All Those Years Ago

Granted, it was a while ago, but I gave fair warning that there may be old photographs making an appearance on this blog at some point. Ancient, grainy photographs, scanned from many yellowing photo albums unearthed from my parents' house, that would appear here to serve a single purpose:

TO SHOW THE RIDICULOUS HAIR WE ALL HAD IN THE '80s.

I attended my 20-year high school reunion this summer, you see, which afforded me the luxury of getting together with many of my old friends and the dubious opportunity of looking back at some of the memories I had kept from The Aqua Net Era -- or in my case, the Era of 1,000 Peroxide Bottles, Crimping Irons, and Spiral Perms.

Yes, spiral perms. Good God, I am so glad I'm no longer a teenager.

Here then, are some shots that show me back in the day with my best gal pals, interspersed with recent shots of all of us. So sit back, relax and get ready to laugh and point, then gasp with shock at how impressed you are at how elegantly we all grew up -- and out of the Dare to Have Hair decade.

At our senior picnic, 1988.
Back row: Julie, Carolynn, Karri, me and Margo.
Front row: Gretchen and Abril.

San Clemente High School graduation, 1988.
From left: Cari, me, Carolynn and Julie.

Luncheon preceding our 20-year-reunion, 2008.
From left: Carren, Marty, Carolynn, Gretchen, Julie, Karri, me, Cari and Abril.

Here's a closer look at some of the changes of time.

Me and Abril in 1988...

...and in 2008.

Craig and Marty in 1988...

...and Carren and Marty in 2008.

Cari, Carren and Gretchen in 1988...

...and Gretchen and Carren...

...and Cari in 2008.

Me, Julie and Karri during the commencement ceremony in 1988...

...and Julie and Karri in 2008.

Back row: Carren, Lynnell, Julie, Gretchen, Carolynn, and Chele.
Bottom row: me and Margo.
1988, clearly. (Did you see the wash on that denim dress?)

Carren, Chele, Lynnell and Gretchen...

...and Carolynn, me and Chele in 2008.

Cari and Gretchen in 1988...

...and Cari and Karri in 2008.

And finally, my absolute FAVORITE photo from the entire reunion event, wherein Julie captured Carolynn and Karri buying classic '80s beverages that they would eventually smuggle into the reunion party to share with the rest of us.

Does anything else say '80s girly buzz better than Bartles & Jaymes berry wine coolers?

These, ladies and gentlemen, are my friends.

San O: A Tale of Six Summers

During the summer of 2002, when Finney was about a month old, John and I took him to Old Man's at San Onofre State Beach for his very first beach day. Here's a rough scan of his baby scrapbook, marking that momentous rite of passage as a Southern Californian.

A year later, that little baby somehow became a toddler, and it was at San Onofre where he practiced taking his first steps.

Then, when that little toddler turned two, we held his birthday party at San Onofre, under the Dogpatch palapa. Here's a scan of his baby book page commemorating that day.

The next year we welcomed a little sister for Finn, and promptly initiated sweet Shea into the San Onofre lifestyle.

And, just like her brother, that small babe turned into a toddler, stumbling across the sand, growing more confident with each wobbly step. Again, we visited San Onofre.



And yet again.



And then we moved to Hawaii, which has countless gorgeous beaches, but no San Onofre. So we were delighted to visit our old summer playground -- "San O" -- for an evening barbecue and campfire with Cari and her family during our mainland vacation.

What It Do, Logie Boo?

Remember these adorable three-year-old preschoolers, winding their way through a pumpkin patch hay maze back in 2005?


Well they're six years old now and in the first grade, but would like you to know that they're still very much pals and friends and best boogie boarder buddies and all that good stuff. And can you just step a little to the left, please, so we can play with this video game?

One of our first matters of pressing business while in California was to log some serious play time with Finney's buddy Logan and his family. Here the kids are at the local park, eating Kultured Kitchen frozen yogurt, playing chase with the bigger kids, and being generally puppy-dog adorable.

Part of our grand vacation plan included scheduled kid-free Mommy time for Gina and me, so we made sure to get it inked in long before our plane's wheels even touched the ground at LAX. Here we are with Cari outside the restaurant where the three of us had a lovely dinner, and later at one of San Clemente's best old dive bars, The Red Fox Lounge (which, sadly, due to a slow, city-wide gentrification over the last decade or so, isn't red, foxy, or even all that loungey anymore. We had a good time anyway).

Before our vacation was over, we were even able to get the Dads involved for some quality barbecue, corn on the cob, homemade macaroni and cheese -- and surf talk. Jerry, you see, is a real-life master surfboard shaper by trade and -- how cool is this?!? -- made John a custom surfboard during our visit to match his height, weight and even paddling-distance tendencies. Now that we're home in Hawaii again and the new board has cured, John's like a kid on Christmas morning every weekend riding his very own new, shiny tricycle. In the water.

Once again, good times all around.