotel.  We stopped at an Applebee's and were just seated when the power went out in the whole intersection that we were at.  We sat and hoped that the power would come back on but it didn't.  All the waiters and waitresses were so excited because they were obviously going to get the night off.  We ended up at Chilis.  We got a nice room and got to spend a little bit of time in the hot tub before we went to bed.

 Here are some shots of the wildlife.  We had some veggie straws that the little critters just loved.  The chipmunk and squirrels were dainty little eaters.  They would nibble on them and store them in their cheeks.  The seagull on the other hand just swallowed them whole.  We even had a black bird/crow that was hanging out by us waiting for a handout.  The deer was just chilling on the golf coarse at Pebble Beach.  In the Sequoias we saw a deer that crossed the road and right after David looked in the rear view mirror and saw a black bear cross the road and go up the hill.  He was the only one who saw it.

 

The Next day we drove over to the Coast.  We started out in Carmel and took the 17 mile drive.  As we were driving along I kept thinking that I had done it before and then it came back to me that Craig and I did that drive on our honeymoon.  31 years later some things looked exactly the same but some things had changed a lot.  One thing that changed is the quality of pictures as you can see here from a picture from our honeymoon in 1979 and then when we were here again  in 1981.

Our plan was to go to Hearst Castle but we got there after the last tour and when they were closing up.  We were going to try and find a hotel close by so that we could go in the morning but there were no vacancy in anything for about 2 hours away.   So Hearst Castle will have to be some other time.  Holly finally found a place in Lompoc which was good because our next stop was Solvang.  The last time that Craig and I were here in Solvang I saw people riding around the village in these cute things called Surreys.  I have been wanting to bring the kids here for years so this was #1 on the list of things to do here. 

Do you feel safe putting your money here in the "Rabobank"?  Chad and Hans (below)

And here are the before and afters.  We were here in 1979 on our honeymoon and then we came in 1981.  I was looking for the red shoe and wanted to take a picture with Jarom.  In my mind I remembered taking this picture with Jarom when he was a baby and then when I got home I looked for the picture it was with Craig.  Darn....... Oh well they say that the mind is the first thing to go. 

And last but not least..... I had to take a picture of this.