visiting home

last week from june 21st (the day school ended on tuesday) to june 26th (a sunday) i finally went back to indiana. from the second i stepped off the plane and breathed in the fresh and green indiana air, i felt as though i never left. there's just something about that place that makes me feel alive, free, empty of all worries and regrets. my friends accept me more for who i am, and i can be whatever i want to be or act however i want to and they will always be by my side. they're not as self concious and more understanding, perhaps since i've known all of them since fourth grade. the entire area is open and full of fields and just land with grass, different than all the trees i see here in massachusetts. as i walked through my neighborhood, my footsteps already seemed to be imprinted into the pavement and i just followed them ahead. my friends didn't change at all, and i never fully realized how much i missed each and every one of them. and i was there with my camera to capture every moment: this is the story.

the first day:

 taken on the airplane ride from manchester, nh to atlanta, ga

landing in the indianapolis airport.

that night we arrived at home at 2 am but i was so amazed to finally be back.

my best friends katherine (shown) and dhwani met up at 6 in the morning to watch the sunrise. however, it was too cloudy to see the sun but we had a photo adventure. this is the first photo i took.

the gift that katherine got me (the green gryffin) as an inside joke while she had the red snake.

katherine went into spiky weeds on the golf course so i could take pictures.

after we went to katherine's house to eat breakfast (ice cream!) and kenzi visited before leaving on a cruise to greece.

i know, she's gorgeous.

katherine's backyard

katie c came over and i fishtail braided both their hair.

katherine & her guitar

then natty joined us and we went to an abandoned house in the neighborhood. it got boarded up, but someone kicked open the door. 

we got too chicken to go too far in because it was all dark.

katie's an amazing dancer. this is out in a field behind the house.

then everyone had to leave besides natty and DJ and kelly joined us. this is in the backyard behind my house with our izzes (and where we suspect we got bitten by tons of chiggers)

my gorgeous best friend kelly (candid)

that night we had a sleepover at katherine's house and we went to our old junior high track & football field through the hole in the fence in her backyard. 

then it started raining.

then that night we spent talking and catching up, and then setting alarm and waking up to listen to the announcement of pottermore at 7. we were one of the first to get our emails in.

 we played harry potter trivia.

the second day:

 i met up with vera (who i knew from orchestra in 7th grade), evan (who i met online last year), and yasmeen (as the model, who i also met in orchestra) to have a photoshoot. it was an amazing experience, and we went in the woods.

vera

evan

evan's sister annie

then i went to kelly's house and made wands (mine looked coincidentally like voldemorts). that night we all went to DJ's house to watch Mulan on her new projector screen in her basement and eat tons of pizza, then had a sleepover at my house. that night was full of card games and laughing far too loudly.

the third day: 

i didn't bring my camera, but we went to the big outdoor mall in our town and planned on watching a movie, but instead went shopping. it was fun to finally be back at the place where we spent most of last summer.

that night i had dinner with some of my mom's friends whos kids i've known for five years. i also met some new children.

chewy the hamster

we decided to have a break from sleepovers that night.

the fourth day:

i dropped off my sleepover stuff at natali's house and almost died because of all the vintage cameras i saw in her basement.

there's plenty more but there's more to blog about.

then we went to the freedom festival where there were tons of little booths that sold crafts. this looked like a wizarding chess set.

fancy boating hat that "will not fall off at 30 mph!"

"puppet farm" booth in which the guy made the puppet spit a pacifier at me.

delicious snow cones (natty's on the left turned into a rainbow!)

katherine stuck twigs in the ground so i had to take a photo of it.

i made a clover chain (creds to katherine for the photo)

i went home and had some time to take selfs before leaving for a dinner at my mom's friend's house.

i went back to natty's house where katherine and kelly were already there and played with sparklers.

kelly and natty's little brother connor.

light painting

"you two look like the michelin tire guy!"

after light painting, we went back in the house and watched bones, dora, and wonderpets. we decided to take a 30 minute nap and then wake up again, but we ended going back to sleep. we set up another one to see the sunrise, but we slept through that one.

day four:

this was the last day. we were woken up by natty's mom at 9 and realized that i had to leave in 45 minutes so we took about a million random pictures.

"guys, let's take a normal one" "wait, is that possible?"

i just have to say this is the definition of us. katherine with her wand, kelly..being kelly, natty going "what the heck is wrong with you guys", and me with my "chick magnet" helmet/bucket.

group hug

steve/joe the panda with um..my bra. long story.

so it was goodbye. this was the last picture i took, which was ironic because the first picture i took was of katherine and her camera as well.

all in all, it was an amazing four days and i couldn't have asked for a better experience.