Memory Lane

Earlier this week my mom and I ventured to Bath and Body Works to hit up their annual sale--cause we're suckers for cheap good-smelling soaps and lotions.  Wellllll, wouldn't you know it, they brought back some classic scents from the 1990s--aka, my middle school years.  OHH EMM GEE.  Seriously, one sniff of Juniper Breeze or Plumeria and I was literally whisked back to 8th grade sitting in Ms. Longnecker's Language Arts class.

Needless to say, I HAD to buy some of these, cause, I am all about memory lane and nostalgia.

I actually snapped this pic of Rosie in the store holding my beloved middle school lotion scents.  See how excited she was?!  I spent the rest of the day telling her all about her mama's life wayyyyyy before she was even a twinkling in my eye.

Anyways, so these lotions got me thinking that I should do a memory lane/flashback post to some old school pics and fun little captions and backstories about them, because, who doesn't like a stroll down the path they use to walk, when big framed glasses and high top tennis shoes were in style?!!  I live for this, of course.  Ha!  Enjoy.

5th grade DARE graduation circa 1996...sportin' gigantic framed glasses and jorts.  CLASSYYYYY. 

My buddy Ian and I, Christmas 1986 I think.

Watching the Greentree Parade.  We STILL to this day sit at the same corner, now with our kids!, to watch the Greentree Parade every year.

The MacKenzie kids and the Pepins, wearing lovely matching reindeer sweatshirts.

Ian and me again--I should add that our moms were very good friends and Ian's grandma "Granny" watched Ian and myself from when we were babies through when we started school.  Ian and I have known each other foreverrrrrr, and now we're both parents watching our kiddos do the same crazy things we did to our parents!

Ahhhh, Team Lightning!  Hands-down my favorite softball team I played on!  Some of these girls I still talk to every single day!

Tillman Tigers soccer team, 1995 I think?  I was NOT GOOD at soccer.  Softball?  Yes.  Soccer, no way Jose.

I also wasn't very good at swimming, but I did it...and now realize why I did all of these sports during the summer: TO GET ME OUT OF THE HOUSE.  Well played parents, well played.  Patrick and Rosie will I'm sure be following my footsteps there.

Girl Scout Camp, 1996ish I believe?!  I love our oversized t-shirts.

I think this was 1994 or 1995 and my birthday party at a swimming pool.  I remember I was so excited that I got to invite both girls AND boys to my party!

Another softball picture from middle school.  What's funny is that I've reconnected (thank you social media!) with so many of the girls on this team that I hadn't seen since middle school!

Along with Ian, Robyn here is one of my oldest and bestest buddies.  She is the kindest most generous person I know, and has the biggest heart.  She's the gal behind TinySuperheroes -- and, if you haven't checked out that site, DO IT NOW.  You'll be inspired!  And go buy a kid a cape! 

Another pic of me and some softball friends!  Softball literally ran my life from 1996 - 2007.

High school softball...a couple years ago I was honored to be inducted into my high school (Kirkwood)'s athletic hall of fame.  I am still honored by this!

Summer softball buddies!

Another one of my favorite ball teams!  This was the Gamblers, and we had the crappiest uniforms out there, but we were amazing and beat up on so many teams.  'Twas awesome.

2000 I believe?!  Young Life trip to Florida over Christmas.  A lot of these gals I've reconnected with again since we parted ways after high school!

Another old and dear friend, Regan!  We've been buddies since we were 5 years old and now we live a mile away from each other, have 5 kiddos between us, and our kiddos will be in the same grades at the same schools.  How awesome is that?!

Camp Kirkwood!  Another genius move by my parents to get me out of the house all summer -- 8 weeks of summer camp at the local park.  Genius mom, genius.

Another birthday party!  Check out my dad's video camera!  It's gigantic.  And I'm pretty sure he's got that same shirt still.

Hanging at the {old} Kirkwood pool with my elementary school buddies!  To think all of us are now married and most of us have kiddos of our own!  CRAZY.

Checking out the flood of '93 waters with our neighbors Courtney and David that covered our ball fields and swimming pool that summer.

This was lunch with Robyn after we left the doctor where I got my cast on my foot put on.  Robyn came with us because it happened at her house--I did a triple cartwheel and landed on the coffee table.  CRACK went my foot.

I think this is at someone in this pics' farm?!!  I'm not sure.  I do know Regan and I were the oldest kiddos there and we were sportin' some sweet bangs.

More high school softball fun!  Oh how those uniforms have evolved since then :)

The bag I'm holding in this pic is my pin bag--did you know that back in the day the big thing to do was trade pins with other softball teams?!  I still have that bag of all of my traded pins somewhere.  I need to find it and relive those memories.

NYC family trip in 2000.  We had a blast riding the subway and touring the city.  I have some really eerie pics of the World Trade Center that I need to find--this was about a year before 9/11.

More softball fun, this was the St. Louis Thunder.  I think I was in 6th grade in this pic.  I love the yellow foam visors.  Ha!

Another pic from the YL trip in 2000 to Disney.  I think this was Pizza Planet--which I recall I really enjoyed the pizza there!

We all were on the same summer team but played on different high school teams!  I remember it was so much fun to play against your summer ball teammates during high school season.

Block party fun on the street I grew up on.  We had a TON of kids on this street!  It was so much fun living on a street with tons of friends--I really hope Patrick and Rosie have the same experience on our street!

So.many.kids.

Rachel was my bestie in elementary school, and we kind of grew apart in middle and high school, but since have rekindled our relationship and each have had a kiddo in the past 6 months!  So much fun reconnecting with old friends.

More block party fun!  1993 I believe.

This was my sophomore chemistry class--and yes, we all made those tshirts!  One of my favorite parts of that class.

No idea where this was, but apparently we had just had a flour fight?!  I think I was a freshman in high school.

My big theatrical debut: I played Rapunzel in my 2nd grade play.

Neighborhood Easter egg hunt, circa 1992.

Kindergarten!  I'm sitting down, first row, far left.

Robyn and I were pretty good at basketball.  Strike that, she was really good, I was mediocre.  Again, extracurricular enrichment, well played parents.

5th grade graduation!  I think that was the first time I ever wore a dress.  I was a bit of a tomboy. 

Last day of school freshman year.  I should do a side-by-side of this pic and now, cause not much as changed!  We still live in tshirts and ponytails!

My deep love and appreciation for the Wizard of Oz and Wicked go wayyyyyy back, circa 1990.

Sports Illustrated did a story on the Kirkwood-Webster tradition of the Turkey Day game my senior year in high school, so I needed to do something to get myself in the magazine--so my mom and I made me a costume of me riding a turkey.  I didn't get in the magazine, but I did get in every paper and newscast!  I'll take it.

I'll end with my all-time favorite sibling picture, circa 1991.  "From Our Happy Home to Yours" is what this Christmas card read, and won a'many photo contests back in the day.  Still one of my faves.  My parents were struggling to get us to all smile for a pic...Charlie, who was just over a year was having a no-nap meltdown, Ben was covering his ears cause Charlie was crying, and I was upset because my mom said I'd have to wear that dress forever if I didn't smile.  Needless to say, their plan backfired, but made for an awesome pic and story.

I hope you've enjoyed this stroll down memory lane!  I sure have!  I'll have to go dig up some more old pics from my parent's house and share some more on here.  Or I have a TON of old trip pics saved on my external harddrive, I could do fun little walk throughs of each of those vacays as blog posts too...wait, that sounds incredibly boring for anyone but me, and I'd probably lose the 4 readers I have doing that.  Strike that.

Until my next tickle of walking down memory lane, I bid you adieu.  Adios!