Yesterday, I returned home from Kansas City and the first thing I did was take a picture of the tree across the street. While I was gone the buds had opened up and it was so striking that I couldn’t not take a photo (or ten).

See what I mean?

Afterwards I hurried inside because I couldn’t wait to see Young Master Gray. He was all I could think about on the way home. My sweet boy looked up and said hi when I came in, but continued to play. I was not as heartbroken over this as I thought I might be. In fact, I had prepared myself for this kind of welcome. After a fun weekend playing with his cousins, I figured I would not be all he had thought about. He did finally put down his trucks long enough to come give me a hug and a kiss and then went right back to playing. Seeing him happy and enjoying himself made me happier than if he had come running right to me because he clearly was in good hands and had a good time while I was away.

Once Jeremy’s sister, brother-in-law and their boys headed home, I was able to get down to business–unpacking. Usually unpacking is first thing I do when I return home from a trip. It doesn’t matter how long of a trip it was, how tired I am or how much there is to put away, it has to be done right then. I just cannot sleep without it being done. In the past, there has always been one exception to this though. Whenever I return from a conference as I did yesterday, I tend to leave all of the handouts, swag and business cards I gathered throughout the event sitting there, unpacked. I used to think I was doing this for safekeeping, to keep all of the information together. However, since I rarely reference that information once it comes home, I think it has more to do with me getting overwhelmed by taking in so much information over a short period of time. Like any conference I’ve been to, the speakers at Go Blog Social covered a lot of ground and spoke on varying topics that I truly wanted to learn more about. I am so grateful that I was able to go and to learn, grow and connect. Instead of keeping everything I took away from the conference packed away, I am determined to take all of the info out and put it to use this time. As I begin to unpack and process it all, I hope to share the what I have learned here.

Until then, here are a few highlights from my weekend in Kansas City!

The bed I had all to myself for two nights!

And the shower that I was able to use without interruption!

The clean, modern feeling of the AC Hotels Kansas City.

Getting together with friends, new and old, and eating yummy food at Lidia’s Italy and First Watch.

Everything about the Go Blog Social conference!