"We're Back!"

...from where, you may ask?

Well, stop bullying me and I'll tell you!

We managed to go through THREE states in ten days! First to New Mexico, then to Colorado, then back to Texas! As we always do, we go through Amarillo and have lunch here:



Pretty sure this is a real bear. Pretty sure I could take him in a fight. Then again...

Cari and I shared the 9 oz. rib eye lunch special. Any left?



Nah.



Me: "Hey now Emmy...put the gun down...I didn't mean it, honest!"

Emmy: "Take it back."

Me: "Fine...you do NOT have a funny-looking face."

Emmy: "You know this gun isn't real, right?"

Me: "It isn't?"

Next, we made our way down to Albuquerque and did a little mountain climbing. Some great views:





Next, onto the aquarium:



Jellyfish! Taken with an iPhone of all things!



Nice shot of me and the boy.



Nice shot of me and the girl!



The Atlantic coral reef...majestic!

Here is a hummingbird I managed to get a picture of:



Not too bad eh?

Next stop...Colorado!! One of the neat things we managed to see after dinner was this:



We didn't do much sightseeing but we managed to make our way to Coors Field to see the Rockies play the Pirates! Man, what a view:



Pretty cool how they left that part of the wall open to see the Rockies as the sun sets...



...and here's a #selfie:



Now, on the way home! Before staying in the luxurious "Buffalo Inn, we attended a play in the city of Canyon, TX, which is famous for really two things. A giant canyon...



...and a play about the history of Texas! Up until the turn of the 20th century that is:



Apparently it starts out with cattlemen and farmers at wits with not only Indians, but railroad committees trying to take people's land...



...but eventually everyone manages to get married and everything is wonderful. Of course, they somehow forgot about the Mexican War, the battle of the Alamo, etc... but who would make the drive out to watch dying soldiers, right?

What a long ten days! So glad to come home and sleep in my own bed. Slept in five of them during this whole road trip. Hopefully everyone will remember these trips as they become adults and go on through their lives. When we got back from Canada we never took another family vacation. Part of me always wonders why. I remember the Grand Canyon trip when I was very little. Most of it seems to get lost over the course of time. So glad for digital photography. No chance anyone's forgetting a trip I'm a part of.

"I'm (Almost) The Biggest Loser!"

Well, I say almost because even though I didn't win the grand prize, I managed to lose 8.5% of my body weight and win...$36. Not a lot, but it's something. I started out at 273 lbs. and finished at 249.8 lbs!:



Now how were you wondering did I manage to accomplish this? Well...one word. Well, actually a bunch of words. But the main one was...celery. A ton of it. Literally. If enough is eaten it can fill you up and it burns calories while you digest it. I actually did really well (2+ lbs. a week) starting out while not exercising a whole lot. So, I go into the final two weeks needing to lose 5.8 lbs, starting to get a little worried. So I started walking in the morning. Three miles! Every day. That and keeping a balanced diet managed to put me over the top! Someone even started walking with me:



He managed to get his butt up at 6:30 and came with me! We had lots of time to talk about things. Mostly what was on his mind ha ha. No worries. Glad to have him along.

Saw some weird things as well:



Possums...ugh...unfortunately, this guy had a short demise three days later:



I wish I could say I was sad about what happened...but...it's a possum! Yecch.

So now I have to make sure and keep this off. I'm not planning on going nuts and putting it back on. Not since people seem to comment a lot more on how much I've changed. Feels good to hear that every now and then. I look at pictures of me from years ago and I can see what they mean.