Last week was tough… by the time Friday rolled around I was pretty much burned out on all fronts. I needed a real break, a change of scene from the daily life of living in one of the worlds highest traffic tourist attractions.

My first inkling was to pull a little camping trip together. Throw the tent and a few blankets in the back of the car and head for the hills. The first thoughts were Yosemite or Sequoia national parks. They are both places that Janey and I really wanted to visit. We hopped online and started checking out maps when a thought struck me.

What about Utah?

Sure, it’s a 12 hour drive away, and we’ve got to be back Monday morning for work… but it could be fun. To make a long story short, we decided to head for Utah to surprise my family. I know there were moments when both Janey and I thought “why the hell did we decide to do this” but once we finally got on the road, I was quite happy with the decision we made.

I’ll do a little more shortening here and tell you that we did surprise everyone. We just showed up on my parents doorstep and started surprising everyone from there.

It was so great to see everyone, and it was fantastic to be back in Utah during the summertime. Everything was so green and looked so great. The air smelled fresh and just made me want to drop everything and be a mountain man.

The whole thing was over so fast I barely had a chance to blink. The road home was long, but I had my best gal by my side so there was no place I would have rather been.

It was fun to see my new niece Ashlee (she’s a week old), and my sisters new condo. It was great to play with all the kids, and roast marshmallows out on the patio. I had such a fun time sitting and chatting with everyone. So I’m very happy we went to Utah. It was just what I needed and I’m back to real life (or so I call it) with a renewed energy.