I'm back!

Hey y'all, happy new year!! I'm back from Texas! Actually, I've been living with my parents again since November (which is quite the adventure in itself!), but I just haven't been blogging. Lame, I know. I didn't blog about a lot of the awesome stuff I did in Texas, so I'll try to do a quick rundown here to catch you up. Also, I love numbered lists.

1.  I went horseback riding through Palo Duro Canyon. It was sooo pretty and it was by far the most challenging terrain that I've gone on a trail ride on. No worries though, my horse was awesome :)

2. I visited New Mexico - Roswell, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. The UFO museum in Roswell was fun and photo-worthy, but there really wasn't that much else around. I did have an amazing green chile burger at a mexican restaurant there though.

Can you tell which one's me?

Santa Fe was pretty. We got to stay in a nice little motel with lots of character there, and it was only mildly creepy. We also drove down canyon road, famous for it's art galleries - which were unfortunately all closed by the time we got there. Our walk on the river was pretty though.

The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced, and should definitely be on your bucket list.

So. Many. Balloons.

 
The line to park at the balloon fiesta started on the highway off ramp - at 5am. It was all worth it though when we got to see the first 10 balloons light up the early morning sky. Later in the day we stood among hundreds of hot air balloons as the took off. It was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen (in case I haven't said that a million times in this post :))

3. I visited Dallas, which I apparently pronounced wrong, according to my native Texan coworkers. I say it like Dale-iss, they say Day-lus, and my coworker who was also from NY says Dill-iss. Strange. Anyway, while we were in Dallas we went to some museums, a great vegan restaurant, and a vegetarian food festival. The food festival was cool, although I was a bit out of my element - which is strange because food festivals are one of my favoritest things in the world! Really there was more indoctrination than food, but it was a good experience.

4. I got to see Switchfoot live on their Fading West tour! The venue was tiny, like high school auditorium sized, so that was awesome, and it was Jessie's first concert!

5. I dressed up as a Wizard of Oz munchkin for Halloween at work. My Lubbock coworkers were awesome!

6. I took an free ASL class at the local college, Texas Tech. That was a very cool experience, and I got to know some of my coworkers a bit better.

7. I had a lot of spicy food and tacos!

So there's a quick summary - almost two months later :). Next post to come - our epic road trip home!