Settling Back In...

First I have to give a little shout out for my favorite holiday...Fourth of July. I did not get a chance to blog about it, so if you will indulge me for a moment I would like to reflect. Fourth of July is my favorite holiday, because it does not have all of the stigma of other holidays nor has it lost its true purpose like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I love that it is meant to celebrate freedom and all that it means. I love that it usually means friends and family gather for no preconceived ideas of getting gifts. And I love that it is usually picnic food that can be easily put together. And most of all I love the fireworks. This year we went to a Fourth of July party at the SIL's and at dark we headed out to the small beach on the bay and watched all of the fireworks along the coast, probably about 20 different cities. I just love that we have a country where we can get together and celebrate the freedom we are provided and work to remember the freedom we hope to continue to keep. Now on to the actual post...

Well I am now officially off of vacation. I returned to work today and it was a hectic re-introduction. I find that it is very hard to get motivated to go to work off a 10 day break. I had off the Friday before July 4th and then did not go back until today.

The husband and I took a trip to the Lake house, for just some quiet time away. The Lake house is in a small Pennsylvania town about 2 hours north east of Pittsburgh. We did visit a little with family, but mostly it was just the two of us. We had a great time, we hiked a little, rode bikes, played on the water, and golfed. The weather was incredible. The temperatures ranged below the mid 50's and the mid 80's with almost no humidity. It was a strange and wonderful change from the 100+ weather in Houston! The fun thing is listening to all the locals talk about how hot and humid it is...and we just giggle. In fact, it was actually hotter in Houston when we landed at 10:30pm then it was the entire time we were in Pennsylvania.

We went to a beautiful place in upstate New York called Watkins Glen State Park. If you are ever up there I highly suggest you go. I used to live near there and it is even more beautiful than I remember.

We also caught a couple of movies...Gran Torino, Ice Age 3, Public Enemies, New In Town, and Bedtime Stories. It was nice to catch up on movies and most of them were really good.

Well like I said the vacation is over, but it sure was fun. Hopefully you are all having a great summer. Here is to surviving the hottest summer in Houston and for a few more mini-cations still to come.