The 2009 West Texas/Eastern New Mexico Tour

...by the numbers:

-1 new friendship struck with the Texas State Trooper who pulled David over in Callahan County...and let us off with just a warning (can I get an Amen?)

-2 meals eaten at the Muleshoe Leal's...we would have gone for a third, but we ran out of time!

-3 times I reminded my husband that composing, proof-reading and sending email while driving was probably not a great idea. (Um, if it's illegal to text and drive in Texas, surely emailing on your phone falls into the same category).

-4 drives by our old house in Muleshoe (hoping the new homeowners didn't think we were stalking them)

-5 years since we first met Mr. Eli Douglas Dominguez. What a great birthday party, dude!

-30 minutes of 21 that David played in the gym at our old church....which led to some sore legs the next day

-33 photos in this post (narrowed down by the 200 we took)...you must really like us if you make it to the bottom of this post

-700 feet down an elevator to the bottom of Carlsbad Caverns

-1,370 miles driven

-5,000 miles I now need to run on the treadmill to earn all the points I ate while gone.

Two hours down the road to Grandma & Grandpa's and Jonathan was out.

We were able to see cousin Nathan in Abilene. And his mommy & daddy, too.

On Wednesday, we headed over to Carlsbad Caverns with Grandma & Grandpa. We all had a fun time. The last time we went there (five years ago), we went through the "natural entrance" and totally regretted it later. This time, we took the elevator and even got to tour the Great Room at the bottom.

Grandpa and Benjamin in the Great Room

Jonathan having a fun time with Grandma

Playing with Grandma and Grandpa's turtles that live in their backyard.

Great Grandpa, Jonathan and David heading up the street in downtown Monahans to eat at Habanero's. Mmm...tasty. Habanero's was formerly a Leal's and still has a similar menu. So, I suppose you could stretch it and say we Leal-ed it up THREE times. I'll just publicly apologize to my Weight Watchers leader now. I'll be skipping my meeting this week and eating negative points until next week when I face the music.

Eating with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma at Habanero's.

All of the Dominguez cousins with Grandma & Grandpa at Eli's party at Dan & Syndi's in Hobbs. (L-R): Benjamin, Jonathan, Eli, Everet, Fred, Elena, Nyla, Nathan and Ema

We had camera issues on Friday and ended up using the phone for these pics. Great quality, huh? No disrespect to the cell phone, but holy moly these are grainy-wainy.

Eli's #5 cake

Eli's cool "Hamburger Cupcakes & Cookie French Fries" that Grandma, Aunt Arly and Uncle Dan put together. Aren't they cute? Uncle Daniel found the recipe on Bakerella if you ever want to give them a whirl.

After leaving Eli's par-tay, we headed over to Muleshoe to celebrate the fourth. It was great to see so many friends and spend time catching up with everyone.

Kyle, Jonathan, Addyson and Benjamin enjoying the Muleshoe parade.

The Boy Scout's float! Hooray for our favorite Muleshoe Boy Scouts, Jacob, Riley, Kamron and Tyler who really rocked it! And our good friend Todd who was Uncle Sam there on the back.

The motorcycles are always my favorite part of the parade....loud & proud, they can't be beat.

Benjamin got to hang out with some of his favorite Muleshoe cheerleaders.
Here he is with Miss Adrienne.

And Miss Alyssa who was one of our babysitters when we lived in Muleshoe.

Benjamin attempted to climb the rockwall down at the baseball fields after the parade.

We met up with some of our favorite people, Gary & Hollye, later the afternoon of the 4th to hang out and have fun! We toured their new house that is coming along beautifully. I can't wait to see it when it's done! Benjamin needed to know where the vacuum closet was.

After touring the house, we headed up to the church building for the annual cookout. Here is Benjamin with adorable Miss Abbye, Gary's & Hollye's grandaughter. It was fun to see Abbye and her mommy & daddy, too!

David & the boys playing 21 in the church gym. Benjamin playing with....a trash can?
Why did I not notice this when I was taking the photo?

This was the first location that we tried to watch the fireworks...the traditional place left of left field. We didn't last too long here....

...before we got soaked. We packed it up and headed to the Rasco's house where we waited for the fireworks and then ended up....

...in their garage when it downright poured! Pretty funny, huh? We decided that the fireworks probably weren't going to happen since it was 10 minutes after their start time. So, we packed up to head back to the Kettner's where we were staying. Lo and behold, we watched the fireworks from the car when they started going off a few minutes after we started down the road. Ironically, we watched them right on West Ave J...a few hundred feet from our old house.

Good morning, sleepyheads! Jacob, Riley & Kyle Kettner Sunday morning.

Benjamin always loved to look at the water in the baptistry at our church in Muleshoe when he was a little guy. When Hollye drove us into the church parking lot the afternoon before, the first thing that kid asked was to see the water. What a memory he has. Here he is with Hollye Sunday morning looking at "the water".

Can you guess what restaurant we were at?
Gary & Jonathan hanging out at Leal's after church.

Drive-by #4...our former El Rancho Dominguez. I really miss this house. We had painted every square inch of the inside. I was excited to see some of my old window mistreatments still hanging in the windows (from the car, we weren't that bad). Miss you, 334 West Ave J. We brought our babies home here. I spent at least 1000 hours painting a harlequin diamond pattern in the nursery. We planted all 14 of those boxwoods (that don't look so hot anymore....kind of disappointing). Just miss this little old home. But, it has inspired me to pick up my paintbrush here in the new El Rancho. We'll be slapping on some color later this week in Jonathan's room.

Miss this girl like crazy. Ladies and gents, Mrs. Deborah Kettner. We tore it up when I lived in Muleshoe. It was great to catch up with her. Thanks for your AWESOME hospitality, Kettners! Oh, and I need your breakfast casserole recipe, Deb. So yummy.

We packed it in after lunch on Sunday and headed home. We were so blessed to spend some time in Sweetwater catching up with two dear friends who I have missed so much, Ginger and Koti. Here are Koti's boys, Sully and Sutton, along with those Dominguez boys. Sully and Benjamin used to hang together back in our Muleshoe days.

So fun catching up with these two. Not nearly enough time to solve all the problems of the world, but we at least put a dent in them. Ginger is actually the one who put me in touch with Koti when she moved to our area. Koti and her family have since left the Muleshoe area as well and are now in Roscoe. Ginger and I have been good friends since our ACU days when we lived together (along with Lori Loo and Erin) in what we refer to as the Ruswood house. Those were some FUN times! Thanks for meeting us, girls! LOVED seeing you both.

And the last hoorah of the trip...David's little run-in with the law. He's got a lead foot, people.

What a fun trip! I have now spent so much time uploading 33 photos that I haven't started the heaps of laundry and unpacking that are calling to me. Seriously, you're a trooper if you stuck with this entire post.

Miss you already, friends and family.