yesterday...

Yesterday began with this amazing sunrise,

and ended with dinner with old friends.

It was a long, exhausting, but fantastic day.

My mom, dad, sisters, Laci and I had dinner with the McCowan family, old friends we used to do the "horsey" thing with.  We have not had a family dinner together in probably ten years.  Does that ever happen to you?  You are friends with people and then you aren't, but nothing happened to cause the disconnection.  It's just that one day you wonder, "When did we stop seeing each other all the time?"  Not really sure when or how it happened, but it happened, and you wonder if you can ever go back to how it was before.  Truth is, I don't think you can ever go back to exactly what it was before, but that did not lessen the fun we had last night visiting and catching up.

The best part was remembering the things I had forgotten about them.  Most significantly, that they are the only family that matches ours in enthusiastic, loud conversations.  The evening was so loud I think my ears were ringing on the way home.  And, NO, I'm really not exaggerating.  Really.  Like the Silva family, the McCowan's also do not wait for others to finish speaking before speaking themselves, and can even switch from one conversation to another, and back again, within a matter of seconds, all without skipping a beat or getting lost in the maze of words.  I also enjoyed when they asked me why I named my daughter after my old show horse.  I love that because only people that knew me from my former "horsey" life ask me that, and sadly, not too many people I know now, really knew me then.  I'd show you a picture of Lacey the horse, but that was a time before digital cameras and I have not scanned any pictures of her (yet another project I'd love to check off my list).

Instead, I'll share a picture of the Laci you're more familiar with.

More beautiful than the Lacey before her, but far more maintenance.