Alley & Kyle’s Adventures in . . .

Today is Garfield’s 29th birthday. Happy Birthday to Garfield!

I am really excited because I finally got to plant a little garden this year.  We don’t have a big yard.  (We have a little dog run on the side of the house that is Rocky’s yard.)  But, We have flower beds in front of the house and all around the patio.  (The patio is in the back of the house, and the side yard is on the other side, so they are completely separate.  That makes it nice for us and Rocky.)  I filled up the patio flower beds with veggies, and they are really starting to grow.  I planted sage, straight-neck squash, crookneck squash, zucchini squash, green bell peppers, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, watermelon, big jim new mexico peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and okra.  I have already had one jalapeno come off of the plant.  We are still deciding what we should make with it.  I was looking at all of the other plants last night and discovered a few more veggies starting to grow - a couple of squashes, a tiny cayenne pepper, and even a little tomato.  We’re not expecting a lot to come from my garden, but it is a fun hobby for me this summer. 

We have returned from our travels to the far far away land of Tennessee.  It was quite strange there.  There were these tall green things everywhere, the roads curved in every direction, and there was something sticky in the air.  (I think someone called it "humidity."  I just don’t get it…)  It was just completely different from our world here in west Texas.

We had a really nice time with both of our families.  The first weekend, we spent at my grandparents’ house on Tellico Lake.  My parents, my brother, sister-in-law, and my niece were all there.  We enjoyed spending time with all of them, and we jumped into the lake as much as possible.  Grandpa even took us out on the boat for a little tubing.  Kyle had his first experience with a jet ski, and I was driving it!  hehehe!  He said that I only made him a little nervous.  

We then spent two days in Gatlinburg by ourselves.  We both seemed to remember that Gatlinburg was a lot more fun when we were kids.  It was nice though to have a little down time to ourselves.  We just wandered the town and looked in the shops.  Then, we enjoyed some time by the hotel pool.  I think that we may like the water just a little bit.  

Then, Kyle’s parents picked us up and we spent the rest of our week in a cabin in the woods.  The cabin was quite literally a few yards from the Smoky Mountains National Park boundary.  We had a trail just outside the cabin.  Kyle’s grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces joined us there as well.  We spent most of that time just hanging out and visiting with Kyle’s family.  Kyle and I also took advantage of the hot tub in the evenings.  It was niiice.  We even saw a black bear and a racoon come up to the cabin.  Don’t worry, no one got close to either one. 

 We then started our journey back to West Texas last Sunday.  We were flying through Dallas, which was having some storms.  So, we finally got to Dallas late on Sunday, but all of the flights to Midland had been cancelled at that point.  (By the way, it was perfectly clear in Dallas by then.)  We were too tired to try to drive back to Midland that night, so the airline gave us a hotel and some food vouchers for the night.  We got up early Monday morning, and we were able to fly stand-by on the first flight to Midland.  Kyle was a little late to work, but we made it home with all our luggage.

 Here’s the exciting part of our flights back - apparently, there was a Star Wars convention in Knoxville last week.  While we were waiting in the Knoxville airport all afternoon, we saw a couple of actors from the original films.  Billy Dee Williams (aka Lando Calrissian) and Peter Mayhew (aka Chewbacca) were there!  I was brave with Billy Dee Williams and got his autograph and a picture on my camera phone.  However, I was too embrassed after that to try anything when we saw Peter Mayhew.  (Plus, I couldn’t think of his real name, and I didn’t think that he would appreciate being called "Chewey" in the Knoxville airport.)  So, with a bad day of trying to travel, we had a little bit of excitement.