hand-me-down jeans and a necklace from age nine

As comfortable as wide-leg pants are, I don't gravitate towards them a lot because they typically swallow me.  These Gap trousers were given to me by a friend and when I put them on, I knew I'd found my match.  Baggy, but not too rapper-esque and not too long.  The best part?  FREE.  Thanks, Kara. :)

And then there's this necklace.  This precious gem of a necklace I've had since I was nine.  My parents bought it for me while we were on a family vacation in Canada.  It's so special to me that I wouldn't wear it for the longest time because I didn't want anything to happen to it.  I would see it from time to time in my jewelry box and smile to myself as my sweet Canadian memories would flood back.  Canada... where I watched baby ducks attempt to learn to fly.  Where my brother and dad went out fishing in the mornings while Mom and I hit the beach.  Where I bravely jumped off a high platform into the cold lake water with my dad waiting nearby.  Where we went canoeing and paddle boating and ate bountiful meals at the lodge.

Twenty-one years later and I've been wearing my necklace again.  It reminds me of that perfect time I never want to forget.  It reminds me to let my future children know that nine isn't so bad and they should soak every bit of it in, because one day they'll be thirty and looking back at nine like it's some kind of princess dream.