So.... I went on Vacation and this is what happened.

Ok so it has been a while since I posted and rightfully so I think. I went on Vacation, yup thats right I took 11 days off of work and got the heck out of town.

I went to Yellowstone for 5 days with my friend Kristen and her husband Ben. It was a great trip, we saw some great wildlife that included 3 bears, hundreds of buffalo, a few elk and various other little critters. It was awsome, I have got some pictures, however I don't have them with me right now so I will post them later.

So after a fun and long week in Yellowstone, a lot of driving a day trip to Jackson, WY for a great hamburger and a visit with some family friends we made our way back to Idaho Falls where we were suppose to trade my moms car for mine and drive back to Boise, I decided that since I had the weekend off and there was no reason for me to go back to Boise yet I stayed with my family. On Sunday, my parents and I drove to Salt Lake for my cousin Eddy's mission farewell. I cannot believe that he is going on a mission, I remember when he was born, crazy kids getting all grown up. Then from the lunch we went to decorate my grandparents grave in West Valley, and got back on the road to Arco, ID. Yup the middle of no where ID to decorate the rest of the graves for my moms parents. In all it was a 13 hour day with about 19 of it spent in the car.

So yesterday, at my parents house we had a family bbq, my brother brought his 2 boys over and my sister was up from Salt Lake with her 4 kids and my bro's best friend came over with his daughter. It was fun, the weather was great so the kids played outside and we had some great food and great company and several kids covered in chocolate ice cream before the day was over.

So here is to a great vacation, I am so glad that I had the time to spend with friends and family.

OH.... and somewhere in the middle of my time off I found out that I got a transfer back to the Idaho Falls airport. So on Sunday morning I will load up my car and drive over there in hopes of starting work on Monday if everything goes well... and at a later date I will have to come to back to Boise and pack up my stuff and move it home but I have till the end of June so I am just trying to get through the next 2 weeks and then we will go from there.

Optimism

I have been watching a documentary tonight that Michael J Fox did after he published his last book. I did a research project on him when I was in high school right after he went public with his PD and after watching this I asked myself a question that I want to ask all of you and see what you think.

Is optimism taught to us or are we born that way?

Is it just the way we are or do we get that way through a series of events in our lives that make us see the picture differently?

The documentary is called "The adventures of an Incurable Optimist" how many of us are just that incurably optimistic? With the world the way that it is and things changing quicker than most of us even realize how many of us are seeing the glass half full instead of half empty? In countries like India where the believe that fate decides what path life takes they make movies like "Slum Dog Millionaire" and inspire millions of people around the world.

And how many things do we take for granted everyday because we can do them without effort? I watched as a man that cannot control the shaking in his limbs play golf.... he can barely hold the club let alone have any control over where the ball is going, but he gets out and plays because he enjoys the game and the time to spend with friends. Everyday most of us get out of bed and go about our day without giving things like brushing our teeth a second thought. When there are people out there that have spent 20 or 30 years doing all of these things without a problem and one day that all changes and it is all they can do to get out of bed.

My point I guess is that even in the hard times that we are all dealing with in our own ways, we can choose to be optimistic and we can see the bigger picture and make the best of the life that we have been given. We can for lack of a better phrase take the lemons and make lemonade. I think that this world needs more incurable optimists.