While on our trip to Washington this summer, my mom and the kids and I did a lot of visiting of places that held memories from my childhood. I was also lucky enough to meet up with my best friend from when I was 5 while she was on her visit from Finland. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other and now we both have our own kids. We decided to meet at Madison Park where we used to spend so much time together as kids.

I love this image of Claire…this is the park that I used to go to with my friend so often as a little girl as well as my dad on our Wednesday and Saturday visits…I promise those stone animals were much bigger when I was little…

After the park, we headed over for some lunch at a restaurant we’d all been to before although it was under a new name…and then a quick swimsuit change and a trip down to the beach. So fun to have our kids swim and play at the very same beach we played together as kids.

And no trip to Madison Park is complete without a trip to the Bakery…I didn’t get a maple bar, which is what I remember getting when we were little, but it was so cool to sit there with my best friend, her kids, my kids and both our moms as if we all just lived up the street again. Getting old and growing up is tough…keeping in touch with old friends is hard, and I miss her all the time. Finland is a long way from Utah…and Utah is a long way from Finland. But it’s amazing to see how we just slip back into close friends the second we see each other…