best friend.

Best friends: they are awesome. Louisa and I have known each other since we were 5, and have been best friends since a little bit after. The stories are different on both sides...I thought she was my best friend by the time we were 6, but apparently she hated me until we were 10 :P

Regardless, we have been friends for a long time. When she moved to Montana when we were 14, right before our freshman year of high school, it was the most heartbreaking time. Ever. 

Since she left, she has visited Ohio several times, and I have been to Montana once (wow, I suck). And hopefully she will be visiting again this summer. And today is her 20th birthday. 

It's crazy to think that we are both 20 now. Time has flown by so quickly. I wish that we could have spent the last 6 years together, but I am incredibly thankful for the times that we have had together, as brief as they may have been. Long distance relationships are always really difficult, and we've certainly had our good times and our bad, but no matter what happens, I always know that you will be there for me. Every time we talk on the phone or anytime we see each other, it's as if you never left. 

I hope against hope that you will be able to visit this summer. I can't wait to have sleepovers again. And eat toilet paper. And stalk Mitchell Davis. And go on roadtrips. And most importantly, I can't wait for you to meet my other best friend, Andrew. 

I love you and I am blessed to have such a best friend as you. Thanks for the insane memories...here's to 20+ more years of those crazy times!

one of our very first wonderful sleepovers :)

the two of us before we sang a duet of "red river valley" together
at a co-op program :)

louisa's first visit after she moved away. according to the
date on the bottom of this picture...summer 2007

we were pretending to be queens...?

a scanned photo from louisa's childhood scrapbook.

i think this was before she left? regardless, we had just had
hot chocolate from muggs, which was really thick and kept
coating our teeth with brown gross-looking stuff. so what
did we do? spent the entire time trying to freak people out
by smiling at them....

summer of 2009

january 2010

summer 2010, our excursion to zacharyland :)