Category Archives: Minneapolis

This is Val. I still remember the day she moved in next door to me. I was 6 and she was 5. I was getting ready for bed and happened to looked out my window to see two little girls playing on MY swing set. So I yelled out to them that it was mine and they had to get off of it. Val yelled back that my mom said it was okay so after asking for her phone number 20 times and her saying they didn’t have a phone yet, we made plans to play the next day. That little conversation was over 22 years ago. We’ve been through all the major life moments so far together – those awkward middle school days, first boyfriends and first heartbreaks, college, being in each other’s weddings, and now a baby! I can’t believe my closest friend is about to be a mom and I could not be happier for her and her husband (who happens to be her high school sweetheart:) )

I had a lot of fun taking these photos – Val looks so beautiful in them and so perfectly pregnant. She even put up with me posing and styling her for images I KNEW she wouldn’t even want ha! I’m so excited to meet little Grayson next month and take photo after photo of him. He’s going to be funny and smart and so loved – Val and Nick will be such amazing parents! Looking at these photos makes me realize just how grown-up Val and  I are now. We spent years watching Home Improvement (Who didn’t have a crush on JTT?), playing endless hours of Donkey Kong Country, and so many summer days swimming in her pool. There really aren’t too many childhood memories I have that don’t involve her in some way – we even worked at the bank together in high school. She is the kind of friend where we don’t talk for a few weeks and all of a sudden we are having a two hour phone conversation and didn’t even realize it! Needless to say I love her a lot and cannot wait to watch her raise a family and see her kids make the same kinds of memories that we had growing up :)
xxTara