2008

Christmas was at home this year. It was very relaxing, and temperatures were in the 70s! Nice!!

My company took myself and two co-workers out to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse to celebrate our 20th anniversaries with the company.

I was in Vevey, Switzerland on business in Oct, staying at the "Hotel Des Trois Couronnes" (Hotel of Three Crowns) which is on Lac Léman, northeast of Geneva. This small town is the home of Nestlé which was the customer I was meeting with. The Swiss/French border runs through the middle of the lake.

Lydia and I were in GA in Oct for her family reunion. Great company and great food were had at her parents' cottage by the river.

Here are some pictures of our menagerie. We have some pretty crazy (but cute) little ones to look after these days!

Lydia and I headed off to St. Augstine for a few days vacation in September. It was a nice get away after all of the business travel I have been doing lately.

I was in Sydney Australia in late August 2008 for a conference my company was hosting. While there I did get an opportunity to see some of the sites around the Sydney Harbor area. A co-worker and I went on the Syndey Bridge climb one day and the weather was fantastic! Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take your own camera along (because they want to sell you the pictures they take, as well as safety concerns).

Lydia and I went to Amelia Island for the first time, and celebrated our anniversary there over a long weekend. We stayed at the Williams House Bed & Breakfast (located it via Select Registry), and we had a wonderful time there!

We were in GA to celebrate Lydia's 50th birthday with her family

We were in Savannah late June 2008 for Jason to transition from studying pre-theology to theology at a seminary in Rome. He is headed to Italy in the summer of 2008 to study for several years and had to meet with the Bishop at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist before doing so. We also celebrated Pat F's birthday at the Pirate's House.

The Olsons and Christy also came to Savannah.

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June 2008 and the whole family gathered together at Rose Hill Manor bed & breakfast outside Fredericksburg, TX to celebrate. Some pictures are courtesy of Michael.

We were in Savannah to celebrate Mother's Day for Lydia this year. We went to Moon River Brewery for dinner and toured the Sorrel-Weed house, both of which are known to be haunted and were on Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi. Mother's Day dinner was at Elizabeth's on 37th, but we didn't take any pictures there.

Patrick didn't join us as he was surfing in Costa Rica after finishing his semester at Stetson.

In April following a staff meeting we had in Utah, a group of coworkers went snow mobiling at Daniel's Summit. It was the first time I had done this, and it was a blast! Could only get the snow mobile up to 55 MPH on flat snow... but it could cut through corners really quickly. The only problem we had was getting stuck in snow drifts a couple of times.

Lydia and I headed up to St Augustine for the last weekend of March to get away for a bit. We went to the lighthouse, beach, McKnight's Irish pub and MIssion of Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. We stayed at the Journey's End B&B again and had a great time there and an excellent dinner at The Tasting Room.

We went to China Garden to meet up with the Martha, John and our goddaughter, Hannah, to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Lydia and I went to St. Augustine for a weekend and stayed at the bed and breakfast "At Journey's End" which is near Flagler College