Goin' Down to Texas

I have been MIA from blog land lately because I came down with a cold that kicked my butt, and then Jon and I flew to Houston! This blog will be written in highlights to get all the good stuff without making you read a whole lot. :)

• Ellie snuggled with me while I was home sick. I even let her up on the couch which she's NEVER allowed onto (shh don't tell Jon). 
• We flew to Houston and went to Brazos Bend State Park where we saw some alligators! Apparently, there are usually many more all over the paths, but it must have been too cold.
• We went to San Antonio and the weather was clear and beautiful! We walked the river walk & rode a tour boat.
• We shopped a 5k. Literally. The outlet mall in San Marcos stretches 1.5 miles (according to the odometer when we drove it to measure) and we walked down and back, plus in and out of stores!
• Ellie stayed with my mom and then my sister was kind enough to get her the last night so I wouldn't have to drive 20 miles to pick Ellie up after arriving at home.
• Ellie freaked out when I came to get her. She was super pumped about me coming home. I was too, but didn't run around in circles like she did.

Picture time!

Gator sighting

Jon climbed a tree

River walk and the boat that we rode

The Alamo

It was a fantastic trip and fun to get away to someplace new, but I'm glad to be back home. :)

Ellie is a stringbean

I often see other dogs that like to lay with their back legs out the back, but Ellie only rarely does it. So rarely, in fact, that this photo is a few months old as getting a picture of her in this position is like trying to catch a glimpse of Sasquatch.

She's long and skinny without sticking her legs out the back, that this just looks even more unusual. Cracks me up every time.

We made Blizzards!

Jon got a Blizzard maker for Christmas. Yes, a Dairy Queen Blizzard maker. We finally got around to buying half and half and rock salt so tonight was the night to finally try it out!

We assembled all of the parts and added all the ingredients and got to stirring.

It took over 10 minutes to get to the right consistency, so we took shifts :)

Look how tiny the cups are!

Finally, it's ready to eat! We crushed up some Oreos to put in.

It tasted super sweet, different from your typical Dairy Queen ice cream. Fun, but I think next time we'll just make the drive to our local DQ!

Where's my ice cream?