Last Friday was the first time my family ever joined me on a business trip.  I had scheduled one to [1] HRH’s Moline office to coincide with the [2] John Deere Classic.  :-)  Can you say a little golf?

Well Thursday I was in the office taking care of a few things while the family went poking around Moline.  I guess they found a mini-golf course (Robyn had 2 holes in one!) and the kids spent a lot of time in the hotel pool.  After work, we took Kala to the airport.  She flew to Denver to celebrate our good friend Rachelle’s 40th birthday.  So that left me and the kids.

Connie from the Moline office was nice enough to ask us over for dinner.  They lived across the river in Iowa amidst the corn fields.  It was a beautiful neighborhood and a good way to kill a few hours.

On Friday, Connie had set aside a few tickets for us to the John Deere Classic.  This was the first time the kids had ever seen a golf tourney.  Cool stuff according to Brad.  Robyn thought it was ok, but it was a lot of walking.  We ended up parking in VIP Preferred across the street (THANKS Connie!).  When we got there, we started just wandering around.

I was impressed, I didn’t have to tell the kids but once about golf course manners during a tournament.  They were quiet when they should have been and clapped at the appropriate times.  We walked down 9 and sat at the 8th green.  Then walked past the driving range and to 17 where the HRH tent was.  Again, THANKS Connie.  We had lunch at the tent (Tent is too small a word, it was more like a mini-lodge with a door, windows, sink & bathroom.  In other words, the kids could be kids with out being told to be quiet.

After lunch, we walked down 18 to the clubhouse and then ended up following [3] Zach Johnson unintentionally.  We went down 1 and 2, hurried over the 3rd green which was a par 3 and watched Zach come through.  We stayed there for a few more pairs and then cut 4 and went to 5 where of course Zach was again.  We saw some great golf and some not so good golf.  I shouldn’t talk because I would never get close to how those guys were playing.

In all we hit portions of 10 holes on a [4] beautiful course and saw golfers like Zach Johnson, [5] Jesper Parnevik and [6] Kirk Triplett.
A stop at the Merchandise shop and we were on our way home.

You see, Robyn had a softball game at 6:00 so we needed to be on the road.

The kids slept a bit in the car until we got home.  A quick bite then on to the game.  Coach Rob was short handed in coaches so Brad helped on the field and I was bench coach.  Robyn did well.  She bruised herself a little sliding into third and got quite dusty, but in all, had a great time.

We had another game on Saturday so it ended up being a pretty busy weekend.  Robyn got a hit every time she was at bat except for once.  I think she really likes this game.

Kala landed in O’Hare Sunday and our weekend was done.  I had fun with the kids and I think they had fun with me….maybe.  Anyway, it was good to spend some time together and let Kala go have fun in Denver.