Airports and the Holidays...ugh!

Ok, so we move somewhere warm for the winter and book a flight "home" to Orlando through Vegas...why is it that we still have to put up with the crappy winter weather in other states screwing our flight schedules? I came here to avoid crappy weather, yet it still follows...ridiculous!

Tucson apartment

Here are a few pics from our apartment...it's pretty nice. We haven't had too much to post since our weekends have been filled with Christmas shopping...don't think anyone needs pics of that. We leave for FL on Saturday (yea!), so we will have more to post then. Happy Holidays to all!

San Antonio - The Riverwalk

Naturally we had to stop in for a few drinks at "Dick's Last Resort!"

White Sands Con't

Me and more Bucca.

The Sun...shining down on the dunes and the road that needs to be plowed due to the constantly changing dunes.

Rock or Sand? You be the judge.

Are those bushes at the top of the dune? Why no! Those are the tops of trees that have been covered by the dune. As long as some of the branches stay above the dune, the tree lives as the dune passes through.

White Sands National Monument

This was definitely at the top of the cool list in things we have gotten to see so far. Miles and miles of white sand dunes. They were a blast to climb up and down...we even saw some people with saucer sleds sliding down the dunes. It almost looks like snow, but was the softest sand we've ever felt...up close it looked like the tiniest of crystals. Guess I could be more scientific and tell you the sand is made of gypsum.

Sand waves created by the wind.

The Bucca bush/plant/tree...not really sure which is was, but it was pretty neat looking.

That's me...way over there!

Outside Carlsbad Caverns

These images were too gorgeous not to share. And Brian was very excited to finally see cacti!

Carlsbad Caverns

These Caverns are in Carlsbad, NM and were quite impressive! Here is Brian running down into the Cavern entrance. It was about an hour walk down to the "The Big Room," which is one of the biggest cavern rooms in the world. I believe the size was equivalent to about 12 foot fields in length. These are a few of the best pics...a stalagtite and mite about to meet to become a column, the "Lion's Tail" stalagtite, my eerie pic with the very tall stalagmite, and the big rock is the "Rock of Ages."

Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion

Inside of Mission San Jose Church.

Garden and cross outside the Church and formet convent. The missions were all surrounded by stone walls and were set up to convert nearby Indian tribes to Catholicism.

View of the Church.

Mission Concepcion Church. Both of these churches continue to operate and offer worship services.

Brian is standing at the church doors...he's the tiny green dot.

San Antonio - The Alamo

This was the entrance to the gift shop and small museum...not an original structure, but pretty!

Entrance to the Church, the building most associated with The Alamo. Prior to the battle, The Alamo was known as Mission San Antonio de Valero. We also visited 2 other Missions while in San Antonio.

Houston with The Howell's!

Meredith, Josh, and Sadie were kind enough to take us nomadic Custer's in for a few days at the last minute when we found out we would have a week off...so why not make a few stops along the way to AZ?! We got to Houston on Saturday night and of course went out for some delicious Tex-Mex and margaritas...followed by "Shot Bar." Didn't that make for some fun?!! Bottoms up my friends! On Monday, Meredith took us over to Johnson Space Center. This is a pic of the old Mission Control room (it's been a little updated and is now apparently just on the other side of this room). We obviously didn't get to see the present day Mission Control, though it was cool to watch some real time footage of the current mission. The pic with the flags is one of the astronaut training facilities. Pretty cool!

Heading to Houston

This was actually taken after leaving Houston. We drove into NM, then had to go back into TX to get to our next NM destination.

Where did the rest of Arkansas go? Oh well, no one would miss it anyway!

The Mighty Mississippi wasn't looking so mighty!

Our Chicago Apartment

I realized that I never put up pics of where we were living in Chicago...so here are 2. I never got a chance to take a pic of the living room.

Happy Halloween...Late

Our pumpkin carving contest at work. Brian and I took the lead on carving...I did the skull, he did the ribcage, and a co-worker put him together with his arms and legs. We won a bagel breakfast "by a landslide," in our department!

1st Anniversary

Gotta love spending an Anniversary touring the Jelly Belly Factory with lots of free samples and 2 bags of Jelly Belly's EACH for FREE! Jenna if you're reading this...this was a total road trip "Jenna Moment!" Noticed the road sign "Attraction-Jelly Belly," so of course we had to go!

Fountain outside the Lodge. The tree in the background was a lot more red in person and really beautiful.

Brian horseback riding with Twister. His horse had some giddy-up going up hills. My horse, Buddy, only tried to spook me once...probably b/c he was getting pissed at the horse in front of us who had major flatulence the whole time!

The lake on the resort...very scenic.

Dinner at The Chophouse...great steaks, great atmosphere, great "Happy Anniversary" on the house dessert sampler plate. We loved this place!