I feel the earth move under my feet...

And other natural disasters...

Well as I'm sure you all know, while I was in Martha's Vineyard, the East Coast experienced the biggest earthquake in centuries! We were in the workspace watching the riveting coverage from Libya about how Tripoli had fallen and Mr. Gadhafi was somewhere in hiding. It was actually incredible TV and I couldn't stop watching. It meant that we had a little momentary lull in liveshots but we were still working hard. And then all of a sudden, one of my colleagues from another network said "look at the wires crossing... there was an earthquake in DC!" And as soon as she finished that sentence, we all noticed that the room was shaking and the little chandeliers were swaying. It was ever so slight but when I realized that we were 500 miles away and not technically connected to the mainland, I thought it had to be a fairly big deal. I have never been in an earthquake and was a little freaked out that the ground was moving so far away so I could only imagine what it was like closer to the epicenter!


Immediately, my blackberry exploded with hundreds and hundreds of emails about the quake but the one that stood out to me was that the epicenter was a town between Charlottesville and Richmond. That's exactly where Brian's grandpa and uncle and aunt live so immediately I was worried about their safety. It took a little time but we heard from one of Brian's cousins that everything was okay on the farm and I could breathe a huge sigh of relief!

Brian was on his way home and was actually in Rhode Island at the time of the earthquake and didn't feel it. I originally thought he was going to get stuck in the airport due to delays but it turns out that he got home only about an hour late! Amazing! I've been much more delayed than that before without the excuse of an earthquake! As soon as he got home, he went to check out the damage at his place and mine. At first I got the message from him: "everything is good! No damage!" I was so relieved until the next message: "Now going to check out your place!"

Well I have a lot more stuff than Brian so I knew I wouldn't be so lucky. The next message I got from him was "it could be worse." Many things fell off shelves and cabinets, including my poor plate collection. Ever since I started traveling abroad, I have bought a plate or piece of pottery from each country so I could remember my visit. Each plate has some shade of blue in the design and they are displayed on top of my kitchen cabinets and a china cabinet. Well, during the earthquake, they all fell down and a couple of them slid right off the china cabinet.

Now before I go any further, I know they are just plates and I should be grateful that there was no further damage and no loss of life. I truly am grateful for those facts. And I am not one to put a lot of stock in material possessions. I firmly believe they are just that and they are staying behind when it's time for me to see Jesus. I am not one to spend a lot on things because they are just that. But I still had to mourn a bit. The two plates that fell were special to me. One was from Mexico and was the first plate in my collection. But worse than that, the one that shattered the most was from Kyrgyzstan and was my favorite. Beyond that, it really is irreplaceable. Returning to Kyrgyzstan, especially after their recent blip in democracy, is not on my list of things to do in life. I mean, I enjoyed my time and experiences there but I've already been there, done that.

After a few moments of mourning while looking at the pictures Brian sent, I moved on because I had other issues to deal with! Hurricane Irene was predicted to be one of the worst storms in recent history and Martha's Vineyard was directly in its path! We kept discussing the notion that POTUS would be leaving early and the WH kept insisting that wasn't going to happen. They finally announced it was happening day off, as soon as POTUS finished making his statement. The good news is that we were travel pool so we would be on AF1 with him. The bad news is that it was more crucial to have my correspondent on the plane with him and not me. I totally agreed with that assessment but it meant that I would have to figure out how to get home before the airports and ferry system shut down. I really didn't want to be stuck on MV during the storm. I know there were many worse places to be and in the end, we weren't in the eye of the storm but I still wanted to be home in my own house!

The next few hours of trying to figure out the logistics of getting home were a bit stressful but in the end, I had experienced (or at least attempted) every form of transportation in my quest to get home. So my co-worker and I took the last ferry off the island on Friday night. Then we were picked up by a car service and driven two hours to Boston. We checked into the hotel near the airport and slept about three hours. Then we took a bus to the airport and boarded a 6a flight home. It was on time and everything! Then I took a cab home! (At one point, we had booked train tickets so I'm counting that form of transportation. About ten minutes after we booked that, we got news that they were shutting down Amtrak service so we quickly cancelled those tickets!) I was so glad to get home to my house before the storm was at its worst! I immediately cleaned up all the stuff that had fallen from the earthquake and ran a few errands to prepare for the hurricane. Luckily, I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before, I slept through the entire storm. Thankfully, we had no damage and my power stayed on the whole time!!

After an earthquake and a hurricane all in one week, I was reminded of God's awesome power and even more so, His protection. And I'm so grateful for that! But I'd also be grateful if we don't have to experience another natural disaster any time soon!

Back to the Vineyard

My dear neglected blog readers: Once again, I apologize for being a blog slacker. Life just gets busy as I'm sure you can understand!! But I'm back and I promise to keep you updated on my life in the past few weeks.

The main event of recent days was that I was assigned once again to cover POTUS's summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Not too many people felt sorry for me that I had to go to the Vineyard for 11 days and get paid for it. And when I think about it like that, I agree. But it still is work and as you know, I had that honor last year so in all honesty, I wasn't that excited. But as soon as I got there, I realized that I was indeed blessed by being in a beautiful work environment and not behind my desk in either the WH or my bureau. You'll be happy to know that we didn't have to stay at a place that specializes in colonics this year. We didn't have to negotiate the ability to have solid foods in the house. We rented a big house that was brand spanking new. Absolutely no character and if you look at the IKEA catalog, you'll see exactly what it looked like. But it had air conditioning and forks and only one crockpot and no hydrotherapy room so I count it as a step up!

Things around the Vineyard were just as I remembered them. I instantly recalled where everything on the island was and the best places to get some form of lobster. The first night we were there, I decided to get as much in as we could just in case the trip got crazy work-wise. So we went to Menemsha to watch the sunset and eat lobster on the dock. Then we went to Back Door Donuts which might be the best thing on MV. It was a pretty cool evening!!
We did a ton of liveshots and that was before there was really any news!! But the best part of this year's trip was that I had a special visitor for a few days!! Let me back up and say that last year, Brian surprised me by sending me cookies (a.k.a. one of my favorite solid foods) and it might have been at that moment that he won my heart. :) But this year, he topped that and actually showed up himself. There was extra room in the big house so it all worked out quite nicely!

Since I was working, he rented a bike and explored the island. And because Mr. Gadhafi decided that Sunday was the best time to cede control of Tripoli, he had plenty of time to do just that. But on Saturday night, we were able to go to the MV Agriculture Fair. Now, I thought that being in MV, it wouldn't be your typical fair. I thought it would be a more upscale event where instead of fried food stands, they would be handing out lobster and vegetables. But I was wrong! It was exactly what a typical ag fair should be. Vegetable growing contests, pig and chicken shows, frog jumping contests, and of course lots and lots of fried food and rides and games.
We looked at the veggies (and both decided that some of Brian's vegetables from his garden would have won!) and looked at the animals except for the miniature horses (which I was surprised how many miniature horses there were on such a small island) because they made me hyperventilate, as you know. Then we ate something fried and then tried our hand at a couple of games.
We ran into a couple of my colleagues and had Whack-a-Mole competition. I beat my colleagues but didn't win overall so I walked away without a 3-foot hot pink plush bear that was definitely worth less than the $5 entrance fee.
Brian and I also had a quick chance to walk around Oak Bluffs for a few minutes and we made sure that we went to the Flying Horses carousel. It's the oldest merry-go-round in America and definitely a step back in time. I learned the exact meaning of "reaching for the brass ring" as the carousel went around and we grabbed rings, hoping that we would find the one brass ring so we could get a free ride. We would have attempted it more than once but since we were the only ones there without kids and we didn't have much time, we decided that we could cross it off our list and we moved on. As I mentioned, the Libya situation was getting out of control so I worked a long time. Luckily, Brian thought watching breaking news was considered a fun activity! I finished work about midnight and then had to be back at work at 5a. Brian rode all over the island exploring. At the end of my 14+ hour day, we met back up and decided to drive to Aquinna to see the lighthouse and watch the sunset. It was beautiful!!! I had only slept for a few hours so I'm squinting a bit but it was such a wonderful evening!
Brian left the next day and I continued to work and do liveshots for the next several days. On Friday, I was in travel pool and all ready for a long day of hanging out with POTUS. With Hurricane Irene approaching the US, POTUS made a statement on his vacation compound about the storm. Right after that, we went to hold on my favorite bus from last year and I was getting ready to get settled in. But then the WH announced that POTUS was leaving early because of the storm. So my long day in travel pool came to an abrupt end!! I had mentally prepared myself for hours on that bus and getting through a major portion of a book I'm reading but instead, I launched into crisis mode to figure out a way to not get stuck on MV!!

POTUS and the Cheeseheads

Ever since the debt talks were over and completed, I feel like I haven't seen POTUS lately. He hasn't been coming to the briefing room every other day and honestly, there hasn't been much more going on other than a departure and/or arrival and I'm sure you're pretty bored with those stories by now. I'm not sure how many of those I've seen over the years but I'm sure there have been hundreds. And I'm not just saying this but I still do get a kick out of seeing the chopper either take off or land.

Last Friday, I had the day off and my friend Missy was in town so I pulled some strings and got her in so she could see POTUS depart the WH on Marine One to go to Camp David for the weekend. She had never been to the WH before so it was exciting to see it through her eyes. It's always good to get that reminder that this is not an every-day occurrence for most of the world.
This week, I was off for a couple of days and then just saw POTUS for a late M1 arrival on Thursday night. The late night arrivals are pretty cool because it's just a small handful of people here and seeing the chopper land in front of the lit Washington Monument is pretty cool. You'll have to take my word for it because I can never get the flash to work correctly and show exactly how cool it is.

But today, I finally got to see POTUS again and this time it was with a bunch of Cheeseheads. The Green Bay Packers were invited over to the WH to celebrate their Super Bowl victory. It's amazing that I had completely forgotten that they won. I'm pretty sure I watched the entire game but I have no recollection of it whatsoever. But yay for them! I'm not a Cheesehead myself but I really expected everyone in the crowd to be wearing a cheesehead hat to support their team. Now it was about 95 degrees and maybe foam cheese on your head gets really hot but there were only two or three in the crowd. It was a light-hearted event and I wish I could say that I recognized all kinds of famous people. But honestly, I was sweating like a pig and just waiting for the moment I could return to air-conditioning. How totally jaded of me but it was true. In theory, it was a beautiful day but standing on a press riser in the blazing sun for more than an hour almost got the best of me!!

Jumping the Fence

So as I presume you've seen, POTUS and Congress figured out a debt deal. Thank the Lord. I mean, yes, most people think it's good for the country. But for me, I'm talking about how I can begin to get back to a normal life. I'm not complaining, just pointing out the facts but I have worked quite a bit lately. Like in the last three weeks, I've had one day off. The debt talks have been a very important story so I've just been doing what needs to be done. But that has included a lot of late nights hanging out in the White House basement working. And honestly, I haven't minded too much because I'm a news nerd and want to be a part of big stories like this one.

I haven't blogged a lot about the past two weeks because frankly there hasn't been much activity. Mostly a lot of sitting and waiting and finding out detail by detail of various plans. To be honest, I even got lost in some of the minutiae. And it seemed that I didn't see POTUS for days and days.

But on Sunday night, as you know, there was a breakthrough. I had spent the past few days working and trying to avoid eating every meal from the WH vending machine. By the weekend, the only things left in the vending machine were 13 cans of tuna salad and one Big Texas cinnamon bun, all of which has been there since the Reagan administration, I'm sure. So when we heard that they were nearing a deal, I couldn't have been happier. I was eating a slice of leftover pizza when all of a sudden, I found out that POTUS was going to be coming out to the briefing room to speak about the deal. We had exactly 12 minutes to get everything set up and ready to go. I won't go into the details of the slight chaos but by the time POTUS walked out, my outstanding crew guys had done a great job of setting everything up. POTUS made a statement and I ran up to the briefing room to take pictures but of course, that was the exact moment that my camera decided not to work correctly. So all I have are two pictures from my blackberry. Oh well.
So Monday, I was fine with working late because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering which day is which. It all kind of blurs together now. But by Tuesday afternoon when I realized that I might not have to stay late, I was so excited that I might get home before 10p!!

But then it happened. One of my network's shows was being anchored at the WH on Tuesday (which added a few extra things to my day to begin with!) and about 15 minutes before it was over and I was about to go home, a man jumped over the WH fence!!!

We've had our fair share of abandoned bags or packages (most of them end up being some kid's lunch box or backpack that they've left behind), but an actual fence jumper is more rare. Since we were live for the show, we had the whole thing live on TV. The man on the ground. The Secret Service with the guns drawn. Like big machine guns. They apprehended the guy and took him away for questioning. But he had also gotten over the 10 foot fence with his backpack and I knew that was a terrible thing. So immediately, we were in lockdown and were stuck inside. Of course, I immediately began to make calls to see what information I could get but since the situation was still ongoing, details were few and far between.
So for the next couple of hours, I was stuck inside with about a dozen other journalists. I was trying to figure out if there was any way for me (and some colleagues) to get out a different door/gate than the one where the suspect was being held. But since they hadn't determined that the backpack was safe, we were out of luck. I was getting hungry and was actually considering eating that tuna salad in the vending machine.

I've never been held hostage and in this case, I know it was out of an abundant concern for my own safety that they wouldn't let us leave, but I was getting quite antsy. Seriously, I was 15 minutes away from being able to leave work after and incredibly busy, stressful story and this man had caused me to be absolutely stuck. No amount of sweet talk or begging was going to get be out of there. So I made some phone calls and sent some emails and tried to figure out a way to get out. We had finally found a WH staffer who was supposedly going to be able to lead us out a different gate but just as that was happening, the Secret Service came in and announced "ALL CLEAR" and we were able to go home!!!!

In all honesty, it didn't last nearly as long as I feared it would. I didn't have to eat the tuna in the vending machine and I was able to get home "early": at 9:58pm!!

The Terrapins and the Debt Ceiling

Well I survived my first week back to work after vacation. To think that a week ago, I was still on my staycation! What a distant memory! I jumped right back into the swing of things and had no time to blink. As you probably are aware (and I'd be interested in hearing your level of care), the negotiations about the debt ceiling have taken over Washington. I pretty much didn't read too many emails about them during my week off because a) I was on vacation b) there were too many emails to actually keep up with and c) I figured I needed to really only know the latest and it seemed like nothing huge was really happening.

So same thing this week. It was like Groundhog Day. We literally did the same live shot for three days straight with only slight details different. I won't bore you with those details... you can always check out my network's website for more information than you'll ever need to know!

We saw POTUS on Monday (well I wasn't at the WH on Monday so I just watched him on TV) and then he made an appearance on Tuesday evening in the briefing room (he seems to be doing that quite a bit lately!) so I missed him again. And then for the next couple of days, he had nothing on his public schedule. By Friday, I almost forgot what he looked like! But we were travel pool on Friday and he actually had an event!!

POTUS says he likes to "get outside the bubble" and out of DC so I guess Friday's trip to University of Maryland technically counted but we were just barely out of the bubble. By only a few miles. But we boarded the motorcade in the middle of one of the hottest days of the year in DC and headed to College Park. I have only been on campus one time but at least it's an ACC school so I have to be nice! :)

It was an uneventful event- meaning there were no interruptions from protesters and it was just a bunch of people asking the POTUS questions that they deeply cared about. POTUS talked a lot about the deficit reduction/debt ceiling talks and the idea of compromising. I won't comment any further just to make sure you don't think I'm editorializing but I will say that it was such a change of pace to see him in a different scene other than either the Cabinet Room or the Briefing Room.


Of course, after I left work for the day, POTUS made another trip to the Briefing Room. I guess he missed seeing the entire press corps! :) I missed it but because of the breakdown in the negotiations, I had the honor and privilege of working on Saturday, starting at 5:30a!

Staycation Investments

It might seem like I haven't been working this summer but that's not true. I did work for a few days but I'll be honest, nothing remarkable with POTUS was going on. Now a couple of weeks later, I can't even remember what he was doing. I think a lot had to do with negotiations on the debt ceiling behind closed doors. Since the debt ceiling and deficit reduction may be the some of the driest topics on earth, I'll skip that discussion and let you know about the things that really matter from the past few weeks.

When there are no breaking news stories and no exciting presidential events, it's a good time to stop and reflect on life in general and in the past two weeks, I've had several opportunities to focus on just that. To me, more than votes in Congress and speeches by POTUS, friendships and relationships are so much more crucial and I've been blessed to be reminded of their importance.
On July 4th, I had the American privilege of working while everyone else and their brother hung out at the pool. It wasn't too bad actually. Working holidays is one of the downsides of working in the news business but somehow I managed! :) Actually work went by without incident and the real fun was ready to begin!

Brian's family was in town and our first event was to see the fireworks on the National Mall. Being there is perhaps one of the top patriotic places to be for the Fourth! While it might be unpatriotic to admit, but being on the National Mall is not my favorite place to be on the 4th. I've done it before but I'm not a fan of the crowds and the excessive heat but this time it wasn't so bad. Maybe it was because it had been about a decade since my last excursion to the Mall or maybe it was because I was with Brian and his family but I had a great time. The fireworks were awesome and it was a great moment.

On Tuesday, I had the day off to play tourists with Brian's family- his parents, one brother, his aunt and uncle and one of his cousins. I had met his aunt, uncle, and cousin for the first time on Monday but they already felt like they were my family too. They are so great!! We had such a blast together and had a busy day which included breakfast at my house, a trip to the Air and Space Museum (out at Dulles), lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, a quick tour of the White House, a stop by the Pentagon Memorial and the Air Force Memorial, and a cookout at Brian's place. Just spending quality time with his family was one of the most wonderful ways I could have spent the day off.

They left on Wednesday but it was only a quick break before my sister and BIL and nieces came on Saturday. They were just passing through town on the way home from their vacation and were planning on staying one night.

But I just so happened to be off work the entire next week. I was taking a staycation and didn't have any specific plans. I figured I would sleep in and come up with a plan each morning. Maybe I would stop by my church and help with VBS or maybe I would meet up with some friends I hadn't seen. I really had left it unplanned on purpose.

Well, Laura suggested that they could just stay and hang out with me. I love my family to pieces. I really do. But spending a week with them at my house is not exactly relaxing. So I told my sister I would love for them to stay for a couple of days and then I could resume my staycation. I think some of the best things in life are unplanned.

Laura and the girls stayed with me until Wednesday and we had so much fun together. We couldn't really go outside because it was so hot and Raygan had an ear infection so the pool was out of the question but we played and played and played some more. We threw a tea party for my pastor's wife, Audrey, to come to.

We cooked! Cayton even cooked for Brian and I one night. We played Princess Bingo (Bri Bri played too!) We shelled peas and snapped beans from the garden. It was a busy time but such a wonderful time to invest in those lives of my cute nieces and spend quality time with my sister. Brian came over each night to hang out with us and we all had a great time! We also went to the National Air and Space Museum (yes, that's right. I'd never been there before and I went twice in one week!) before driving them to meet up with George in Harrisonburg. As soon as I got home, my house was eerily quiet. There was not constant motion and the sound "Beck Beck" every few seconds. I immediately missed them!! But I'm so thankful for that time together!!

I almost immediately started the rest of my staycation where I wanted to meet up with as many friends and spend quality time catching up. In the next five days, I was able to see eight different friends who all have special meaning in my life. I am blessed because I have a bunch more on that list that I didn't get to see!

On Wednesday night, I had dinner with Jennifer who I used to work with. She was one of the first people I met when I interned for my network 14 years ago. She work together for years and would have nightly chats to debrief about each others' days at the end of workday. She left my company about seven years ago and boy have I missed those 6 o'clock chats. Every time we get together, we could chat for hours and hours about life. She's one of those people who we don't have to see each other on a frequent basis and we can just pick right back up from where we started. She's moving across country in the relatively near future and I will just miss her to pieces. I'm glad we got to hang out and hopefully we'll get to do that again at least once before her move.

On Thursday, I chilled out at my house for approximately 30 minutes before I figured out what my plan was. I saw on FB that my friend Lesley was on bedrest at home following having her appendix taken out. So I thought a visit was a must! Lesley is a friend from church who went with me to Azerbaijan a few years ago. She's such an encouragement to me and a tremendous example of how to walk with Christ so I knew spending time with her is always a great idea. We hadn't seen each other in months and had a wonderful time catching up on life. We ate lunch and laughed- maybe a little too hard! (Sorry Lesley if you damaged your incision from laughing too much!) I am so grateful that God has allowed our paths to cross and I leave each encounter with her just encouraged about life in general!

Thursday night, I had dinner with my friends Tatiana and Paige. These ladies are also from my church and were in my Bible study last year. I consider them to be true answers to prayer. I was praying for a Christian friend who was about my age and in the same stage of life as me with whom I could have a healthy friendship. I don't remember exactly how it all unfolded but I met Tatiana and she asked me to join her Bible Study and we became fast friends! We roomed together on a ladies' retreat and had a blast. We're only nine days apart in age and she's one of those people who it seems like I've known a lot longer than a year and a half. I truly view her as a specific answer to prayer and God blessed me beyond what I was expecting with her friendship. Paige was one of the girls in the Bible Study who I just enjoyed spending time with and studying God's word together. We had several challenging discussions in that group and ended our study with a new set of friendships. The three of us had a great time eating Mexican food and catching up on life.

On Friday, I got to spend most of the day with Sherry, my good friend and our church's organist. She had convinced me to play a piano duet in church on Sunday so we had some practicing to do. Actually, I had some practicing to do. Sherry is one of the most talented people I know. She can play the piano (and organ), carry on a conversation, and complete a number of other tasks like finding a toy for her little girl: all at the same time. She doesn't need to practice because she's just that good. But I, on the other hand, have played the piano in public only a few times so I need LOTS of practice. We did a little practicing but we did a lot more just hanging out! Sherry has three kids who I just adore (almost as much as my own nieces and nephew!) and we had fun playing HORSE in the driveway and just being silly! Sherry is a true gem and I am so grateful for her friendship throughout the years. She's another one who just holds me accountable and encourages me every time we're hanging out!

Over the weekend, Brian and I headed to his grandpa's farm to do a little farming. I'll be honest, he was farming. I was relaxing. But in the course of the day, I got to meet up with Missy or Melissa as she is known now. Missy is one of the girls from college who is part of every girls' weekend or trip. She just moved to Richmond to start campus ministry at the University of Richmond. Since we haven't had a girls' weekend this year, I've really been missing my girls so any time I can see even one of them, it's a great thing. Missy moved to Richmond less than a month ago and we hadn't had a chance to catch up in months. So we chatted for a long time (we could really chat for days on end if we had the time) and had a lovely lunch catching up. I've been friends with Missy for 15 years and I've always appreciated her friendship for so many ways! I'm truly blessed by her and wish for much success in her new job! I know she'll rock!

Finally on Sunday, I had dinner with two friends from high school, Shannon and Jodie. Jodie lives in DC with her husband and two adorable kids. Shannon was in town visiting from Memphis. I've known these gals since the sixth grade! And while we don't see each other very often, it's just like old times when we get together. Poor Brian was such a trooper to sit through our reminiscing about who was who in high school!! We had such a great time and it was so wonderful to catch up! I was honored to be on Shannon's list of people to see while she was in town!!

I headed back to work on Monday and honestly felt refreshed. Not so much because I had been relaxing all week. In fact, I never felt like I had stopped minus my Sunday afternoon nap! But because I realize how blessed I am to have these ladies and so many others in my life! I might need to take a leave of absence from work just to spend quality time with the amazing friends God has placed in my life!

Sunny Vacay!!

I don't have many exciting stories to report but I will say that I had the best time with my family last week at the beach! This is my third year making an appearance during this week but this year was different because Brian was an additional participant in the fun!! I wasn't quite sure if he could take an entire week of fun so we just made it for half of the time. :)

My sister Laura and my nieces, along with the famous Ryley (Cayton's best friend) and her mom Melissa, were spending the week at my parents' condo at N. Myrtle Beach (my parents live five minutes away) and I didn't want to miss out on the fun!

Brian and I left on Tuesday night (along with his mom who was going with us to SC to visit her cousins) and spent the night at his grandpa's house outside of Richmond. We made it to the beach by about 3p on Wednesday and the fun started almost immediately! We got settled, went to dinner, and then I went to the pool with the kids- all before dusk!

Thursday, we had a girls day of shopping (minus Raygan) while Brian drove his mom to see her cousins. By the way, my mom and his mom are both genealogy junkies and both grew up in Richmond so they did NOT run out of things to talk about. Poor Brian and my dad had no chance of getting a word in edgewise!

We just had a great time hanging out with my family. We didn't do any necessarily exciting or really even story-worthy. We went to the pool and beach a couple of times and went to play miniature golf. But it was all just quality time with Bri Bri and Aunt Beck Beck. It was a great chance to unwind (relatively), ignore the blackberry (mostly), and just enjoy being with my family (absolutely). The only thing that would have been better is if Katherine, Mark, and Nolan had been there too.

I am already looking forward to next year! Maybe next year, we'll get to stay the entire week!! And maybe next year, I'll take more pictures! So since there is a lack of exciting stories, I'll just leave you with a cute picture of me and my favorite girls!!