In Case of Flood, Climb to Safety

This week we took a little road trip and went down to Rocky Mountain National Park. The park was gorgeous, and Cleo had a great time as well--she even realized that it's okay to walk on a leash and hasn't refused it since!






We went up as far as we could go by road in the park, stopping where they closed the road (we assume for cold). But, honestly, getting there was half the fun. We had to drive through a canyon called Big Thompson Canyon on the way and the road is literally at the bottom of the canyon (next to Big Thompson River, of course) and it was absolutely gorgeous. I would make that drive every day just for fun! This is also where the "in case of flood, climb to safety" sign comes in...really it should say "in case of flood, good luck!"



And just about a half an hour outside of the park is a city called Estes Park, CO. I don't have any pictures of it, sadly, but I absolutely fell in love with this city. It's tiny and has all these one of a kind shops and everything is within walking distance. And it's super dog friendly--we only got kicked out of one store and most stores have signs on the front that say dogs welcome! (We can't leave Cleo in the car yet because she'll eat the car).

But, about a half an hour outside Estes Park, there's a store called Colorado Cherry. I love cherries. And this place has everything cherry: juice, cider, jam, jelly, everything. We stopped and I picked up some cherry jam for filling some cupcakes this week!

Very successful road trip!

Ontheway Vacay

That's right! We have officially moved from one side of the country to the other! I missed my sofa and my home, and am still missing my bed as it isn't here yet, but the weather has been wonderful since we got here on Tuesday! 80s and 90s with light breeze? I'm certain the West is just luring us in--this won't last much longer!

But, unlike our trip out in December, this time we had a little more time to play with. So, we decided to take a little vacation on the way. It was great, but we also noticed that we were doing the "senior siteseeing trip" as everyone we saw at our stops seemed to be either senior citizens or grandparents with their small grandchildren.

We went to...

Corn Palace. There was an awesome festival going on too--we had no idea, it was completely by chance.




The Badlands.



Wall Drug.



Mt. Rushmore.



Wind Cave.



Vore Buffalo Jump.



And Devil's Tower!



And it was awesome!

Good Ole San Antone

A few weeks ago, I went to visit the hubs who is down in San Antonio for the summer. Yes, I know you are confused. We, also, have no idea how to answer the question "where do you live?" at the moment.

But we had a great time in San Antonio! We went to the riverwalk and used our Heroes Salute pass to go to Sea World (thanks!) and really enjoyed ourselves. Seaworld, by the way, also has a waterpark...which was AMAZING since it was 107 all day! Mostly, though, we love that there are actually things to do in San Antonio, unlike in Alabama where he was most recently. That place was boring. And it smelled. True fact.

The Alamo. Which really surprised us. We figured it would be in the middle of nowhere but it's not--it's right in the middle of the city. In fact, we walked to the riverwalk from there and it was a super short walk in itself.



We ate at this place on the riverwalk called Dick's, where the waiters are rude to you on purpose. We all ended up wearing paper hats with dirty phrases on them, which was funny. It was no Ed Debevics, but it was still pretty good. But, good ole texas, it was 9pm and it was still 103 outside so it was a rather warm outdoor meal.





And then, of course, there was the highlight: SeaWorld. Which was huge, hot, and busy. But definitely awesome!





Plus, we got to see each other for the first time in 4 months, which was also awesome ;)

Things We've Found Around Here

Chalk messages on downtown walls...



Giant boots...



More antelope than I care to acknowledge...



And giant fields of buffalo...




We meet with the inspector to do a walkthrough of our house in Tuesday, and we move in on Wednesday barring any drastic issues. We plan on having everything put away, put together, and the living room decorated for Christmas (...we won't be sharing the rest of our house with anyone back home, because we don't have time to make them look pretty!) by Christmas! It ought to be fun!

20 Hours Later!

We made it!

We made it through Indiana, which I failed to photograph.

Then Illinois...


Then Missouri...


Then Kansas, where we missed the state line but found this awesome sunset...


By the way, I hate Kansas.

Then we made it through Colorado...


And, finally, to Wyoming!




We were here for less than an hour before we almost hit an antelope, and then found a mall :) Tomorrow we'll go exploring a bit more and check in with housing to see if we might get into our place pretty soon. If we're even getting a place on base!

Posting Failure (+Pics)

I know I haven't posted in...well, weeks. I actually wrote a post last week, mostly, but never posted it. I'm just out of the swing of blogging. But, eventually I'll be back. I swear.

We went to an Old West Festival a couple weeks ago here. It was cute, but pricey for the events within it. I think they are trying to get it going as a yearly event, this being the first year.




And on the way home we met this cow. He's not special. We just liked him. And we named him EmoCow.


Little Man started playing football. He's really enjoyed it so far! He ought too, he's the biggest kid on the team. He's #48 catching the ball below.


And we got a Cricut...for my mom...that I love. More on this later.

What Labor Day at the Lake Looks Like

Our last labor day at the lake looks like:

Cuddling in the early morning cold...


Laughing and swinging...



Bubble blowing...


Smores...


Babes sleeping on the boat, one in a lifejacket that is not accurate for his gender because we just used Brady's old one...



And water slides.


It wasn't too shabby at all :)