quality friend time is good for the soul

one of my favorite things to do is to get together with a handful of my friends from high school, whether it's for brunch or a local hike.  we've been doing it sporadically for a few years now, and it's been really fun to reconnect with them and be present in each others' lives.

it just so happened that one of our planned dates fell on the day after we said goodbye to mollydog.  this made for great distraction and a little extra comfort from people i love.  it was a hiking hangout at nearby monrovia canyon park.  our last hike was here, but this time we were taking it easy and doing the quick 1.5-mile trail to a waterfall.

we got so much rain this winter, and everything was green and there was actually water rushing by during parts of our hike.  the sun was out, it was cool and crisp, and it was a pretty perfect day.

it didn't take us very long at all to reach the waterfall, and lots of other people had had the same idea. it was pretty crowded up there, and we had to wait a good bit before we could get a decent photo.  because if you don't take a picture, did it really happen after all?

on our way back down the trail, we came across the perfect spot for a shadow picture.  and because we're dorks, we definitely stopped for the photo op.

charlie's angels pose!

it also made for a really beautiful backdrop for another group photo.  we flagged down a nice man we'd chatted with at the waterfall, and he was happy to take this for us.

we made our way back to the car and headed into old town monrovia, where we stopped to grab some post-hiking breakfast.  one last photo op for the day:

there was lots of laughter and reminiscing and catching up, and it was a fantastic way to spend a sunday morning.  hopefully we can squeeze in at least one or two more hikes before it starts to warm up too much.