An I35 Adventure!

I finally got to go to Willie Nelson's Truck Stop!

I've wanted to go to this place ever since Matt and I watched a Truck Stop Special on the Travel Channel one night when nothing else was on. However, our last attempts to visit this stop were unsuccessful because they were remodeling for a looong time! I'm so glad that the construction is over and Willie's stop was ready for me!

I'm crazy over Willie!

(Not a big fan of his music...just of his work for Animal Rights)
A Willie Nelson Record Purse that couldn't hold anything...but was neat to look at!

Willie's Smokin' Guitar collection...pun intended.

Willie's Stage!

It's Willie and the boys! You can also see my cowboy boots that I wore especially for this occasion!

These frogs were outside of Willie's Restaurant/Honky Tonk. There were also a ton of motorcycles outside parked in a row that made me want to tip them over like dominoes just like PeeWee Herman did in "PeeWee's Big Adventure"...but I figured in real life I couldn't dance around and get myself out of the pickle that would have put me in...so I held back from the temptation.

As a souvenir, I got a feather shaped sucker which turned out to be delicious! It was great!

Memorial Day at Sandy Lake Park

For Memorial Day we decided to go with my parents, niece, and nephew to my dad's annual Local 100 Union Picnic at Sandy Lake Park.

This park is like the park that time forgot. I think everything is in the same place and painted the exact way as it was when I was last there in the early 90's. It was crazy!

As soon as we arrived we promptly grabbed our ride tickets and went to mingle with all the interesting characters that one finds at a union picnic.
Kennedy has her stash!
Chandler awaiting one of 4 rides he took on the bumper cars.

All strapped in and ready to rumble!

And then on to "The Scrambler" we went! Chandler was really digging this ride once I told him it was my favorite when I was his age.

Enjoying the breeze.

Then Chandler and I took a ride without Uncle Matt on the "Tilt-o-whirl"!

This ride brought lots of laughs.

Then we met up with Kennedy again for some "Space Adventures"

Chandler was a really good sport for riding in the girly, purple spaceship.

And then we talked Chan-man into the most vomit provoking ride of them all..."The Spider"!

After this...Chandler needed to let his stomach settle. Poor guy.

While letting it settle we played a LOT of the traditional Bingo they put on after feeding everyone BBQ...yet we only won a lunch box and a cap. Matt was pretty bummed we weren't leaving with a big screen television or gift card, but it was fun playing anyhow.

We ended our day by riding the "Little Dipper" which should have been called, "Little Back Breaker" with Chandler and then letting him attempt a ride on "The Scrambler" all by himself.

And he did alright! We were very proud of Chan-man and very happy we got to spend some quality time with the kids.

Jack and Tucker

The apartment wildlife was overjoyed that we returned from Europe and their food source had replenished. Here is our friend Jack (he has a girlfriend named Diane) bathing in some birdseed.

And here he is after eating so much he couldn't move. Also, a new dog park opened in our complex! It has all the equipment needed for training a dog for an obstacle course. Here's the first and last picture of Tucker practicing on the seesaw since he did not find it at all amusing. He did a great job though!

This year's favorite television shows in Europe

I love watching television in Europe.
Here are the top 3 things I enjoyed watching this year:

The Italian version of deal or no deal with a twist of it being a wedding couple picking boxes and the wedding party holding the boxes.

The Spanish version of trading spouses...kinda....only WAY better because the whole family goes to live with the other family....and those other families are tribes and no one speaks the same language!

And this song I heard while watching the Italian channel. It's so catchy!

But I also must acknowledge Matt and my favorite herr, Oliver Geissen (The German Ryan Seacrest) from the Super RTL channel. He never lets us down on quality entertainment:

We're Back!

We arrived back from Spain on Sunday night around midnight. I unpacked us in less than 20 minutes, but still had to stay awake to do laundry so we'd have clothes the next morning which made us get in bed around 2:00am. Needless to say we are still suffering from some serious jet lag.

For me, Spain was a Vegan's worst nightmare. Everything contained pork, shellfish, mayonnaise, or dairy which left me very, very hungry most of the time. However, I still enjoyed the sights, the arts, and being able to understand some of the language around me for once.

For Matt, Spain was a great big chocolate pastry shop! He managed to find chocolate pastries everywhere we went and made sure to get his fill. His only disappointment was that it rained in Barcelona before he got to take a dip in the sea. :o(

Below are a few pictures of our adventures:

Peace Out!

See you in a week!

We're off to Spain baby!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I celebrated by dressing up O'dude and eating a burrito with my 1/2 mexican friend!

Ay yi yi yi!

Lottery Ticket Virgin

Yesterday I received a lottery ticket chain letter in the mail from my field office friend Kristin.

To my surprise, Matt had never in his 30 years of life scratched off a lottery ticket! So needless to say, the arrival of this little piece of silver coated cardstock excited him.

Since I was no stranger to lottery tickets, I let him have the honors and documented it just in case he won so I could get his reaction.

(And yes I know I shouldn't be a pro at lottery tickets, but when I was 19 my friend and I went through a brief gambling rebellion which included a lot of BINGO, online sports betting, and scratch off tickets...it was a lot of wasted money...but at least it was his money and not mine. lol)

First Scratch"Holy cow...did I win $1,000.00?"

And finally the results: $2.00! Congratulations Sweetie...now we can use it to go buy 2 more tickets. :o)