the road to Wally: hello...it's not december anymore....IT'S SPRING!!!

no, i will not bore you with 2011 bluebonnet pics (which would look exactly the same as the 2010 bluebonnet pics here) but it is spring here in A-town as evidenced by the high temperatures 70's and 80's mostly and the green all around us. our trees are leafing out nicely and our winter rye is hanging on for dear life...if only the zoysia will come back. cross your fingers.

mum has been playing with me outside more and i have a new rubber chicken toy that is my current favorite. i can even distinguish when she asks me to "get the chicken" versus "where's your ball?"...that's how cool i am.

you know how else i know i'm cool? just look at all the pictures my mum takes of me!!!!

tons of them.

you'd think she knows what i look like after 3 years...guess she just can't get enough.

(really i'm taking headshots b/c i want to make a nice silhouette to hang on my wall!)

but back to SPRING...or rather what has been going on up until this much sought after post :)

i'll give you a quick breakdown of winter and the beginning of the new year:

X-mas

we flew to NYC for some great family time with the hub's side of the family in the historic and lovely town of Goshen, NY known for harness racing/trotter racing (it's a horse thing). also note, that when we arrived snowless.

fast forward to the sunday after Christmas at lunch: consistent large snow flakes falling

later at dinner: wow!

the next day: holy moses!

that's right, we were in NYC for their worst blizzard (in recent years) ever. shut down airports, trains, large corporations....you name it, all closed. pretty much.

BUT, we were not deterred (nor did we want to lose $400+ on the pricelined accomdations) so the hubs and i trekked to the train station (thanks paul!) and endured a couple stoppages due to fallen trees and some re-routing. we got out at our station and came out onto the street and bam!! snow drifts over 4 ft tall! (in some places...maybe not in this pic)

previously clogged 4-lane streets narrowed to 2-lane slush paths with nary a car, cabbie, or limo on them. the city that never sleeps was...snowed in! seriously, we walked on a few streets and we were the only people on them, this at 7pm in the evening. crazy.

ok, back to summarizing.

the city was great without the crowds (only lasted the night, buy the next afternoon it was back to usual) we shopped around, saw some of the sights we missed last time and ate some spectacular food. hello lydia's restaurant Becco.

if you go to NYC and don't eat there you are missing an experience. sooooo yummy!!

sorry wally, no bones for you!!

X-mas was a wonderful, restful vacation and it was so nice to see everyone and hang out with ben's mom, cousins and aunts and uncles and of course Gammy and Gamps!

2011:

we rang in the new year recovering from our snow-zilla drama and celebrated at home. january came and went uneventfully. (really mum was waiting for jan to be over so she could celebrate her birthday in feb.) maybe. we did do some light hiking around the area. as per usual the center of attention and the focus of the majority of the photos was...ME!!

february went by quick, stopping to celebrate my birthday with my parents that came down to visit, thanks! and some tooling around austin showing them where we like to go and what we like to eat.

march was brisk with some cool weather and with the installation of a new storm door with a screen, the windows were opened and the cool breezes were blowing thru our house....blowing the dog smell away (sigh, i thought it would never happen to me, but alas the wall-inator is a big hairy dog and sometimes he just does not smell like roses!)

actually wally got a h-airecut and looked all spiffed up for a while. seriously, when his hair is all grown out, he looks like he has his own gilly suit after romping in the backyard. sticks, leaves, bits of dead grass are all stuck to his hide and he drags it all over the house. ugh.

so NOW it's april and we just finished a weekend spent camping at enchanted rock state park with some out of town friends. it was hot, dusty, windy, and generally the wrong weather completely for camping but we had fun. we saw a snake, crawled thru a cave and scrambled over granite boulders all weekend. we did succumb to the heat and during the hottest time of the day we drove over to fredericksburg and enjoyed the convenience of restrooms and airconditioning. yay!