Happy New Year!

Every time I think about updating my blog, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I could write about. Being home in California for the holidays has been pretty awesome so far (we still have like 2 more weeks!) although a bit of a whirlwind! Here are a few of the highlights:

- Our trip out was a little more eventful than we planned. We got to the airport bright and early with both dogs for our nonstop flight from Austin to L.A. Unfortunately, the plane was "very broken", according to the airline and we had to make alternate arrangements. We miraculously got an awesome customer service person (shocking!) and ended up flying through Dallas with both dogs in tow. It was a stress-free, if long trip- ended up getting in to California about 5 hours after we were originally supposed to.

- We almost immediately proceeded to celebrate Christmas with my family when we finally got to California. Although we were missing a few family members because my sweet little baby nephew, Luke was in the hospital for a respiratory infection. He got to come home on Christmas Day and is holding strong, praise God.






-Although we were sad to miss Luke, we loved getting to spend time with the adorable Danny & Katie

- Probably the most eventful part of the trip so far was a visit to the vet. About 2 days after we got here, Rufus was acting really lethargic and wouldn't eat. He's always been a bit of a finicky eater, but the lethargy was definitely abnormal (he's still a puppy after all). We were wondering if he was just out of it from the stress of traveling, but we ended up taking him to the vet, and he took a few x-rays and said it looked like an obstructed bowel. We left him there overnight, and they did the surgery the next morning. We were at Disneyland celebrating Nick's birthday (sooo fun!) when we got the phone call that the surgery was a success and Rufus had eaten (drumroll please....) women's underwear! We finally got the pictures last night and we're pretty sure they were mine, although it was a little hard to tell because of the discoloration. It definitely would've been more amusing if they weren't though. The vet bill was a little painful, even with the significant military discount we got. Needless to say, we will be investing in pet insurance very soon.

- We got to spend a night all by ourselves at the awesome Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. We wandered around town and went out to dinner and a movie. Then we got awesome massages the next day too at a local hot spring. We've had a great time with family, but it was very nice getting a little time to ourselves.

-Otherwise we've watched a lot of football, played a lot of Wii, eaten tons of tasty food, shot some guns, and relaxed with family and the dogs, who absolutely love it out here at my in-laws:






- Oh, and we've driven Nick's gorgeous new truck as much as possible.

Happy New Year! I know I'm ready for 2010. It's been a heck of a year, and I'm hoping a new year will bring a little less chaos (because it sure hasn't lightened up yet).