Lindsey’s 21st Birthday

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

Wow, it is Lindsey’s 21st birthday tomorrow and tonight we celebrated with family and friends at Bonefish Grill. It was a lot of fun to be there with all of my girls, Kaitlyn, Lindsey and Lisa and Lindsey’s friends, Lindsay, Chris, Matt, and Andy.

Tonight was all about Lindsey as time slowly marched towards the bewitching hour. She eagerly awaited gift giving time and was truly intrigued by how Chris was able to successfully navigate the streets of Tallahassee on his motorcycle with the two large boxes (we all still wonder how he did it). We presented her with a new iPod to replace the one she lost on our wedding day. Of course, she found her long lost iPod on Thursday but it was fried from hanging out in her car for the past 3 months.

Lindsey is such an impressive young lady…maybe older than her 21 years or maybe just more serious than the normal 21 year old. She has a great head on her shoulders. She is smart, FUNNY and beautiful.

I’ve always gotten along well with Lindsey and I hope this never changes. Who knew that I would become so attached to her? She reminds me of me sometimes…tentative, waiting to see how things work in a new social setting. Other times, she blows me away with her in your face, line in the sand attitude (and of course this makes me laugh).

I’m so pleased to be in her life and I’m glad she is my 21 year old daughter!

I love my family!

Countdown to marriage

Not long now…in a little over a week, I will be married to Lisa. 

This afternoon we both had our hair done. Lisa’s took three hours and involved a team of specialists to see what would look best during the wedding.  Mine took approximately 20 minutes.

Over the next week, family and friends will begin to arrive.  Part of our excitement is having all of our friends/family in the same place and getting to see them together.  Many will meet for the first time this week.  In fact, my parents will meet her mother for the first time and I will see her mother for only the 2nd time.  I wish her father was able to be here.  I’m sure he will be here in spirit, but they can’t make the trip from Oregon.

On the wedding day, besides saying “I do”, I am coordinating cake, flowers, etc by arriving three hours early.  I’m going to take a book.  Lisa on the other hand will spend her morning and early afternoon with several friends and family, arrive in a caravan amid giggles and excitement.  Not that my book won’t be exciting but I do believe that my pre-wedding excitement will be slightly different than Lisa’s.

So, not long now…in a little over a week, I will be married to Lisa. 

And I can’t wait!

Moving ahead with our wedding plans

Winery and back of The Red Bar

Lisa and I decided on the place where we will get married, the Winery at the Red Bar.  We visited there again on Friday, took some photos, asked some questions and then booked the venue.  And we made a lot of progress on our other weding plans as we prepare for the big day on April 18, 2009…we picked and ordered the wedding cake and Lisa ordered her wedding dress. 

The venue is the Winery at the Red Bar located in the trendy MidTown area of Tallahassee.  The Winery is currently expanding and adding a small tapas style restaurant allowing them to serve food also.  Lisa and I will be going back to the Winery in the next month of so to make our own batch of wine for our wedding guests.

Lisa found the dress of her dreams at The New Image in Thomasville, Georgia.  Obviously I can’t write much about her dress since I haven’t seen it but she loves it and Lindsey and Kaitlyn think it looks great.

We found our cake at Tasty Pastry Bakery and ordered it.

Things are coming together for our big day April 18.

 

 

The Winery at the Red Bar The Winery at the Red Bar

Ned with Coach Lou Holtz

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Originally uploaded by Ned Campbell

 

I was able to spend a significant amount of time with Coach Lou Holtz at the 2008 FABexpo. Coach Holtz was the keynote speaker for this event and I was able to spend time with him as we took him to the green room to meet with some of our leadership and then to his speech and back to the green room again to take photos. Throughout this process he was great to work with!

However, the more impressive aspect was what coach did that he didn’t have to do…he reached out and touched the life of a young boy. One of the participants had his 9-10 year old son with him and he is a huge Lou Holtz fan. The young man was patient and waited for almost 90 minutes to see if Coach Holtz would autograph the book he was reading. Not only did Coach Holtz give him an autograph, but he also talked with the boy and ultimately took a picture with him. All of these things weren’t required, however Coach did them because he is a wonderful person.

More of us should strive to be more like Coach Holtz and the world would be a better place!

If you were attending a professional education conference is it important that the keynote is a high profile speaker?
( surveys)

More Lake Tahoe Fun

We finished the team building phase of our meeting on Friday and then had the afternoon and evening on our own.  This was a great opportunity for us to spend time doing what we wanted to do.  The first thing we did was go over to Heavenly Village, buy tickets to ride the gondola up the Heavenly Valley to eat lunch.   It was a great trip to the top, we stopped at the midway point, walked around and looked at the lake and took lots of pictures.

At the top, we ate burgers (expensive but worth it when you consider the view). With a record 300+ inches of snow this year, the skiing was open very late (first weekend in May).

Eating in the snow in late April

After our lunch and the trip back down the mountain, we walked around The Shops at Heavenly then back to the hotel. For dinner that night we went to Kalani’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe with my friend Brent.

Saturday was our final day for the event and we spent most of the day in sessions, then the final night dinner was at the Chart House, high on the mountain side. 

What a day! Getting ready for our event.

Wow, what a day.  As we get ready for our retreat in Lake Tahoe later this week, it has been crazy at work.  It is the typical too much to do with too little time.  However, I will survive this week.

We are staying at Harveys Resort Lake Tahoe for the week.  From sessions to team-building exercises it will be fun.  There was a record snowfall this year (over 300 inches) so skiing is still open in Heavenly Valley.

We leave on Wednesday morning, so hopefully we will get everything done in time.

Quick trip to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

Today wasn’t going to be a day that kept us inside…it was just too beautiful outside.  Yes, there was work to be done, but neither one of us wanted to stay indoors on such a wonderful day.  We decided that we had to run down to the coast to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to see if we could see any birds, turtles, alligators or bears (Lisa really wants to see a bear in the wild).  I don’t think she would be very happy if she was outside the car and the bear was nearby!

We were able to see some birds, jumpging fish and of course alligators.  We had a great time walking and talking together.  We sat at the point near the lighthouse and watched the boats, the water and other people.  As always when you are with Lisa – the freaks come out!  Today wasn’t an exception.  Not a great freak watching day, but there were still a couple to be seen.

The trip down and back was so relaxing.  We drove slow through the park to see if we could see more wildlife, talked and held hands (like we always do).  We should have taken Zoey (the Z) with us because she would have liked being outside.  As we drove back we decided that she deserved to get out too.  So we picked her up – she would probably say that we rescued her from her jail.  We went to Tom Brown Park and let her run around for a few minutes.  She really enjoys running around without a leash, but she really doesn’t like the dog park.  Too many nosey dogs for her liking.  However we are going to start taking her to the park more so she will get used to it and maybe make new friends besides her buddies from MoJo’s Backyard.

It was a GREAT day spending time with Lisa, seeing the wildlife and avoiding our work!