There you are, juggling kids, job, carpool, church, husband and housework and you THINK you've got it all under control. Then one morning you realize you put last night's ice cream away in the oven, safety-pinned lunch money to your husband's lapel and meant to take your dog to the vet but dropped him off at the dry cleaners instead. (Let's just hope his name isn't "Spot.")

It's time for a vacation.

Unfortunately, you have to pick up your son from clarinet practice at 4:00 so your well-deserved vacation has to take place entirely within three hours.

Facing just this sort of predicament, I got on the phone and called my two sisters, women who need a break as much as I do.

Living in the Springs, we decided to vacation twenty minutes away in Old Colorado City.

We carpooled together, parked on West Colorado Avenue and surveyed our options. Agia Sophia's? Meadow Muffins? Bon Ton's Café? With no husbands or kids in tow, we could enjoy any kind of dining experience our little hearts desired. No franchised coffee shops or kids' chicken fingers meals allowed. I felt like a kid in a candy store!

It was a very tough decision.

In the end, with fall leaves and autumn sunshine all around, we couldn't bear to eat indoors and ended up at Bon Ton's Café, at a street-side patio table. Other folks must have had the same idea, because there were small clusters of relaxed diners wearing sunglasses and fall colors at nearly every table.

In no time at all, Michelle, Renee and I were doing that laugh-until-you-need-CPR-or-diapers sort of thing that only sisters or best friends know how to do. (And this was sans alcohol, although no one within earshot of our giddy laughter would have believed it!).

One Mediteranean omelet, one cobb salad, one spinach salad and two orders of onion rings later, our hilarity---Smiley Face Yellow if you will---had mellowed and taken on the amber patina of afternoon sunlight. Conversation felt rich as we drank coffee and solved all the problems of our own lives, our friends' lives and even problems belonging to complete strangers. (Okay, fine, we gossiped).

By the time we gathered our things to leave, most of the patio tables were empty. Fall leaves skittered across the pavement. We linked arms as we walked, weaving final threads of conversation to and fro in the remaining moments before... well, before our lives were returned to their regular programming. At the very last moment, one of us remembered the miracle of camera phones and asked one of the Bon Ton waitresses if she'd mind taking our picture at the garden archway in front of the restaurant.

I'm really glad we remembered.

After all, who wouldn't cherish a souvenir from one of their most memorable vacations?