Climbing Trees

It was so wonderful to see one of my closest friends from college recently. Nancy grew up in LA but now lives in Chicago with her husband and 3 kids. I've only been a bridesmaid twice in my life, and once was in Nancy's wedding. Her maiden name is Cohen, so we click. Just get each other. Love friends like that.

She was out in LA recently to visit her parents, who still live in the house she grew up in. I took Lauren for a day of reconnecting. And tree climbing, of course.

Nancy's parents live right next to the UCLA campus. We walked to an area of campus filled with grass and enormous trees, some whose branches grew close to the ground. Just the perfect size for pint-sized climbers to scamper all over.

Lauren spotted the trees and took off like a bolt, more than ready for her first George of the Jungle experience.



It was just about perfect.



With Sophie, who's almost 10.


[Lauren wanted nothing more than to be Sophie's shadow the entire afternoon.]

Jack, age 3.



Not to mention Daniel, age 7 I believe.



While Sophie and Daniel scaled the larger trees, Lauren and Jack decided to gather leaves to pile up for some fun. Only problem is we don't have leaves here like they do in the mid-West. So with my help, it literally took us 10 minutes to gather the puniest pile of foliage you've ever seen. But that didn't stop those two. To them it seemed like Mt. Everest.

To prove their point, they needed a running start. From, like, 50 feet away.



Their exuberance was positively contagious.





We then walked a short ways to a staircase that Nanc said was the one in the movie "Rocky."

Our fierce warriors getting ready to run.





And one little warrior who tripped and took a little spill (on one of the flat landings going down, not down the stairs).


[I know, what kind of mommy snaps a pic of their child instead of immediately cuddling them when they look like this? Not to worry, she got lots of hugs and kisses and was fine in, like, 5 seconds].

And those tears were more than wiped away when she spotted a real live bride strolling across campus. I'm not kidding.

See?



As if the day couldn't get any better, later that afternoon us girls all went for manis and pedis. Lauren and I then grabbed some dinner and headed home.

Can't wait for their next trip West. I hear some more trees calling a little girls' name. Not to mention I'm brokering a rematch with that staircase.