Egg Nog Dog

Click on the title so see a video of how we spent Christmas Eve - taking care of Foster after he got into an unattended glass of egg nog. I spent most of the night with him on my lap or carrying him around. He normally doesn't enjoy that, but he was all loose and relaxed. If I put him down he'd just follow me around but he could hardly walk without his feet slipping out from under him, or walking into walls. Hilarious, but also disturbing. We don't know how much he had, so we kept a close eye on him. Surprisingly he didn't seem to have a hangover at all the next day.

Snow Day!

We had our first snow storm of the season. We got maybe 4 inches at my house. I've heard El Paso has gotten more snow this season than South Dakota! It took me an hour to drive home, but later I got to tromp around in the fresh snow in my sorel boots. I love it!

Baptism & Bday

I flew up to MN & Natasha & Cecilia flew in from Seattle. We drove down to SD to see Finn and Grace at their baptism, plus we celebrated Catie's 5th birthday. It was great to spend time together with family. It was a fun but still a relaxing long weekend.

Kadi's first visit to El Paso

Here's a picture of Kadi and Jeff on their way to the park. Gene and Theresia drove their van all the way down from Washington for a visit and brought Kadi with them. They stayed with us for a couple days before heading down to Big Bend, Texas. Jeff and I had Kadi for a few days and enjoyed getting to know her. She knows lots of words and is even starting to put sentences together. She is independent and knows what she wants! We played by the pool, went to the park, went to a kids zoo, went shopping, watched some movies, and just hung out at home.

Clunkers Safest?

A couple weeks now I've been meaning to tell you we fell for the Cash for Clunkers incentive program. Jeff had a hard time giving up his good ol' jeep, and it does seem a shame to have to destroy a good driving vehicle, but it was needing more and more repairs and we haven't gotten around to many in the couple years we've had it. The Subaru is getting up there in miles, so it seems to get all the attention. CARS seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up so Jeff had a bit of fun car shopping and we got an '08 Chevy HHR. Wasn't Jeff's first choice but it has some character, lots of features and meets our criteria. Due to the popularity of the program there weren't many vehicles available in El Paso, but it's a good car and we are enjoying it.

I told Jeff we need to go on a road trip to break it in, but I guess there is another way to break in a new vehicle...your first insurance claim. We haven't even had it long enough for me to blog about it, to get it dirty, although I think we have filled it up with gas a couple times. Then I wake up this morning to a sight that is almost comical. I had just been bragging earlier in the week to some visitors that El Paso has been the 2nd or 3rd safest city in the nation for many years running. Nothing bad has really happened to me or anybody I know, I bragged. Jeff has left the keys in the motorcycle in the driveway & nothing happened. He has left $100s of dollars of audio equipment in the jeep and nobody was interested in it. Apparently Clunkers are the safest thing to have in El Paso. Apparently somebody decided they were going to get some cash out of the program too..

Minnesota...

I spent 10 days in July visiting my family up in Minnesota, South Dakota & even ventured into Wisconsin for a day. Vaughan and Catie and I drove down to South Dakota to see the Peters' new home, Grace and cutie 3 month old Finnegan. We spent one day up at Kip & Nicole's cabin near spooner with the Durands and Bob & Sharon too, plus their whole bunch of kids. It was raining most of the day, but we still have fun, just chatting. I got to spend time with mom in Mpls shopping & eating at new restaurants. Then I went down to spend time with dad in Rochester and got treated to a fish fry and caught up with an old friend. I got to see a few uncles, aunts and cousins too while I was back. Dad & I and the Schaubs went out on Vaughan's boat on Lake Minnetonka, even though it was only 70 degrees. I just enjoyed being out on the water, since I live in the desert now! It was a great trip, relaxing and alot of fun crammed into 10 short days!

camping...

we went camping this weekend at bonito hollow up near ruidoso new mexico. jeff and i used to camp all the time, especially with his kids, but we haven't been camping in years...maybe 5 years? he was on the road for a couple years, then moving to texas it's always so hot or so cold. we tried to go last year and my car died on the way. so, when my friend lucia said they were going, i thought that was a really good idea, especially since i don't have class right now, me schedule is free. we went hiking up at the ski apache wilderness area. it was beautiful meadows filled with wild flowers and shady spruce forests. it reminded us of the pnw a little bit. foster was very into the hiking and wore himself out! we hung fireside with lucia and her friends...and introduced the new campers to Pi-Di's (apple) and bocce ball. sunday we stopped by the 3 rivers petroglyph area & took short but hot hike to see the numerous petroglyphs. it's a great site, you can see from the many pictures. anyway, it was a very relaxing weekend and we really had a good time, we might just have to do it again soon.