Snack for Later: There and Back Again

I'm feeling a little like a wandering nomad.

In the past 2 weeks, we've been in Big Sandy, Tx; Albuquerque, NM; Los Alamos, NM; Killeen, TX; Los Alamos, NM; Albuquerque, NM and finally back to our new home in Los Alamos, NM.

The reason for so much traveling was moving, journeying back to TX for Christmas with Leni's family, and then coming home for a day and a half before celebrating a belated Christmas with my side of the family at my brother's house in Albuquerque, where we took this photo at the River of Lights.

Despite the crazy traveling and inability to rest my head in the same place for more than just a few days, it's been fun. The trip to Leni's family's home was packed with day trips and visits with friends and family. The visit with my side of the family was a little lower key although the days still seemed to leave me just as drained since I was more tired when the gig started from the previous travel.

Both Leni and I had brothers with somewhat recently acquired pets. Leni's brother, Landon, trapped this Kestrel back in October which he is currently in the process of training so it will hunt sparrows and starlings. Her name is Kasha. On the day that we arrived at their house, my brother, Nick, and his wife Claire, got their first dog. Meet Dottie! She is a cross between a Basset Hound and

a Dalmatian! She is 6 months old and over the course of our stay, we saw more and more of her personalility unfold everyday. I can't wait to see what she's like next time I visit.

Throughout all the travel and introductions to the many dogs in the households we visited, our own dogs were BEAT! They had become pretty antisocial and stressed out. During our visits, they spent most of each day holed up in some empty corner of the house to just be alone and recuperate. They looked absolutely pathetic at the end of my brother's hallway laying by our bedroom door.

While I am home now, my wandering is far from over. We returned home this afternoon and are currently washing clothes as quickly as possible in an effort to do a mad re-pack job in preparation for our departure tomorrow for South Fork, CO, about 3 and a half hours north of Los Alamos. We'll be joining some friends for a day of skiing at

Wolf Creek Ski Resort (presently the recipient of 78 inches of snow this season!) and the night of laughter and jocularity (look it up) that is sure to follow before heading back the next day. Our friends do this week of skiing each year. Perhaps next year, we'll be able to afford more than just a day :) But we're pleased to be close enough to be able to drive up and back relatively quickly and see some good friends.

A day after returning from CO, I'll jump back in the car and drive the 9 hours to my parents' home in Tucson. From there, my mom and I will catch a plane to the motherland, Wisconsin. There, we'll spend some time visiting friends and family before loading a small moving truck with some inherited furniture in order to drive it to its final resting place in the southwest with us, my brother and sister-in-law, and my parents. Don't worry, I'll be sure to also save room in the truck for my favorite Wisconsin brew as well as some fresh cheese :) Once all the furniture has been delivered and we are back in Tucson, I'll be sticking around for a couple days to help with some projects around my parents' new (to them) house before heading back to Los Alamos, FOR GOOD. WHEW! By the time I'm back in Los Alamos, I will have been on the road for over a month and ready to sit around and do nothing for a while.

That's the word from New Mexico where we're still enjoying the new and beautiful (not to mention WAY different from TX!) scenery.