Austin Land

A couple weeks back we took a trip to visit my sister and her husband in Austin, TX! We had a great time and on the way we met some friends of ours from BYU in San Antonio and went to Sea World with them!
We enjoyed great food, company, and scenery! I even was able to play halo with my sister. This may come as surprise, but I love to play Halo with my sisters and brother. Growing up we never had video games and then my parents had a baby boy! Anyways, he saved up his money and bought halo when  he got older and he wanted to play with his older sisters! We got hooked! Not hooked where we could not put it down, but hooked as in it was fun playing from time to time with one another, but we only play when we are together, so it rarely happens now! I would play with Colby, but we don't have an xbox. Anyways, enjoy the pictures. We continue to like living here in Midland, but we miss mountains. At least Austin had rolling hills!

We got soaked during this show! It was so worth it! 

The Beluga show was definitely the best! The show had divers, stunts, dolphins, belugas and funny clown actors! 

San Antonio Temple

Greenbelt in Austin, Texas. We had a great time! We walked up the creek for about a mile in the water. There were a few places we swam! 

My brother-in-law, Taylor, found this little guy! He was so cute I wanted to keep him, but we didn't! He is enjoying life in the creek

He was so small you could eat him! 

Ate some good BBQ! 

View of the City from Congress bridge. We came back later and watched the bats fly out! 

In the Middle of Somewhere

So....Colby and I have now lived in Midland for about a month! I think it is called midland because you have to drive at least 5 hours in any direction to get somewhere that is not fields or a major city that has stuff to do! Despite this unpleasant fact, midland is pretty in its own way. The sky is beautiful because it is big and open and there is absolutely nothing to block out the heat! Pretty cool, huh? I am glad I came to Midland with low expectations because it has made the transition much better. Midland has trees and green grass! I thought it was just a bunch of dirt and the scorching sun overhead, but I am really glad I am wrong. Midland is not scorching even though it has not hit July yet. That will probably change in about a month, just wait. However, we have great air conditioning and the mornings and evenings are beautiful. I am glad it does not stay hot all day. And Chevron has treated us well. Colby likes working with his team and they have already had a team dinner where I was able to meet the people he works with and everyone is nice and great people to be around! Chevron even gave Colby a nice budget to buy some of his very own  cowboy boots! Colby really likes the boots and now says he is finally a True Texan! But...we still root for BYU and not the Longhorns. Sorry Texas.

Midland is quite nice! Enjoy the pictures of some of our good times in Midland! I saved the best one for last!

This is our view coming into Midland without the houses, buildings, and trees. This is what it looks like within a 3 hour radius around Midland. Not much, but definitely not the desert wasteland we were expecting!

View of the street we live on! Lots of trees and green grass :) 

Nice green park that is about a block away that I visit often.

Same park after a really hard rain. All the parks are set up to be big bowls to hold rain water, so the water just doesn't spread out and flood everywhere. This weekend we had tornado watches and warnings, as well as flash flood warnings 2 weeks ago and church was cancelled because of it. Who knew!? Except Midland has not had a flood or tornado since the early 1900s, so we are good. 

This is the second spider that has tried creating a nest in or on our car!! But they will NOT succeed if I am around! I'm just glad we haven't seen any tarantulas or scorpions! I don't think there are any. :)  

Drive in Movie Theater! The set up was awesome and we saw Godzilla. And the sky is always so beautiful! 

Memorial Weekend in Midland we went to the Commemorative Air Force Museum where they have the largest collection of nose art from WWII planes and a hanger full of some of the planes from that time period. They also had a ceremony to honor those who have served, and those who continue to serve. It was amazing to see! After the ceremony we went to the Monahan sand dunes about an hour away! That is about the closet thing we have to us that looks like "rolling" hills!

B-17 from WWII. If you wanted you could purchase a 30 minute ride to be in it. And it was very affordable! Only $450 for a back seat or $850 for a front! No big deal, right!? 

Memorial day Texas Style! 

My new ride! 

It was very hot this day! I wish I was in a swimsuit! 

Last but not least, Chevron had a picnic for its employees and paid for us to go see a baseball game! We had a good time and realized that we have lots of friends from Utah that will be working with Chevron or other companies in Midland, so it is the place to be. We would be happy to stay if we got the opportunity!

Watching the Rockhounds baseball team! It is all about Geology in Midland! 

Some of the many friends we have that will be in Midland for a while

Midland sunsets! 

Road Trip: Part 4

Road Trip: Part 4 - Vegas, Phoenix, El Paso to Midland - May 7th - May 17th

Our road trip is finally coming to an end. This last part follows us from California all the way to Midland, Texas. We make lots of stops along the way to visit family and friends which made this road trip even more fun! First off, we drive to Vegas and stay the day and one night with my sister, her husband, and my new nephew, John! They were all well and we had a campfire, smore's, went hiking, and "hunted" black widows!

Britt, Chris and Nitzen. 

Colby can make the best perfectly toasted marshmallows! His are the ones on the right! 

Nitzen, the new big brother! 

John wanted to join the party, but his mommy wouldn't let him because of the smoke. 

Chris, my brother-in-law, showed us this sidewalk near their house that had black widows that came out at night. We found four and then we killed four with special spider killing spray. 

A hike that Colby and Chris did close to the house. This is the view of Vegas! 

Next we drove to Phoenix and were able to see Jaren, Mitzi and Hyrum for a couple of days. We went to a lake and had a fire with smore's...again! Yes, we had campfires with smore's for three nights in a row at different locations! It was awesome! I love smore's!! We were also able to visit the Phoenix temple that  is under construction. It is almost finished!

Hyrum liked the fire

Mitzi made some really yummy food! 

Next we stopped for the night in El Paso, Texas and visited one of my best friends growing up, Maria! I am so glad we were able to stay the night! Unfortunately, we were not able to do much except catch  up and play some games because of how short our stay was. We had a great time!

From El Paso, we made it to Midland, where we will be living for the summer. We will let you know all about it in our next blog post...I will keep you posted!