"Vacation", Vacation, "Vacation"

Well the month of July is almost over and it's been an interesting one for me. This is first full week of the month that I'm going to be in the office, and it's the last week of the month. The first week of the month I went to Utah for a team meeting with my group at work. When we get together for a team meeting there is a bit of work and play, but the work even, is just meetings and conversation, so it's kind of like a "Vacation" from the norm. Plus, I got to play 27 holes of golf that week, including 18 holes on my favorite course ever, Hobble Creek in Springville, UT. Then we played the newer "Mountain 9" at Cascade. That was a crazy course. Then it was the 4th of July weekend, then the next week, I was in the office for Mon-Tuesday and we left on Wednesday to drive up to Indiana for a week-long visit with my sisters Stephanie and Sarah and their families.

That was the actual vacation. It was a lot of fun. The children did really well on the 500 mile drive each way and we had a ton of fun while there. We we able to go to the children's museum, which was awesome. It's about 10 times as big as the one here in Atlanta, and much, much nicer. We also went to the zoo and it too, was much nicer than Zoo Atlanta. Sorry Atlanta, but you really need to pick it up on the family attractions! Tara and I were able to have a night getaway with just the baby which was nice, a little late 10 yr anniversary celebration. I was able to play another 18 holes of golf with my brother-in-law Chris and two of my nephews. That was a lot of fun.

On Carter's birthday, we had a cookout and my sister Sarah threw Carter a backwards birthday party. The streamers were on the floor and the balloons hanging from the ceiling, and everyone was wearing their shirts backwards. The cakes were upside-down cupcakes. It was very well done. Thanks again Sarah! We had an adult night out, and plenty of other time together as a family. Including pizza and bottle rockets the evening before we left. It was a lot of fun visiting with Sarah, Steph and their families. The children were all a lot of fun and great to spend time with everyone. I can't believe how big everyone is getting.

We got back on a Tuesday night and I was in the office for 3 days that week, then last Monday I left for a Mon-Thursday trip to Philadelphia to a client. Typically for me, a trip means I'm at the end of a project, so the time leading up to the trip is crunch-time and while I'm travelling, I'm testing and wrapping up code, and in the evenings while at a client site, I'm working to fix something so that it's corrected for the next day as we run into issues. This trip was just some assistance and training about some things that were already in place, so it was a very relaxing trip with a client that is very easy to work with, so it was another "Vacation". So it was 4 weeks with a total of 6 days in the office. Pretty nice for me. Of course, my two "Vacations" weren't such for Tara. When I was in Utah, the children definitely could have been better, but they went to bed and were much better for her last week. Can't believe we're almost in August already, school starts in less than 2 weeks for us, and this August is 4 years for me at this current position at work, and is my 10 year anniversary with LexisNexis. Crazy! Well, I'm going to post some pictures, but not part of this post, in a separate post. Also, got a new quote I've been meaning to add from Jackson, check it out.