Blends With Savanna Grasses

Well, if you've been reading my blog for any time now, you know that Mondays are the time I like to recollect past times. These are usually remembrances that have made me smile or were related to whatever I was feeling at the time I was writing that post.

I'm doing the same thing today. Yesterday, I flew out of Nashville for a week of Quest business in California. Quest does a yearly kick-off meeting to train on new products and talk about strategies in the new year. Travel was its usual glamorous self - rainy airports, delayed flights, and worse...











I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but the nice looking middle-aged man who came out of the lavatory before me somehow managed to hose down the entire "seating area" worse than a 3-yr old with no bladder control. I mean, c'mon dude, what gives??? Also, the departures screen shows my Orange County flights are all delayed. Whoohoo!

So back to remembrances. We're having Kick-Off at the Disneyland Grand Hotel & Convention Center. So I thought I'd harken back to some other good amusement park memories. Here they go:

1. Universal Studios in June 2005 with Dylan. I love our family tradition that once the kids pass 5th grade, they get a weekend getaway with dad. That year Dylan and I went to a conference in Orlando where I was speaking. He slept late and played on the hotel Playstation until I got back from speaking and exhibit hall duties, then we went and had fun together. We even got to celebrate his 14th birthday together. And while I was gone, I got the sweetest message from a mom about how Dylan had looked after and played with her two pre-school sons. (sniffle) He makes me so proud!



2. Disney World in March 2005 with Emily. We had a great time at the park together and enjoyed the quality time at the wonderful Hyatt Grand Resort where I speaking at another conference. The people at the Hyatt Grand Resort also won me over with their winning customer service. Everything you see in the picture at left was sent up as a gift to Emily when the assistant manager at the Front Desk heard that this was a trip for her birthday. And isn't she just gorgeous?!?



3. I don't have too many other pictures to post because I only really started to take a lot of pictures once I got my wonderful Treo 650. But I did have a little Kodak digital camera for a while before that. And I have one set of great memories while I toted that camera around - September 2004. I was acting as President of PASS at our annual North American conference and so I was privileged to have THE presidential suite to stay in at the beautiful Gaylord Palms in Orlando. I kid you not - this suite had 7 balconies and was probably 2500 sq ft in size. And it was all comp'ed. That's right - we didn't pay a dime for a room that cost George H. Bush and Bill Gates about $2300 per night earlier in the year. Kelly and the kids came down about mid-week to enjoy the lavish amenities.

So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful sights and sites. But I'm even more thankful that I got to spend that time with the ones who matter the most to me.

Love to you all,

-Kev