Catching up

First, I took an unannounced, unplanned break from blogging. Then, I was going to do a trip review complete with pictures, but ran into technical problems. So I put it on the list of things to do, contingent on figuring out the technical difficulties. And life stayed busy enough to put off blogging with mild guilt. But tonight I'm crossing things off my to do list to avoid going to the gym, so blogging it is. Here are some of the things we've been up to in the past few months.

• We visited the Fernbank Museum with Clint's brother and sister-in-law and their two girls. It confirmed, again, that there are certain adventures that are more fun with kids involved.
• We celebrated Easter with both of Clint's brothers and their families by hunting for Easter Eggs and grilling. Lately when we've been together with Clint's family, the menfolk end up doing the bulk of the cooking while the women chase the kids and visit. I don't know what they think of the arrangement, but it works for me.
• We visited Utah and explored Moab, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. We lucked out and were in town during National Park Week and got in the parks for free. We went hiking, biking, driving, rafting, and took plenty of pictures. (Darn the technical difficulties ...).
• While in Utah (and the reason we were there) we saw my brother and sister graduate from BYU with degrees in Law and Accounting, respectively. I hiked the Y for the first time and visited with family and friends. We had lovely family portraits taken and played plenty of Wii Sports Resort. I think wakeboarding was the family favorite.
• We celebrated our five year anniversary with dinner at the Taste of Alpharetta. It was the perfect combination of good food and sampling.
• I painted the laundry room and put up more shelving. It is (and will remain) the only yellow room in the house, and I love it.
• We attended the Dacula Memorial Day Parade with my college roommate and her family and then enjoyed more grilling (this recipe), corn, watermelon, and Amy's strawberry spinach salad. That afternoon, Amy and I looked through my college picture album and reminisced about our days in Canterwood. Since then, I've enjoyed spending more time with Amy and her boys; last week, we toured Mayfield Dairy and cooled off with some of their ice cream. (Hooray for chocolate chip cookie dough!) I'm loving having an old friend close enough to see weekly and will be sad when the summer is over.
• Clint and I attended the Southeast Linux Fest. Some of the talks were interesting, but the best part was because it was a technical conference and most of the attendees were male, there was never a wait for the women's restroom. We also got some fresh South Carolina peaches and strawberries during our visit.

That's certainly not every little thing that's happened the last five months or so, but it's most of the highlights, even without pictures. We're alive and well and trying to stay cool in the Atlanta heat (it feels worse this summer than recent memory). We're looking forward to more time with friends and family and always open to visits, long or short.