Brush with fame

A few weeks ago, Derek and I saw one of Derek's idols in real life.

OK, the view was something like this:

But still, Derek is a long time Beatles fan and Paul McCartney fan (he

credits Paul for his decision to play bass guitar). He was thrilled to see such a
legend live.

I've never been to a such a big name concert before. It was crazy! Rio

Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake was completely sold out.

We met up with one of Derek's friends, Colt, and his wife while we were there.

I recognized the Beatles songs (of course) but I enjoyed a lot of his other music as well. Derek seemed to be in heaven.
It was a quick trip up and back -- made faster by the fact that we didn't bring Lydia (thanks Mom and Dad!) -- but we had lot of fun.

Big news!

Starting next week, I'll be spending a little less time here...

and a little more time here:

I'll still be spending some time in this cubicle...

but more time in this mini version:

I'll still write for these...

but I'll have more time to read these:

That's because, as of this week, I will officially be working part time!

Petty Family Reunion

Our first family vacation with Lydia took us to the Estes Park, Colorado for a family reunion with the Petty clan -- my mom's side of the family.
It started with us borrowing Derek's parents van because apparently three people cannot fit for one week in a Nissan Sentra.
Maybe we had too much stuff :)

Along the way we ran into some interesting sights.



And we carried on a Grady family tradition: The roadside picnic en route.



We made our way through Rocky Mountain National Park, on our way to our lodge at Amberwood in Estes Park.

The Grady arm of the Petty family.



We spent the first day whitewater rafting. SO much fun!

Later in the week we saw Estes Park from horseback. Gorgeous countryside.

We spent time relaxing at the cabin blowing bubbles, doing crafts, chasing the kids around, celebrating Grandma Petty's birthday, enjoying downtown Estes Park and staying up until all hours of the night catching up with the cousins.

We spent one morning at the lake in Estes Park where Kevin and Leslie took us out on a pontoon boat.

On the way home we took the scenic route again through Rocky Mountain National Park.

We had a wonderful time!