Vacation Time After 1 Yr on the Road

My vacation continued after I returned from Tokyo.  I went to Wisconsin to visit the parents - well actually more so to see my cat, Bode.  My parents have been able to visit me on my assignments so it's not as though I hadn't seen them in a year - still love y'all though :)  Tax is substantially cheaper in WI/MN than Chicago so I wanted to run a few errands before jetting down to see my sister.

After a visit with the folks, I flew down to Texas to meet up with my friend Kyle, whom I have known since 2nd grade.  Of course, I had to go to Sonic while down south.  If you know Sonic you'll understand - he took me to the only one he and I know to be a sit inside and drive through but no drive up. That evening we went to a really nice wine shop where you could taste wine - I had red and he had port, yum!  Next was a sports bar which was really neat but by this time I could hardly keep my eyes open because I had been going on 3-4 hours of sleep a night for the past few days.  I was in bed by 10pm - glorious!

Oh it tasted so good!

Me and Kyle at the Wine Shop.

The next day I drove up to my sister's in Oklahoma.  I was greeted with a warm welcome from my niece and shy one from my nephew.  He was only 10 days old when I last saw him but it did not take him long to warm up to me!  It was a nice relaxing visit with Ryan, Tina and the kids.  Again, I ended up falling asleep at 8pm the night I arrived because I was so exhausted and I had a little bit of a cold.  They took me to a nice hole in the wall place on the reserve to have delicious Longhorn burgers.  I played Candyland and Pretty Pretty Princess for hours with my niece.  My sister was super excited when we went shopping together and she had no kids - we had fun in the dressing room together making fun of the clothes that didn't fit us properly.  I ended up getting the same sweater as her and we both picked up sunglasses - the same kind no less.  My sister was nice enough to set up an appointment to get my hair done with her hair dresser - it was definitely in need of a cut/color; now we shall see how long it will be until I am able to get it cut again :)

Pretty Pretty Princess - it's like I was in Japan again :-)

My sister, Tina, and I after my hair was done.

More pictures can be found at my Picasa page if you click HERE.