Monday, July 18, 2011

So close, and yet so far

This won't be the first time I have mentioned how crazy residency can be.  And it certainly isn't meant as a complaint about the residency process.  As it is, it isn't to terribly bad, and there is a good chance it is just going to get worse in the coming years, all in an effort to make it "better".  But that is an entirely different blog article.

One aspect of residency that can really be painful is the vacation aspect.  We get 15 days of vacation a year.  I mean, I'm glad I get any days at all, seriously.  However, when you only have three weeks, and your family lives 2000+ miles away, it is amazing how fast those days are gobbled up just trying to be part of the family.

Take last year, for instance.  We had one trip back to Utah planned in October to run the Layton Marathon with my father.  That was an awesome trip.  However, between two other trips for weddings, *poof* there went my three weeks.

This often translates into not doing much around here where we are.  In fact, in the past, we have only really had one family vacation where we went and did something up here in New England, and that was back in the summer of 2008 (and one other brief trip to Maine for our anniversary a couple of years ago, but that was just Lis and I).  So that means that, despite only being 6 1/2 hours away from Palmyra, we have never been to the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

Don't they revoke your temple recommend for that?

We knew this was our last summer here in New England.  We determined we simply had to go to New York before we left.  So finally this past week we made it.  We went to Palmyra, then over to Niagara Falls and home by way of Lake Champlain and Burlington.

All in all it was a great trip, and something I am very glad we were able to do.  It is just sad that some of these things can be so close geographically, yet so far away due to time constraints.  More articles will be forthcoming about the trip.