Alley & Kyle’s Adventures in . . .

We drove down to Galveston with our dogs today.  Galveston was hit hard by Hurricane Ike last year.  We saw a lot of the devastation that is still there, but we also saw some of the rebuilding that has already taken place.  Kyle drove down to one end of the beach to show me some restaurants that he had eaten at when he went there for a conference.  After looking around and thinking that they were "around here somewhere," he realized that that little row of restaurants was now leveled.  It was a little sad.

After our little scenic tour of Galveston, we took the dogs out for a short walk on the beach.  They didn’t quite know what to do with the water, but pretty soon they were having a good time jumping around in the waves and "boxing" at the waves.

I went to Florida last weekend to hang out with my nieces.  Here are some pictures of Katelynn (3 years old) and Abby (three weeks old).  Notice the proud grandparents.  They are beaming, aren’t they?

We went to southern New Mexico last weekend - to the area of Cloudcroft.  We did some hiking in the mountains, and we spent a day at White Sands National Monument.  Apparently, Rocky has already filled you all in on the details, so here are some pictures for you to enjoy…..

The mountains around Cloudcroft - when it was NOT raining over the weekend.

The sand dunes at White Sands National Monument.

Kyle and the puppies at White Sands.

This is where the puppies got away from us for a few minutes at White Sands.  They loved the freedom!

We brought sleds and went down the sand dunes!  So much fun!

After Slate went down the sand dune running next to Kyle on the sled.  The dogs had a blast at White Sands.

Hello, this is Rocky.  Alley is busy at work, so I thought that I would update everyone on our weekend trip to the mountains.  I think that we went somewhere in New Mexico, but I’m not really sure where because I slept in the back of the car the whole drive over.  I like to occasionally wake up to check on Kyle and Alley and make sure that they are driving safely.  Slate liked to jump up and look out the back window to make sure that we weren’t being followed.  (He gets paranoid sometimes.)

Kyle and Alley took us to the mountains for some hiking and playing.  It rained a lot up on the mountain over the weekend, but I didn’t mind.  You know the best part about the rain (besides all of the great smells that it brings out!)?  Mud wrestling!  Slate and I had so much fun wrestling around in the mud and jumping in the big puddles.  Kyle and Alley looked upset that they didn’t get to play in the mud too, so I jumped on them trying to get them to join in the wrestling.  I don’t think that they thought that it was as much fun as Slate and I thought.  I guess that we puppies just know how to have a good time.

Kyle and Alley also took us to this place with these big white hills.  I think that they called it sand or something like that.  I have never seen anything like it before.  I tried to eat some, but it didn’t taste very good.  It was fun to climb up these white hills and then run back down them again.  One time, Slate and I even got away from Kyle, so we ran circles around him.  It was so much fun! 

It was a really fun weekend, and we did so much that I am still tired.  I think that I will go take another nap.  I’ll tell Alley to post some pictures of the trip later.

I guess that I should update on our vacation. I should probably post some pictures and stuff, but that is not going to happen. Our vacation got cut short. The dogs got sick, and it just made all of us miserable. Camping with sick dogs cannot be fun and relaxing. So, we just came home.

First, Rocky got some tummy troubles (I’ll let you interpret that one). Then, we stopped at Kyle’s great uncle’s house in Cedar Crest just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cedar Crest is named because of all of the cedar groves all over that side of the mountain. We tied the dogs up to a couple of trees so that we could sit inside and visit for an hour with Uncle Bob and Aunt Bertie. Have you ever heard of Cedar Fever? Apparently, dogs are allergic to cedar trees, and it causes them to break out in hives. Yes, my dogs broke out in Cedar Fever. Between the Cedar Fever and Rocky’s tummy issues, Kyle and I were at our wits-end.

We were all so miserable that Kyle and I just decided to head home. I still took the whole week off to relax at home, but Kyle went back to work for a couple days so that we can try to take another vacation later.

In other news, my parents are coming down for a long weekend over the Fourth of July next week. Our minor league baseball team, the Midland Rockhounds, will be in every night that they are here. And yes, they did plan to come down around the Rockhounds’ schedule. For a minor league team, it is a really nice stadium and a great atmosphere. We enjoy going to the Rockhounds’ games, so it should be a fun weekend for all of us. I’ll try to post some pictures of that weekend.

Okay, not yet, but we will be in a few days.  Kyle and I are both burnt out at work right now and decided that we desperately need a vacation.  Unfortunately, the only time that works for both of us before September/October is next week.  Sooooooo, we are leaving on Sunday the 15th for a week of hiking and camping.  We are packing up the car and the dogs and heading north to get out of the heat of West Texas.  We’re going to southwest Colorado to do some hiking and camping in the National Forest up there.  We are really looking forward to the much-needed break.  I’ll try to post some pictures of our trip when we get back.

Over the weekend, Kyle and I travelled to San Antonio, Texas, to go to the NCAA Men’s Final Four festivities.  (For those of you out of the country or just not into sports - it’s the final four teams left in college men’s basketball tournament.  it’s a really big deal!)  We saw a lot of players and coaches just hanging out like the rest of us.  We saw Bobby Knight on the ESPN set doing his game analysis.  We also saw Dick Vitale (another ESPN game analyst) and Steve Alford (Indiana guy - played for IU and now coaches at New Mexico Uni.).  Below are some of the pictures that we got. 

Alley with Dick Vitale.

Kyle with Steve Alford.  (Kyle used to go to Steve Alford’s basketball camps in Indiana when he was younger.)

As always, click on the picture to see a bigger view of it.

Kyle’s company had a family Halloween party, and Kyle and I dressed up for it. The kids came in their costumes and “Trick-or-Treat-ed” to each office.

I was a "Modern" Witch with a Swiffer to fly on.

And, Kyle was "Charlie Brown."

Last weekend, we went to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to do a little hiking in the Lincoln National Forest.  This was Rocky’s first hiking trip, and he did really well.  Here are some pics at the beginning of a hike and right after a hike.  Can you guess which one is before and after?

This is our ship - The Norwegian Pearl.  Yes, we were on "The Pearl," but Captain Jack Sparrow was no where to be found.

This was our cabin.  See how spacious it was?  Oh well, we just slept there.

See the black spot in the middle of the photo?  That is a bear that we saw hunting for fish.  We saw a lot of wildlife, but we weren’t able to get really good pictures of them.  If you ever do this cruise, take a camera with a really good zoom!

This is me not trying to steal one of the dog sled puppies.  One of the excursions that we did was visiting a dog sled musher’s camp.  We went on a dog sled ride in carts with wheels for the summer months.  We got a lesson on how the sport of dog sledding works and what it is all about.  And, we got to play with the puppies!  Kyle wouldn’t let me bring one home though.

More pics later.

We went to a lumberjack show in Ketchikan, and this is Kyle with the hostess of the show.  Didn’t hurt that she was a hot chick either!  (Don’t worry - I got my picture taken with the LumberJacks!) 

This is one of the many glaciers that we saw when we cruised Glacier Bay.  Kyle was really excited that day.  You know the phrase "like a kid in a candy store"?  Well, this was a geologist in Glacier Bay for him! 

I’m sorry that it took me so long to get some pictures posted.  I’ll try to post a few more this weekend.  Now that I have it all figured out and everything!