We have had an incredibly busy summer this year, and though summer is usually my favorite season, I think this year I’m thankful for it to be over. It all started with moving to a new house in early June, which was of course a huge ordeal because we have an obscene amount of stuff. (First rule of moving: always get the bigger truck. We filled a 26-footer.) It went pretty smoothly, and by mid-July we were finally settled in and ready for El Guapo to arrive.

Then there was the weekend trip to Denver in late July to see Brinestone’s sister get married. It was great that we were able to go, even though El Guapo was less than two weeks old, because Brinestone and her sister are like best friends, but weekend trips always tire me out. A full day of driving plus a full day of wedding stuff plus another full day of driving with only one Sunday of downtime in the middle is not a very restful vacation.

A couple of weeks later, Brinestone and the boys went up to Bear Lake for an extended family reunion of her mom’s side. I skipped out because I couldn’t afford the time off, but it was kind of nice having a few days of quiet, even though it’s always weird to be the only one in the house.

Then there was another family reunion, this time for my mom’s side of the family. We headed up Friday afternoon and came back Saturday night, so I only missed a little bit of work, but it was a tiring trip too. It was good to see family, especially my parents and siblings, but setting up and taking down camp for only a day’s worth of camping is a lot of work.

And finally, last week we flew to Georgia for Brinestone’s brother’s wedding. It too was an exhausting trip filled with airports and rental car counters and lot of time in miserable traffic in a very hot and humid city, but again it was nice to be there to support family.

Honestly, I don’t begrudge the time spent on all these trips to be with family. I love my family and Brinestone’s family too, and I’m glad we were able to be there for some important events and see relatives that we don’t get to see very often. But man, am I ever ready to just stay home for the next few months. For my next vacation I might just pass out on the couch for a while.