California

June 2013 was basically split into two parts: family reunion and job interviews. First the fun part, my mom surprised us all and flew to Utah to help my sister with her new baby, which meant she got to join us for out family reunion in California. I think it says a lot about my family that even with my parents in another country, we still worked out a time to spend a week together. Sadly we still missed having my brother, his wife, my brother-in-law, and my dad with us. For the drive out, I had my niece and nephew in my car, and I had a great time introducing them to 80s rock music. Needless to say, my niece had a new list of music groups and songs she wanted to download. We gathered in Folsom at my siblings houses and spent time in San Francisco and Yosemite. The pictures capture the great time we all had.

Grandma is in town

Alcatraz

Boat from Alcatraz to San Francisco

Lombard Street

Yosemite

Hiking the Mist Trail

Hiking the Mist Trail

To be two again

Yosemite Falls

Playing at the campsite

Taking a break from hiking

My kids

Yosemite redwoods

Practicing the musical number for my nephew's baptism

Happy Father's Day

While my mom was visiting, I had an accident. We were watching the kids play in the cul-de-sac when a car turned the corner. I saw my two-year-old nephew in the street and ran towards him to make sure the car didn't hit him. My feet got the better of me and slid second base style over the paver stones. I'd never been to the ER before nor had stitches. It was weird having someone other than my dad take care of me. But I got all stitched up and a year later (as I'm writing this) the scar is barely visible.

ER shots

My niece wrote me a cute note after the fall

While in California, I had the distinct impression that I should go to DC (well Northern Virginia) soon with the intention of seeing if I could live there. I had a job interview lined up the Monday after the reunion in San Francisco for a position located in Virginia. The interview was fine but I wasn't in love with the role or the company, but I felt I should move in this direction. I came back from the interview with the prayer that I'll go where the Lord wants me to go even if I'm not in love with the job and that maybe it's just one more step to get me to where I need to be. Then the miracle. I arrived at work after having this conversation with the Lord (we do that a lot while I'm driving) and saw an email from the SVP at Eloqua (the company I went skiing with back in February). He asked if I was interested in a job. Within a week I was chatting with a Sr. Director for a product management position. They basically said, "We can teach you to be a product manager. We can't teach you to think like a marketer. And we need a marketer." I knew this was my answer. This job was going to happen. It was based in northern Virginia and I already had a ticket to fly there the week after to see if this was going to be a good fit for me. The wheels were in motion and my life was about to change in a fantastic new direction.