Catch Up!

Alright team, aannnddd we're back. I can't even remember when I posted last, but I have a million excuses. We are now back in beautiful Fort Benning, Georgia. We packed up at the end of July and made the 23 hour trip across the country, puppies in tow, to settle in our new home. Since our last post, we have done a LOT! During our trip, we made a stop in San Antonio for a night and experienced the awesomeness that is the Riverwalk. We poked our heads in the Alamo, did a little walking around, and headed out the next morning. Our next stop along the way was Biloxi, Mississippi. We were planning to do some sightseeing here too, but we just ended up eating at an Applebee's and doing too many jello shots. We hit Columbus, Georgia on the third day (home to Fort Benning), and settled in for one more night in a hotel. Our first meal in Columbus was at our absolute favorite place: Willy's Wings. The dogs started acting out here, and we knew it was about time to get them settled.
 

The next day we were placed in a house and the fun began. The movers showed up and the next week was chaos. We were all moved in in a week, but I still feel like we're settling. The dogs love the new backyard. We have grass and a tree, which is very exciting coming from El Paso. Grace is becoming an expert squirrel chaser (I would say hunter, but she has yet to catch one). Peter has also calmed down a lot since he's able to burn off energy in the yard most of the day. We sure have a lot more humidity here, but we both prefer it. Even at the hottest part of the day, it's really only around 90 degrees, which is much better than the 110+ we came from. Chris and I have taken up running again, and the lower elevation here is a great help. I am now working from home, which has been an adjustment, but I'm really enjoying it so far. We even crammed in a week's vacation to Michigan already. That was an awesome, and jam-packed trip! We went up to the Mackinac Bridge, went to Mackinac Island, stopped at some breweries, saw a Tiger's game, hung out at the beach, visited the Church we will be getting married at (and left a big, fat check) etc, etc.

Now back to the real world! Chris hasn't officially started school yet, but he still has to report in every morning. We started date nights back up again this weekend, in an attempt to get back into the swing of things. Date night was kind of a mixed bag. Chris and I both got our fishing licenses here and spent most of Saturday on the riverbank here on post. Chris didn't have much luck, but I caught a decent catfish. It was the first catfish I had ever caught, and it was a little traumatizing (they feel like jello and make an awful screaming sound). Saturday night, we treated ourselves to Willy's Wings (again!), and capped off the night with a movie and wine at the house. Sunday, we went to Mass at Holy Family, then headed up north for a throwback edition of Sunday Adventures that we so much enjoyed during our last tenure here in Georgia. We stopped at Little Country Kitchen near Pine Mountain and Callaway Gardens for lunch. Chris ordered chicken and waffles (...when in Rome), and I got a little payback by ordering fried catfish. We both enjoyed a side of fried green tomatoes, hushpuppies and southern potato salad. From there, we kept driving to LaGrange to check out some potential beach areas in the state park. We didn't have much luck, but we did find Highpoint Marina Resort which would be a cool place to grab a beer on the water next time we're in the area. Then we headed back so Chris could finish another draft of fantasy football. We ended the night with a hookah session and mindless TV. Chris' turn next week! Stay tuned...

A little bit of everything...

So, another couple weeks have gone by and I have fallen behind again in the blog. Rewind to last weekend: Chris and I made the drive back from Denver on Saturday, which made Sunday a whirlwind of laundry, cleaning and trying to get ready for another week. This past weekend was another crazy one, full of getting the house ready for the move, taking things to Goodwill, and, oh yeah, buying me a Jeep! It was a pretty unexpected buy, but one that has been in the works for awhile. We took the Camry in to get an oil change and left with a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Needless to say, when we weren't scrambling around the house, we were driving around town with the top off! We did finish our Marriage Prep, which was really exciting. One step closer to the big day. The Jeep did create some new issues as far as towing was concerned, and Chris put in a lot of hard work trying to figure everything out. We are good to go now though. The Rebellos are in town this week, and the rest of this week will be more house prep, clearing post, finalizing travel plans, and saying our last goodbyes to El Paso. Three more days in the office for me before I go remote! We are very excited for the future!

House cleaning....and the Rockies!

I am going to double up this post since last weekend wasn't very eventful. Last weekend was actually a down weekend crammed in between lots of traveling, so Chris and I took advantage and hung around the house for the most part. We have a lot to do to get the house in shape for our upcoming move. Last Friday night we made an appearance at the German Club, we went to a BBQ on Saturday with the platoon, and cleaned most of Sunday (not real exciting :)). It was some much needed down-time though. We are more than making up for it this weekend, and coming week.

We arrived in Denver on Saturday to spend a week with Chris' dad and dad's wife. We drove from El Paso, which took about 10 hours. Once we arrived, we settled in, toured the house, ordered pizza for dinner and actually got to see my cousin Sean on Saturday night who was also in town visiting his girlfriend. Sunday was a long, exciting, crazy day! We got up early to run, then relaxed with some coffee on the back porch (the weather here is unbelievable!). We all got ready and headed for downtown to check out REI and Confluence Park. We sat along the banks of the Platte River and dangled our feet in as we watched body boarders surf down the little rapids. From there, we headed to Coors Field where we ate lunch at Breckenridge Brewery. After that we caught a Rockies game! The Rockies lost, but it was experience for our bucket list :)

After the game, we headed to Casa Bonita, a huge Mexican restaurant with an arcade, a gift shop, a magic show, and even a cliff diving show right in the middle of the restaurant! I believe it is the largest restaurant in the world per square footage. We were all stuffed afterwards, and headed back to the house to collapse and recharge.

Lubbock, Texas!

I swear I am getting worse and worse at staying on top of our adventures. This past weekend was something of a repeat of the weekend before. We didn't technically have a "surprise" date as we had travel/family plans. Late Friday afternoon we started the trek to Lubbock which was about a 5 1/2 hour drive. The drive through New Mexico is actually one of our favorites. We stopped once for gas and pistachios in Carlsbad (home of the legendary caverns). Once we got outside of Lubbock it down poured, which made the last leg of the trip a little slower.

Chris' stepmom's parents own a farm outside of Lubbock in a small town called Crosbyton. The farm is supposedly one of the largest in the state at over 1,500 acres combined. It was a very welcome change of pace compared to the rat race of El Paso. It almost felt like being home for me :) We got to tour a little bit of Lubbock, went to a brew pub in town, attended a birthday party/family gathering, and even went to a water park on Sunday. It was a packed weekend, but we both had a really great time. The weather was great, we met some really awesome people, and got to explore a new part of the country. We couldn't have asked for anything more!

SLC...and Moab

So this past weekend probably doesn't technically qualify as a surprise date, but it sure was an awesome one. Chris and I drove up to Salt Lake City (about 14 hours) for a family get-together to send off Uncle Brandon as he gets ready to deploy. We both were able to get both Friday and Monday off, which really helped. Friday we made the drive up through New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The drive was absolutely beautiful. On the way, we drove through Moab, UT and decided we would have to stop on our return trip. The weather was beautiful. Chris did most of the driving, save about 3 hours. Chris hadn't been to Utah in almost 20 years, and I had never met his mom's side of the family. I can't begin to tell you how awesome they all were. I felt right at home immediately. I also decided that Utah was amazingly beautiful. The whole trip was a complete surprise for Uncle Brandon. The weekend culminated with a barbecue on Saturday night. Chris drove me to one of the house's he grew up in. It really was an awesome trip.

As everyone was taking off on Sunday, we decided to begin our trip and drive 4 hours back to Moah, UT. Moab is something of an extreme-sports-off-roading-adventure enthusiast's mecca. It was definitely in the desert, and really hot, but we managed to snag the last cabin in a campground with AC! Once we were settled in, we walked downtown and did some shopping, then headed to Moab Brewing for dinner. It was a pretty cool place, and we had lots of great beer. Surprisingly, Utah beer has a relatively low alcohol level due to state laws. It still tasted great though! We capped off the night with a campfire at our camp site. We rounded off the trip home on Monday with a detour to the Four Corners Monument in Teec Nos Pos, AZ. We walked from Arizona to Utah to New Mexico to Colorado in less than 5 minutes! We managed to pick up a couple souvenirs here too. It was an exhausting, exciting, incredible adventure! We both can't wait to go back to Utah!

From the Top

This past weekend was Chris' turn. He went all out and surprised my with tickets to a show at the Plaza Theater downtown. Before the show we grabbed some drinks at the Dome Bar in the Camino Real, and after the show we grabbed dinner at La Huerta, also in the Camino. The show was called "From the Top" and featured young, classical musicians from around the country (and world). The music was incredible, and the artists were really inspiring. Aside from being amazing musicians, most of them also contributed to their communities in some way, and many of them had won scholarships to continue practicing their arts. Past alums of the show went on the teach at the New York Philharmonic, star in blockbuster movies, and appear on Broadway. The show was actually live recorded for radio, so we had to be relatively quiet to comply with the producer. It was really interesting to see the back end of a radio production. A 13 year old played a clarinet piece, a 19 year old played an organ piece, an 11 year old played the harp (our personal favorite), a local 16 year old El Pasoan played the violin, and two teenagers (one from Thailand), played a piano duo piece. It was really entertaining. If you ever get a chance, we highly recommend it!

Wine Fest!

Alright, back it up to last weekend. Last weekend was Chris' first back from the field, and it was a long one! We both had four days off, and they flew by. On Saturday, we had the pleasure of attending a wedding of some friends at La Vina Winery right across the border in New Mexico. This was followed by a barbecue at their house. Sunday was filled with errands and dinner and a movie. Monday was the wine fest! The fest was held at the Southern New Mexico fairgrounds (the same place as the beer fest!). The show ran from 12-6 with a military discount for Memorial Day. There were dozens of wineries and vineyards in attendance, as well as vendors, food and music. It was a hot one, and Chris and I are still reeling from the sun burn. We had some delicious wine, listened to some awesome music (and danced a little), and I
even found a Detroit Lions apron that I had to have. It was an awesome day, albeit a long one. We stopped at High Desert Brewing on the way home, and I think we crashed out for the night as soon as we got home :)