Trip to El Paso

This past weekend (Wed through Sunday) we went to El Paso to visit Dave, Peggy, and the kids. The landscape goes from Austin green, into the hill country and then the desert. It was a 8.5 hour drive. Along the way we saw some very beautiful scenery.

On a rest stop about one hour east of El Paso, we let Louie out to walk around. He ended up with these little prickers in all four of his paws! One was even bleeding. Poor Lou...he declared it the worst rest stop ever! Woo oooo :(

Here is Peggy, Jack and Bella. We are at The Greenery restaurant in El Paso. Yummy!

This is Quinn....isn't he a cutey!?

We brought a gingerbread house for the kids and helped them put it together.

We all had a lot of fun doing it, and I think more frosting and candy ended up in our mouths than on the house!


Voi La! Beautiful job guys!

David has shown himself to be quite the artist. Many great drawings were done over the weekend. This is a fun piece of his where he decorated the wine rack.

While there we brought the kids their Christmas presents. Along with these great Groucho glasses, David got sea monkeys from Uncle Jack. Don't forget to feed them Wednesday, David! Bella is shown here coloring in her new Hello Kitty book with pink pen.

A trip to El Paso isn't complete without going across the boarder to Juarez. It's touristy so there are many people walking around peddling their goods, including music at your table. We got a couple cervecas and went shopping, then had a light lunch there.

Dave took us to a Miners game. Here is David in my vest trying to keep warm.

We also went hiking at one of the State Parks. Lots of great catci to be seen.


For the whole photo album, click on the link to the right "Trip to El Paso".

Louie's Birthday

Today is Louie's (arbitrarily chosen) birthday. Well, close enough for us. We had a fun day - first we went to Petsmart and picked up a new toy (as shown above)...he loves it as there are squeakers in each of the little ends. We also picked up some doggie cookies for treats.



Then we went swimming at Spicewood Springs - one of his favorite swim-holes. This is a past picture of him swimming there. He swam for a good 1/2 hour before we saw a snake in the water and decided to high-tail it outta there. I don't think it was one, but water mocassins are really prevalent in the area and pack a wicked venomous bite!

PS: It's also Jack's brother's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!

Camping at Enchanted Rock

This weekend we went "primitive" camping at Enchanted Rock, about 1 1/2 hours west of Austin. This is a picture of one of the "lesser" rocks - Buzzard Rock near where we camped.






Here is Jack with his humongo backback on. We were not lacking for back aches this weekend. We basically had to haul everything, tent and all, in on our backs. It was a good hour walk in through rough terrain. We foolishly brought our cooler as well.....sorry that picture is so blurry, but it gives you an idea of what kind of lifting and hauling Jack had to do to get it to the site. We tried rolling it as often as possible, but I think he ended up carrying it more.




The white 'powder' on these cacti is actually insects. Here I have squished them between my fingers and you can see their blood in the picture.







Jack and me on Enchanted Rock - beautiful view of the countryside behind us. Louie loved the hike! Another great view behind him.

After camping we swung in to Coopers in Llano for a well-deserved lunch of the best brisket around. Coopers was featured in an earlier post....it deserved another shout out :)

Howling Louie

The sad howl of the Lou is now heard throughout the Lone Star state. This post is for "all y'all" who miss this sound.

We were invited to a couple Halloween parties this year. This one is by a vet I worked with. He is the guy in the middle. If you look carefully you'll see that his face is really just below his "chin"

Happy Halloween!

Mid October we went to Pedernales State Park for an afternoon. It's a beautiful portion of the river that goes through these great rock formations. We had a great time climbing the rocks and hiking over them. Lots of exercise on a hot day.

Bonnie's Visit

Bonnie came for a visit in early October. We had dinner the first night at The Oasis.

This is the georgeous view from the restaurant patio.

Then we went canoeing in the Colorado River SE of Austin.

We also visited Enchanted Rock State Park near Llano. Llano is where Cooper's BBQ is.

Here is a slab of the famous Coopers BBQ, dipped in sauce and served on a cafeteria tray. Yum!

First Impressions of Austin

First Task! Find a place to cool off! We found an area of the Greenbelt called "Bull Creek" - a dog park and swim hole. Louie is loving it! There are lots of places like this in Austin. Thank goodness, because it was in the upper 90's through October. A huge change from our native lands.

As you can see, Louie is enjoying Austin. As are we. Here we are at Barton Springs...a public area where people can hang out in the water, drink soda (or adult beverages) and often the smell of something more sweet hangs in the air...dogs swim with humans. What is this world coming to?

Here are some shots of the kitties enjoying their new home. Bunny is especially relaxed here. They also like going out on the porch. Jack is worried Bunny is going to lose her balance and slip through the bars. I reassure him that her big belly will stop her from falling. Because we can only have 2 animals, I can only allow one kitty out at a time - yes, my ONE cat is a chameleon, changing from a little white cat to a big fat brown cat when it wants to.

Hello everyone!

We miss you all! We're here in Austin now - hundreds of miles from everyone we love. So we wanted to start this blog to help us keep in touch with family and friends. I've got a little catching up to do....so here goes!