My Sugar House Life: Dear Salt Lake, I've missed you

I am in my jammies, curled up on my favorite spot on the couch with my favorite blanket. The fireplace is on, Stan is snoozing at my feet, and I have Christmas music on in the background.

Home.

I have been on the road -- for work and for fun -- for the past four weeks. All the trips have been successful and wonderful, but if I had to keep this up, I would lose my mind. I love routine and nothing shakes up a perfectly functioning schedule like nonstop travel.

Here's the breakdown of my last month:

October 16th - 20th: Idaho and Wyoming road trip with the family. The long-awaited family vacation I've wanted and it was magical, magical, magical.

Looking for skipping stones

Love this face

October 26th - 29th: Atlanta, GA for a conference.

I had the chance to go to the most hardcore digital library conference in the country with several friends. The sessions were awesome, the food was outrageously good, and I got some quality time in with my favorite digital library people.

Out to dinner at Mary Mac's Tearoom, "the dining room of Atlanta." It was a chicken friend chicken, fried green tomato, okra, collard green, peach cobbler dream.

Proof that we were at the conference

November 1st - 3rd: Wedding in Sonoma for Robert's college buddy, Chris.

Robert and I flew out to wine country to attend the wedding of one of his college friends. The wedding itself was one of the most spectacular parties I have ever attended. It was held at the Cornerstone Gardens at a vineyard in Sonoma. Allow me to paint a picture for you.

Imagine a ceremony at the edge of a vineyard in late fall with waiters serving lemonade, iced tea, and Arnold Palmers as the guests take their seats. A post-ceremony oyster bar in a garden while severs pass out delectable appetizers, wine, and embroidered blankets for each guest (party favors!) to take away the chill. A four course dinner under a lighted tent with an adjacent photo booth. A crepe bar, coffee, and whisky in a chandeliered barn where we danced the night away. It was truly one of the best celebrations I've ever been to. Not just because of the crepes, oysters, and giveaway blankets, but because the bride and groom were absolutely glowing throughout the entire event. I had never met the bride prior to the wedding but you could just tell she was the kind of person you would want to be friends with. If I had to place bets on future wedded success, I would go all in on these two.

The only photo of us the whole night and it's blurry

At a country store on the way to the wedding

I was very proud of my self-done hair for the evening.

So proud I made Robert take a photo too

Hopefully the sun caused the pain in his eyes, not the kiss

Lemonade and iced tea before the ceremony

Oyster bar post-ceremony

In the wishing garden. Each streamer had a wish written on it. We wrote one for Chris and Megan.

Straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine/ Nancy Meyers film

The dinner tent at Cornerstone. Dancing barn below.

November 6-8th: Workshop in Helena, MT

Right after we got back from the wedding, I had to head off to help teach a workshop in Montana. Montana was as mysterious, beautiful, and rugged as I imagined. My friend and colleague Jennifer lives in Montana and took us on tours of downtown Helena and walks through the woods during our off-work time.

Downtown Helena

Community theater

I have one!

Big Sky indeed

The best coworkers you will ever have

Real old barn

I found these beauties on my hike

November 11th - 14th: MPLA/AzLA conference in Arizona

My last stop was at a regional library conference in Scottsdale, AZ. It was really fun and I got to meet some wonderful people, but I was definitely getting a little homesick. The nice thing about this conference was that I went to bed at 9:30 every night and woke up to run every morning by 6:00. Why can't I make that part of my normal life schedule?