From Princesses to Prime Ministers

For almost the last week, I have been on vacation in South Carolina. On paper, it was not the best planned vacation. I'd be getting up at the crack of dawn and basically going, going, going until bedtime. But it was with some of my most favorite people in the world!! My parents and older sister and two nieces! (For the record, this is not all of my family and I wish they all could have been there!!) And it was such a great time!!

First of all, my nieces are THE cutest kids on the planet. I know I'm biased but seriously, they are toooo funny! Cayton (age 6) is one of the cutest, funniest, loving kids I know. And Raygan (14 months) is just so cute you could eat her up! I have sooo much fun being their Aunt Beck Beck (and Nolan's too!) and hanging out with them was exactly what I wanted to do with my time off. I could think of nothing I'd rather do than read "Goodnight Moon" a million times to Raygan or pretend to be a princess or mermaid or fairy in the pool with Cayton. She has such a vivid imagination and sometimes I can't keep up with who I'm supposed to be pretending to be. But we had so much fun in the pool and walking on the beach! And walking with Raygan is such fun too! She would strut down the beach in her little bikini with her belly hanging out and she made friends with every person she saw. She really is a people magnet! Both of the girls have killer blue eyes that just melt your heart when they look at you! And on top of the fun with the girls (and my sister), I got to hang out with my parents too! I got to spend Father's Day with my daddy for the first time in many years! My mom and I played a duet in church on Father's Day. I'll count that as my present to him! It was priceless! (As in, no one in their right mind would ever pay to hear me play the oboe!) Plus, we got to spend a lot of time hanging out and playing cards together. It was just sooo much fun! But the best part was that while I was there with them, they celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary! They have been such wonderful role models and just excellent parents (even during those teenage years where I probably went out of my way to not be associated with them!) They have loved me (and my sisters and brother) unconditionally through it all and I am so blessed to be able to call them Mom and Dad!

On Tuesday, Cayton's BFF and her mom (Ryley and Melissa) made their way to the beach and we got to hang out too. Cayton says she loves me but she loves Ryley more. And Ryley and Melissa are a lot of fun! Ryley and Cayton together are just toooo cute!! And of course that meant double the fun playing in the pool and pretending to be mermaids and princesses.

So on Wednesday evening, I had to leave all the fun with my family and come home because I had to work today. Boo. I do love my job but I'm telling you, I LOVE being able to disconnect every once in a while and focus on other things besides the moment-to-moment happenings in the world. And apparently while I was gone, it was quite a busy week at work. Apparently events in the world did not stop just because I was at the beach.

But that is one thing I love about my life. One day I can be pretending to be a Princess and then literally 24 hours later, I am dealing with a Prime Minister.

Today at work, after spending about two hours deleting e-mails from the last week, one of my favorite world leaders came to visit- Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Almost a year ago, I saw him at his place in Moscow and then I saw him again in Pittsburgh last fall. I think I like him so much because I can confidently say his name correctly after many hours of practice. Medvedev. Med-ved-ev. Med-ved-ev. (It doesn't come across on paper but trust me when I say, that I have spent HOURS just repeating his name over and over!) Plus he's not that tall so he automatically scores points with me. Plus I enjoyed my time in his country last year! So POTUS and Dmitri had their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office (which they didn't invite us to) and then they headed to Ray's Hell Burger to grab lunch! POTUS likes their hamburgers!! He and VPOTUS went there last year at some point! For a POTUS whose wife is busy promoting healthy eating and exercise, he never orders anything healthy. But heck, I would have ordered the exact same thing!

Then they came back to the WH and had a presser. I didn't recognize any of the Russian press from my encounters with them from last year! But talk about having to just jump right back into the swing of things after vacation! This place was hopping today!
After the presser, POTUS and POR walked down the driveway and across Lafayette Park to the Chamber of Commerce. I wanted to know what they were talking about but even though I was close, I wasn't quite close enough to hear what they were saying!