Brian and Amanda Lain

We are babysitting over the next two weeks–preparing us for parenthood! We are taking Shane (Amanda’s little brother Chris’ dog) with us to Montana when we go. So, in the meantime, he is visiting us. It’s so nice to have a greeting committee when we walk in the door!!

Look at that vicious dog (all bark, no bite)!

Well it took us awhile to find time to post these pictures, but better late than never, right? So, over Memorial Day weekend, we trekked to Colorado Springs, CO to see Amanda’s older sister Laura and her three kids (Brad, Natasha, and Luke) one more time before they moved to Virginia. We went to Seven Falls and the zoo.
Since then, Laura and her kids made it cross country, with the assistance of Amanda’s little sister, Kassy. It was quite an adventure, but everyone is home now. Click here for more pictures.

The Falls

Laura, Brad, Luke, Natasha

Brad, Amanda, Natasha, Laura, Luke

On May 2, 2007, this tornado lingered a few miles South of where I work. I left work to go to the dentist minutes before the tornado developed. I wish I would have been there to see it. Of course if it had hit the base, I’d be saying something else… More Pics….

We just got back from a really nice family-ish vacation in San Diego. The Parker Family (Amanda’s sister Kassy, husband Tim, and daughter Nicole) left Montana on March 23 for San Diego while the Lain Family (Brian and Amanda) left Las Cruces for San Diego. Everyone met up Friday night. Saturday was spent at Sea World, Sunday was at the Wild Animal Park, and Monday was at the Zoo. The evenings were spent at the beach and hanging out. Tuesday was at Amanda’s Grandpa’s house in Phoenix, Wednesday in Silver City with Amanda’s Grandma, and Thursday/Friday at Amanda and Brian’s house and at White Sands. The Parkers continued their journey on Saturday, and expect to get home on Monday. In retrospect, we really needed a lot more time, with less on the agenda. Nonetheless, we had a great time and our next trip is planned for June at Glacier National Park in Montana.
Below are pictures of us as a group. Click here for more pictures.

Brian, Amanda, Nicole (4), Kassy, and Tim

Tim, Kassy, Grandpa, Nicole, Amanda, and Brian

Kassy and Tim.

Can you believe it is already 2007?!? 2006 went by really quickly, but we made good use of it: we traveled, Brian started working at White Sands, we bought a car, moved into a fancy house, and traveled some more. Below are some pictures from this holiday season. Amanda’s brother, Chris, was on leave from Iraq for Christmas so we got to see him. Plus, Amanda’s older sister, Laura, came to visit with her three kids.

Brian, Amanda, Chris, Melissa, and Shane (the dog).

Proud of our soldier!

Chris and Melissa, married for over 1 year!

Brian, Amanda holding Natasha (3), Laura holding Luke (4 months), Melissa holding Brad (6), and Shane in front.

Amanda holding Luke with Natasha on her lap and Laura holding Brad.

Amanda went to San Francisco/Oakland for a job-related training. She went with several co-workers and they all had a great time going to the training and exploring the city. The people were very friendly and helpful (we got lost a lot) and the culture is very accepting of differences.
They stayed in a really cute, historic hotel (Washington Inn) and visited Jack London Square in Oakland, as well as Fisherman’s Warf and Macy’s (7-stories high) in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Amanda was not able to see the Golden Gate Bridge or Alcatraz, but next time…
Below is a picture of the New Mexico crowd–Tony, Yvonne, Amanda, and Pete.

This is a really neat video that shows what it takes to be beautiful enough be a model. Surprisingly, most of it is makeup and computer effects. Makes me wonder how many of the super-models would be recognizable in person. It was made by a company in Canada named Dove (website). Watch the Video

We were so busy this month that we almost forgot to celebrate Halloween!! We bought a bunch of candy in case we have trick-or-treaters, and carved our pumpkins today. Brian did a great job on his pumpkin, and made it look really scary. Amanda is not near as methodical (or patient), so hers says “Boo” on the front, has a bat on the left side, and a ghost on the right side. The pictures of Amanda’s were too dark to see, but Brian’s looks awesome!

Brian and Andy (Amanda’s cousin) went to the X-Cup (go to www.xprizecup.com for more information) to see the latest developments in rockets and space exploration. The event had neat space simulations, models, and even had a robot who played soccer. Click here for more pictures.

A lot of Amanda’s family got together in October for a little reunion. Amanda’s sisters had not seen each other in a long time, so meeting at Amanda’s grandmother’s house was a great place to meet up again. So, there were Amanda’s grandmother and grandfather, Amanda’s two sisters and sister-in-law, Amanda’s two neices and nephews (aged 5, 3.5, 3, and 2 mo), plus 3 dogs, 1 cat, and 1 rabbit. It was quite the madhouse–and rarely any silence–but it was a lot of fun.
Below is a picture of the kids and grandkids (left to right: Laura (older sister) holding her newborn baby Luke, Amanda holding Laura’s daughter Natasha (3), Kassy (younger sister) holding Nicole (3.5), and Melissa (sister-in-law). Brad, Laura’s son, is on the floor with the red hair.) Click here for more pictures.

Kassy, Nicole, Amanda, and Brian went to Albuquerque to the annual balloon fiesta. In addition to seeing hundreds of hot air balloons, we rode the world’s longest tramway to the top of Sandia Peak! At nighttime, there is a “glowdeo” where they fire up the balloons, then they do fireworks afterward. It was all really neat, and we were very glad Kassy and Nicole could join us! (Here they are below in front of a giant chile!) Click here for more pictures.

Over the past weekend, Amanda and Brian went to San Antonio/Temple, TX to wish her brother, Chris, a safe tour in Iraq. We had a great time and quite an adventurous return!

Friday: Chris and his wife, Melissa, drove down to San Antonio to meet Brian and Amanda. We all went to the zoo, botanical gardens, and the River Walk. The zoo had a really cool butterfly exhibit, and the River Walk was nice, though we really should have ridden on the boat. There is a picture of Chris and Melissa below, but click here for more pictures of our adventures.

Saturday: Chris, Melissa, Brian, Amanda, and Shane (the dog) went to the lake and went swimming, without sunscreen. Then, we all went back to their apartment and went swimming, again without sunscreen. Needless to say, we were crispy critters. Then, Brian and Amanda went down to Waco to meet Brian’s brother and his girlfriend for dinner at Olive Garden.

Sunday: Chris, Melissa, Brian, and Amanda hung out for awhile, then went to lunch before Amanda and Brian had to leave for the airport. Brian and Amanda were planning on arriving at the airport 1.5 hours before the plane left. We arrived in San Antonio on time, but forgot to fill up the car with gas, so that took about 20 minutes. Then, when we tried to return the rental car, their computers crashed. We couldn’t leave because we had to sign a form agreeing to the charges, etc. Then, we waited for about 5 minutes to catch the next Shuttle to the airport (a full 5 miles from the airport). We got on the shuttle without knowing that we had to drop off several people at their cars in the parking lot first. In the meantime, another shuttle came and went. When the shuttle finally got on the road to go to the airport, Amanda noticed that we passed our terminal that we boarded on before. The driver kept driving so she could drop off the other passengers at the taxi station. So, after that, she finally took us back to our gate. In San Antonio, you have to check in at least 30 minutes to guarantee that your luggage gets on your plane. We checked in 27 minutes early…The person assured us the luggage would be fine, that there was still plenty of time. We caught the plane, which landed at 5:50. Our luggage, on the other hand, landed at 12:15. The plane our luggage was on kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed, but since we had already waited so long, we figured we might as well stick it out. So, we left San Antonio at 5:25, arrived in El Paso at 5:50, and got home at 1:30. Funny because if any one of our mishaps wouldn’t have happened, we would have had our luggage at 6:00–if we would have remembered to get gas, or if the computers wouldn’t have crashed, or if we wouldn’t have gotten a full tour of the parking lot, or if we wouldn’t have missed our terminal on the first tour of the terminals. We are just glad to be home, luggage in hand!

Anyway, so we had a really great visit with Chris and Melissa. Chris deploys sometime between September 30 and October 4 (his 21st birthday is October 6). We are wishing him the best of luck and a safe return. And remember, if you don’t stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them! 🙂

Las Cruces was under a tornado warning today! It got pretty windy and rained and hailed a bit, but no tornado. The clouds looked pretty ominous though–the picture does not do it justice.

This year’s annual fundraiser for Camino de Vida went well. It raised over $40,000 for the Aid and Comfort program, and over 250 attended. For a brief slideshow of the event, go to Camino de Vida’s website http://www.caminodevida.org and click “view slideshow”.

Check out our new bikes! Brian and Amanda got their first bikes for Amanda’s birthday, March 2000. So, now we both upgraded again, for Brian’s birthday. Brian’s is a Trek 6700 and Amanda’s is a Trek 3900. Pretty snazzy! (Amanda’s is the one with the water bottles.)

Brian’s birthday was Saturday, so, to celebrate, we bought him a new bike, went biking in Cloudcroft, and went to Wet N’ Wild. Cloudcroft was super green–so green that the dead trees were growing moss–but it rained on us for the better part of the day, so we got a lot of driving in, but not a lot of riding. We are looking forward to going back up during the drier season!

Here are some pictures of desert life. The first is a millipede. We see them all over the desert, and they seem quite friendly. The second is a tadpole shrimp–an endangered species that only appears when it rains.

We had a great 4th! Brian’s mother and grandparents came to Las Cruces, we saw Tracy Lawrence in concert, and watched a beautiful fireworks show put on by the city. The weather was perfect, but the traffic was horrible! For more pictures, click here.

This past weekend we went to Chama to ride the Cumbres Toltec Railroad! The weather was great, the vegetation was super green, and the air was very fresh! The train left at 10:00, stopped for lunch from 1:00 til 2:00, then resumed until 5:30! A 6-hour train ride one way, and a 1-hour bus ride on the way back. We rode out in the open car, so we got sunburned and covered in soot. But, it was a great weekend, and we concluded by eating at Olive Garden!!
For more pictures, click here.

Amanda found some interesting quotes:
1) Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Gandhi)
2) Choices, not chance, determine destiny. (Unknown)
3) An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. (Gandhi)
4) Killing for peace is like f***ing for virginity. (Unknown)
5) The important thing is to not stop questioning. (Albert Einstein)

Just food for thought!