Christmas bunny!

We have been driving every night around the south side of Chicago and
most of the houses have neat lights and decorations! We've seen
several reindeer made out of lights and they are very cool, but we
just found a bunny!!! You can see him behind me in the center of the
lights. His lights have a little bit of a blue tinge to them. Joe and
Anne were talking and said they might get one for next Christmas. How
neat would it be to have a bunny of our own! I like lighted bunny
decorations!

Merry Christmas!

Made it to Papa E's place...such a nice tree! And inside and outside
the house there are beautiful Christmas decorations! We are having a
great time visiting family and watching Gus play with everyone, too!

Birthday party!

Here I am at Aunt Karen's farm for Gus' b-day party! We had a great
day and even opened up some Christmas presents to everyone from Anne
and Joe! Behind me, you can Andrea to the left of the picture playing
with princess crowns, then Michael playing with a castle, then Gus and
Marcus playing with a Thomas the train set. Even Aunt Karen is in the
mix in the middle of the floor, playing with everyone. I hope everyone
had a great time! I wonder how fun next year will be!

Happy Birthday, Gus!

Here we are at Aunt Karen's farm for Gus' b-day! If you look behind
me, you can see Gus and his cousins, Andrea, Michael, and
Marcus...they were all having fun playing with presents. I love b-day
parties!

New home?

Here I am yesterday taking a look at the home our family is interested
in. It has all kinds of places for a bunny to hang out! Hopefully Joe
and Anne can get all the paperwork straightened out and the next time
you see me here, I will be living here!

Neatest revolving door ever!

Here I am at the Portland airport in the neatest revolving door ever!
There are Christmas lights and snowflakes in the sections of door. We
got here on Thursday to find a home for the next few years. Gus was
great on the flight! He slept almost the whole way! Looks like it will
be rainy and 40 degrees the whole time we are there. Almost the same
as Minneapolis! I'm starting to like it a little more than the last
time we visited...

Crazy clouds...

Hi everyone! Spent a few days in Merrillan and now driving down to see
the Ennesser family in Chicago area for Thanksgiving. Really neat day
outside. If you look just off my bottom ear, you'll see some very
interesting clouds. There is a small formation where perfectly
horizontal bands are hiding among the rest of the puffy clouds. Joe
saw a cool crocodile head about an hour ago. I love clouds!

More cows and two horses

Another shot at Uncle Darrick and Aunt Karen's farm. Here we are by a
bunch of cows and a few horses. Cousin Andrea is hanging out with
them. Her horse is the lighter brown animal in the middle of all the
cows. Andrea and Michael showed us all the animals and told us their
names.

It is a beautiful day out today! It was so fun to watch Gus see the
animals and hear the cows say, "moooooo!"

Sharpshooter K-dog!

Here I am at Aunt Karen and Uncle Darrick's farm in Taylor. Aunt Karen
shot this deer right away this morning. One shot from 200 yards...the
rest of the family is going to be jealous!

Chilly morning

Back in Minneapolis we woke up to a chilly morning! It was 18 degrees
when Joe took the doggies out. You can see the remnants of the weather
yesterday with the ice and snow on our patio chair. Winter is coming!

Snow Flurries!

On our way back to Minneapolis we stopped in Merrillan to wish Papa T
happy birthday. Here we are getting off I-94 at the Merrillan exit.
You can see a few snowflakes in the air and some snow on the
ground...one of the first snowfalls of the season. Awesome!

Class of 2005?!?

Here we are driving around Madison after going to the cave. We noticed
the car in front of us had a license plate that said "RX 05" - perhaps
a pharmacist that graduated in 2005? Before I came into Joe and Anne's
life, Joe almost came to UW Madison for pharmacy school. He would've
graduated in 2005...maybe the person in the car in front of us
would've been Joe's classmate had he come to Madison for pharmacy
school. How cool is that?!? Anne loves asking the "what if" question!

Cave of the Mounds

Hi everyone! Here I am outside of Madison at Cave of the Mounds. We
(Joe, Anne, Gus, and I) came down to stay in Madison to meet Papa E
and Therese. They came up from Chicago for a wedding.

The cave is so beautiful! I'm so glad I was able to see it! The tour
guide noticed Anne taking pictures of me, and asked if I was Flat
Stanley! How funny is that!!

Voting again!

Here we are outside of our new polling place. It is the nicest place
we have ever voted! It was at a coffee house called Open Book. No
lines and they took care of us quickly, even though we had to
register. Anne was number 1,243 to cast her ballot here. I like that
Anne and Joe vote to try to keep our country great...

Mall of America

Here I am at the Mall of America with Joe, Anne, and Gus! I'm by a
dog/bunny creature named Austin. Not sure who that is, but with Gus in
our lives, I'm sure we will figure it out someday! We took Gus on a
bunch of rides and had a Cinnabon...it was so fun!

Happy Halloweenie, everyone!

Here I am next to the pumpkin we carved together with Gus yesterday!
It is really neat to have Halloweenie with him! Hope everyone is
having a great day! I love Halloween!

Lake Calhoun again

Here we are again on a beautiful day at Lake Calhoun...today, Astro,
Anne, Gus and I will circle Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. I love
fall days like this!

On the approach - MSP!

Here we are getting ready to land in Minneapolis! It is very beautiful
down there with all the fall colors...it was really beautiful going
over Colorado, too - we had never seen it so nice there! Too bad the
picture didn't turn out very good...you can see downtown and the
Mississippi River below. To the far left of the picture is the
airport. I love traveling!

Sewing with Angela

Hi all! It isn't Sewing with Nancy - it's Sewing with Angela! Here we
are yesterday afternoon in Angela's sewing room helping her with her
beautiful creations! I like sewing and knitting!

UCSD White Coat Ceremony

Hi all! Here I am at UCSD at the annual white coat ceremony for the
incoming Pharmacy School class. Joe is speaking to the class - how
neat! He gave a very awesome talk. Afterwards, we were treated to a
wonderful supper with Dean Taylor and a few other UCSD Pharmacy school
people. As a matter of fact, Dean Taylor is right in front of me in
this picture! It was great and quite an honor for Joe...

Made it to the beach!

Here I am at my old beach, Torrey Pines State Beach! We flew here
today for a long weekend trip. Joe will be speaking at UCSD on Friday,
so that will be really cool!!! Had a pretty good problem-free trip and
looking forward to some great observing over the next few days. I love
traveling!

Beautiful day!

Here we are on the property, downloading the cameras so we are sure
they are working and we capture the leaves changing. The beautiful
colors are starting, but not too much on top of the hill yet. I hope
we don't miss it when we go to California! I love beautiful days out
here! So does Orion!

Halloween preparation

Hey everyone! Joe went to the storage unit and got our Halloween
decorations out! Astro tried on her chicken hat to get in the spirit,
unfortunately, she is never in the mood for anything but running! I
love Halloween!

Home again!

The trek from our parking spot to our apartment is pretty long! It is
nice we have covered parking, but in order to avoid time consuming
trips, we got the cart. Can you even find me on the cart?

Campfire

After a nice sunny day, there was a freak rainstorm! Then it cleared
up so we could have our campfire! So nice out! You can see what
remains of the storm clouds off in the distance. I like the weather
here!

On the property

We went to Wisconsin this weekend to meet Joe's Dad and Joe's Uncle at
our property. BP really had fun running around! Here he is taking a
break in the sun.

Luminarium

Last stop at the fair is the Luminarium - it was the best part of the
fair! Nice air conditioning and soothing music to go along with the
neat colors. Gus really liked it and so did I!

My ride...

As we walked around the fair, Gus rode up front and I rode in
back...it was a little cramped, but cool with the mesh netting and I
could see everything! It was also very secure...I like riding around
the fair and observing all the cool things to see!

Crazy Watermelon!

We took at stop around noontime to give Gus a bottle and relax. We
stopped next to a booth where a guy was carving crazy watermelon
creatures! Pretty cool on a hot day!

Space Tower

Here we are riding the Space Tower! You can see the City of
Minneapolis if you zoom into the background. You can also see the
fairgrounds right below us. It was a pretty neat, yet short, ride!

At the state fair!

Hi all! Yesterday, Joe, Anne, Gus, and I went to the Minnesota State
Fair! It was so fun! Here we are in the small animal barn with all the
bunnies...I found one that looks a lot like me! I know he is in a cage
here, but I'm sure his owner loves him and plays with him a lot when
he is at home! I love bunnies!

Orion shave down...

Yesterday, we tried out the new doggie clippers to shave down Orion.
He was a very good dog while Anne did it. Believe it or not, this is
what was left over when we were done! He looks very handsome and sleek
now!

Holy toys!

Hey everyone! Today, Joe, Anne, Gus, and I went to toys-R-us to check
out some more advanced toys for G-man. As you can see, he found a lot
of stuff he liked! It will be fun to watch him play and learn! Another
neat thing is Gus' hair - it was windy enough outside that his hair is
actually blowing in the breeze! Zoom in and check it out...I love
shopping for toys!

Holy Mountains!

Hi everyone! Heading back to Minneapolis via Chicago now. As we were
leaving Portland, got this shot of four mountains out the plane
window: Hood (to the left and close - you can only see a bit of the
snowy base), St. Helen's (way out there), Rainier, and Adams. I
believe that is the order from left to right. You may need to zoom in
a bit to see them all. How cool is that! I love mountains!

Multnomah Falls

Here I am this morning at Multnomah Falls, another beautiful waterfall
east of Portland. Joe and Anne did a 5.6 mile trail run around the
falls and then we hung out for awhile, had a snack, and watched the
water for a bit before we left to drive around Portland. What a
beautiful place!

Sunset

Very beautiful sunset over the ocean. Pink like me:-)

Seaside

Last stop of the day - Ecola Beach on the Pacific Ocean near Seaside,
Oregon. Very neat rocks in the water with little waves crashing into
them and fog forming in the coastal valleys. The neat trees in the
foreground are also interesting. What a great day, from the mountains
to the ocean!

View from the North Head Lighthouse

Here we are in the tower that is the North Head Lighthouse, looking
north up the coast. This lighthouse is not as nice as the one in
Duluth construction-wise, and the glass lens has been replaced with a
plastic mirror...still interesting though. It was built because the
main lighthouse about a mile south, Cape Disappointment Lighthouse,
was hard to see from the north and many ships crashed. The area was
called the graveyard of the west. If you look closely, you can see the
reflection of the lighthouse window frames in the picture. I like
lighthouses.

Cape Disappointment

Here we are in Washington again...this time at the Cape Disappointment
State Park. We thought we might be disappointed after sitting in road
construction traffic for 15 minutes, but a neat lighthouse and beach
are cool:-)

Not even halfway across!

Here we are on the Astoria Megler bridge...we aren't even halfway
across! We are coming down the big hill that completes the portion of
the bridge with high clearance for the boats closer to the Astoria
side. If you zoom in, you can get a sense of just how long it is! It
is the last segment of the 101 highway to be completed, which happened
in the 1960's.

Astoria Megler Bridge

We made it to the ocean! Going over the Astoria Megler Bridge soon. It
goes VERY high, very quickly so that large boats can go underneath. It
is also extremely long! Good thing Joe is driving because Anne is
freaking out!

Best Model Ever!

So we are at the Visitor Center at the top/end of the road that is
closest to the mountain. Behind me is the best model ever! It is a
little bigger than the one in the Mt. St. Helen's Visitor Center and
it has cool lights! There are red, green, white, and orange lights
that represent where ash, sediment, lava, and pyro plastic flow
occurred. Very neat and twinkly!

Mt. St. Helen's

We made it! Here I am with the north slope of Mt. St. Helen's behind
me where the volcanic eruption in May 1980 blew out the north side and
totally changed the drainage below. The top of the mountain fell into
the crater, and then new magma pushed up and partially filled in the
crater later. All in all, the mountain lost 1,300 feet! Today is a
sunny, hazy, windy day, but not too hot yet.

Johnson Ridge Observation Point

Here we are at the Johnson Ridge Observation Point to check out Mt.
St. Helen's. It is so windy, my ears are blowing over and the picture
is even crooked!

Backlit bunny

Here I am on a neat forest trail on the way to see Mt. St. Helen's. We
stopped to look at the sediment dam and this was the trail leading to
it. The sun was shining through the trees and I really liked the way
it lit up the forest and me. It is like I am a tree, too, and Anne's
arm is my trunk!

3-D model of Mt. St. Helens

Here we are at the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. The actual mountain
is located about 50 miles away and we are headed there next. Behind me
is another cool terrain model that we've seen at many other federal
parks lately. If you zoom in, you can see the north side of the mount
where the landslide/blast occurred and Spirit Lake below. There is
also a tiny lake that Joe and I noticed called Venus Lake in the ridge
just to my left, marked with a red light. It seems neat and maybe we
will go there someday!

Lamprey

Here is an up-close picture of a lamprey...they are a little scary!

Fish Viewing Area

In the visitor's center at the Bonneville Dam, they have built a fish viewing area under the fish ladder. Here I am with a salmon and a lamprey behind me...how cool is that! I think Papa T would watch the fish here for hours - it would be more fun for him than an auto auction!

Salmon ladder @ the Bonneville Dam

Here we are at the Bonneville Dam, on the Columbia River, about 40 miles east of Portland. Because the fish can't swim upstream to spawn, they have built a salmon ladder so the fish can swim upstream against the current. Pretty neat!

Bottom Plungepool of Horsetail Falls

Another shot of the Horsetail Falls...very nice little plungepool at the bottom!