Happy Halloween!

Tonight we're hanging out at home and handing our candy, but I though I might as well use this opportunity to showcase our awesome pumpkin carving skills. The other night our neighbor-friends invited us over for some pumpkin carving... everyone's pumpkin turned out really good.

Everyone's pumpkins from the party:

The one that still has pen marks and is football related is mine. Madelyn's pumpkin of course is perfect... it looks like she sanded those edges!

Three's Company

I love thinking of the reaction of both of our parents when they see this picture and blog title.... I can see all of them opening up this page and saying outloud "Oh, no, not ANOTHER dog!" Well, they can calm their nerves.... no, we did not get another dog. Our awesome neighbors are in the hospital having a baby (which Madelyn is REALLY excited about), so we took their dog Hope over so she could get some attention and exercise. At first I wanted them all to stay outside, but all three of them were sick of being outside and they just sat at the backdoor.... so I let them in and they perked right up. Hope is a Boxer mix who Rocky has a HUGE thing for. If he's in the front yard the first place he goes is Hope's fence, if he hears Hope barking he paces the house looking for her, when I say the word "Hope" he gets super excited, and when they're together they wrestle and lick eachothers faces. If either of them still had the appropriate organs.... we would definitely have puppies by now.

(Hope always looks like she's smiling)

(Sugar is kind of the 3rd wheel)

Since I don't want to bore our readers with two separate dog posts I will take this opportunity to point out how big Sugar is! She is bigger then Hope and almost as tall as Rocky.... compare that to the day we brought her home:

**End Crazy Dog Person Transmission**

Birthdays at 550 ft!

This weekend we went down to San Antonio to the Tower of Americas to celebrate my grandmas 65th birthday. For those of you who don't know, the Tower of Americas is a San Antonio landmark, it was built in 1968 for the Worlds Fair(it looks like the Stratosphere or the Space Needle). At the top of the building there is a observation deck and a fancy restaurant. The cool thing about the restaurant is that is spins. It makes one rotation per hour, so through the course of your meal you get to see all of San Antonio. It was a really cool restaurant... and to top it off it was actually really good! It was fun getting to spend my grandmas 65th birthday with her.... of course, I took all sorts of pictures:

We were too cheap to pay the 7 dollars for parking. So we parked in the street and walked. But that gave us the chance to snap some cool pictures!

I'm not a fan of tall structures. It's not the heights that scares me... it's the elevator ride. Especially when it's on the outside of the building and it's glass. The terrifying elevator ride was totally worth it.

We got there just in time for the sunset... which you can't see very well in this picture. But I promise, it was really cool. Also, I have no explantion on why our faces are so shiny...

My grandma and grandpa...

It wasn't easy to take pictures. The restaurant was moving so it was difficult to time the shutter speed. But again, I promise, it was really cool.

Madelyn and my mom...

My grandma with her birthday desert, my uncle Michael in town from Australia, and my cousin Catherine.

The observation deck was.... WINDY

This picture made me laugh. I look like I'm in a wind tunnel, I can hardly open my eyes... but Madelyn? She strikes a perfect pose.

I saw this cup and thought of my dad. I almost bought it for him... he has a thing for GIANT mugs. In the end I couldn't think of how I could pack it in my luggage. The thing was huge! The lady at the gift shop told me it came with free refills! Who could drink that much soda.... and then REFILL it?!?

Friends Visit!

This weekend John and Barbara came into town for a nice long weekend visit. Our weekend included Rock Band, eating, shopping, eating, seeing movies while eating, renting canoes, eating, playing Gears of War, eating, mini golf, eating, BINGO, eating, bats, eating, playing games, and eating..... and we also had lots of desserts. A good vacation regimen for Barbara/John.... but we weren't even on vacation! Yikes... but it's ok, because everything was SO good.

For those of you who want to details and schedule:

The first night they came in we immediately went to the Alamo Draft House, it was such a hit that we planned to come back in less then 24 hours. On Saturday we went out for some breakfast tacos, went to the Alamo Drafthouse again, and went home and made sliders for the Rockband party we had on Saturday night. Sunday we had some Mexican for lunch, took a nice leisurely canoe ride around Town Lake downtown, went to Home Slice Pizza for dinner, watched the bats, played mini golf, went to the capital to take pictures and stopped for Tiff's Treats cookies. Monday Madelyn and I had to work, but Barbara/John went down to San Antonio to the Alamo (not the movie theater!) and the River Walk. That night we met Barbara's cousins for some BBQ and then we hung out with the elderly at BINGO. Tuesday Barbara/John stayed at their cousin's house for the night since Madelyn had class. Wednesday Madelyn and I both took the afternoon off of work and we went to lunch at Central Market, played Rockband all afternoon, went to dinner at Polvos and stopped by Green Mesquite for their homemade Pecan Pie! Then it was off to the Airport.

The trip was a success.... we had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of the weekend. Since this will probably be blogged about it two places I thought it would be easier to let the pictures do the talking (Barbara did a much better job of taking pictures then I did). Keep checking back here to see more pictures of the trip.

(Barbara and John in front of Peter Pan at the most awesome time warp miniature golf course ever)

(that whale proved to be REALLY difficult)

(Our friend Jessica also had friends in town so we made sure to throw a Rockband party together)

After watching the bats emerging from under the bridge we stopped to snap some downtown pictures

So many songs to choose from!

of course we had to hit up BINGO but we did not win :(

John really enjoyed the BINGO

Home Slice Pizza.... one of many meals!

hanging out at Home Slice

Pictures of downtown

The famous Barton Springs Peter Pan

We had such a blast! Please come and visit! Austin should be on everyone's vacation plans!

Back when we dated

Here are some pictures I came across recently from Madelyn and first started dating. They are pretty funny, and brought back a lot of memories. I know we've only been married for a little over two years, but even still, with all the daily responsibilities and stress it seems sometimes you can lose track of why you got married in the first place.... The first dates, getting to know eachother, flirting, sending notes, being carefree, etc. Things become somewhat routine, you get lost in the schedules, work, paying bills, and other responsibilities. It's fun to look at some of these pictures, and although they're embarrassing, they really do remind you of how wonderful its been to spend your life with such a great person. Looking at these pictures reminds me of how much fun we've had together, all the memories we've have together, and how grateful I am that we still get to be with eachother every day. I'm an extremely lucky person.

Anyway... enough witht the sappy stuff... on to some embarrassing photos!

I took Madelyn to our senior prom. We weren't dating at the time, but we both had an interest in one another (I think). If you had told me I would end up marrying the women I took to senior prom I wouldn't have believed it! It's crazy how things like that work out. Here we are in Madelyn's parents house front hall after I picked her up. I don't think either of us had any idea how much I would be coming in and out of that door over the next 8 years.

Here we are at our highschool graduation. Again, we weren't dating at the time... but we did make sure to get a picture together..... so something was up! We look like children.

Here we are going to a Halloween party.... For those of you who were at our Rockband party (or saw the pictures) you'll notice I still have the suit. Although, it doesn't fit as well as it used to. Also, notice Lacy popping her head into the picture!

Here we are during our first Christmas. This would have been our Freshman year in college.

This is us on our first trip together. Barbara, John, and us all went down to Las Vegas one weekend. We had a blast.

There was a whole pile of pictures to upload, but Rocky got tangled in the wires and pulled the printer off the table... breaking it in half! So, as soon as we get a new scanner I will make sure to post more pictures.