23 years of friendship

One of my best friends lived right behind me, growing up in Arkansas.  We played together as kids and we really played together as teenagers. She was the first person I ever got drunk with which gives her a lot of status among my memories. It was Boone's Strawberry Hill. Who knows how we ever even got that bottle. In such a small town of 3,098 people we had all the same friends, knew all the same people, had all the same classes and teachers and were cheerleaders together. I can't remember ever having a single disagreement. One of Jeanne's gifts is that she makes people feel comfortable immediately.

Now we're all grown up. She has two sweet kiddos, but her and a friend decided to road trip together from Little Rock, Arkansas to Dallas, with just the daughters, as a birthday surprise gift. We got to visit briefly and I snapped a few photos while they were here.

I loved getting to catch up in person. It was surreal to watch our kids hang out together. It was surreal for Jeanne's daughter to say "yes ma'am" to me. I feel like it wasn't that long ago when our own parents were eyeing us carefully from the corners of their eyes to make sure we were using all of our manners.

This was my first time to be around someone I've known since first grade with their kid. And holy cow, despite all those fun high school and college times, we became adults with our own kids who have manners. And they looked just so exactly like we did when we were little. Little spitting images with sweet Lainey towering over younger Penn, just like super tall  Jeanne has always towered over little me.