I don’t enjoy getting behind but that’s where things stand here in bloggeritaville ’til now. I made the decision to finish up our vacation without blogging and what a difference it made taking the pressure off. Now the pressure is back to get caught up, so here we go.

We spent some time with Bobby’s children and started out with Kristy. Kristy is a senior in college, is that possible? I still can’t believe that. We are proud of her as she’s pulling straight A’s in all her classes. We had such a wonderful time taking her shopping and enjoyed a delightful dinner at PF Chang’s (her choice) which we didn’t argue with, yum. We’re looking forward to spending time with her again for her graduation in May.

Bobby and Kristy

We spent a couple evenings with Ryan when he was off work. He’s the head baker of one of the Panera Bread Companies in St Louis. He is an amazing baker and whips up some of my absolute favorite pastries. He always spoils me when he visits as he takes full control of my kitchen and he makes the most amazing dishes for us. Below is a picture of Ryan and his longtime girlfriend (Danni) of I believe 3 or 4 years now and their friend Carlie. Can you tell he just woke up in this picture?

Lauren’s a sophomore in college this year and we’re so proud of her too. She’s our other daughter making straight A’s. Her classes were already underway so she drove over to spend Saturday evening with us. She chose a great Japanese restaurant that evening and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation with Lauren and her boyfriend Andy. Andy is such a sweetheart who is down to earth and loves to talk about philosophy. He’s definitely a keeper.

We spent Sunday afternoon at Bobby’s brothers (Jim, Chris and family’s) home. Chris prepared such an amazing feast and had the most amazing steaks I’ve ever had on the BBQ. Chris is like a sister to me and we never have a hard time picking up where we left off. Bobby helped his brother Jim and boys fix the go cart and they had it up and running in no time. Basketball was played and lots of visiting outside in the cool of the evening. I wanted to take pictures of everything that day but decided to just enjoy the special moments without interrupting for pictures; therefore I don’t have pictures to show of our day. But I can say that I have it all stored in my mind and I’ll never forget what a great time we all had.

Bobby and I had quite a bit of alone time sandwiched between the family gatherings and whatnot and we were also able to have some nice dinner dates just the two us. He took me back to his (now our) all time favorite Mexican restaurant from when he was just a kid (since 1998 for me). OK get this – we drove 2 hours out of our way on our way back to NY to visit Urbana-Champagne, IL for the most amazing pizza ever . It was that good my friends and well worth the drive and a second helping!

We had a great trip home and I can’t tell weather I’m glad to be back or if I want our vacation to last a bit longer. I think what I would really like is for Bobby to retire – but that’s another 20 years from now. I tried to get him to stay home with me today but he had meetings to attend. He did say he would see if he can take Friday off. I’m not ready for him to go back to work as I want him all to myself. I’m selfish that way so I’ll spend the next 20 years gettin’ over it.