The Attack of the Crickets

Today was an absolutely beautiful day in central Texas. I (Laura) have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the weather. I think it was to my advantage that I expected such extreme heat because it hasn't been that bad.

This morning we woke up to housekeeping banging on the door to wake us up.. at 8:30! Am I crazy or is that really early for housekeeping to be coming to your room? The advantage to that was allowing us to feel the beautiful cool breeze outside and bringing about the idea of venturing out to Lake Belton. Lake Belton is a very large lake right at the border of the Fort Hood Reservation and there is a road right from main post all the way to the lake. It's about a 10 mile drive to what they call "BLORA" Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area. They have paintball, horseback riding, waterslides, cottages, boat rentals, a beach, mountain biking and tons of places to hike and walk. As you drive the 10 miles to the beach you will notice cows... everywhere. We passed a large bull hanging out on the side of the road chewin' on some grass. Lily had her first brush with cows and she was quite freaked out. Her barking was quite possibly the most intense/ uncertain I've maybe ever seen. She basically had no idea what they were but decided she should bark. Here are some pictures from the lake.

This one is from the observation tower at the highest point of the park right when you drive in. It is beautiful and gives you a chance to take it all in. It goes on forever!

Little Lily girl tuckered out from her playful excursion. She had a field day!

He really does like Theo... He's all talk. (I also have no idea why this is underlined... man this is going to take me awhile to figure out!)

Having a cute moment :)

We did a lot of running today with the puppies... it was so fun to see them doing what makes them so happy! Their ears flopping in the wind, getting to sniff everything, and pee on everything in Theo's case.. it was just wonderful

This is one of the pictures of the lake. It's a beautiful greenish blue color.

And another one. All the way to the right is where the beach is and the waterslides.

and this is the opposite end of the lake. It actually curves around even more but I just couldn't catch all of it on camera.

action shot :)

I loved bringing the pups here. It made me so happy to see them so happy!

More lake

We loved it. We love having a place like this so close to us. We will definitely be here often.

Ok, so the shutter speed on the camera was set for too long without me realizing so some of the photos are really bright. BUT, I HAD to keep some of them because they were just too priceless and the moments were too perfect. Thomas and Lily were off somewhere and I was taking some pictures. I turned around and saw Theo sitting off in the distance, by himself, with this little smile and his ears flapping in the wind... just in pure bliss. It was so precious!

And then also turning around and seeing these two, just hanging out. It was just so cute!

All in all we had a fantastic morning! And cannot wait for our family and friends to come visit so they can see all that this wonderfully cool place has to offer.

Also, today we went to the housing office to get on to the waiting list for a house. We were anticipating the wait to be about a month to two months for a house if that. Long story short we were pleasantly surprised when she told us that she had a house for us that will be available on September 21st (which just so happens to be the very same day that the movers are packing up all of our other stuff in MN and sending it down... God is pretty humorous in the way he plans things :) )

Those are the highlights of our day. Oh, and I almost forgot... There are crickets EVERYWHERE here... We came back to the hotel room to find about 2-3 on the floor, one on the BED (ahhh!! I was freaking out!) and about 5 alive and 3 dead behind the end table next to my side of the bed. We think they are coming in from underneath the door so we are using towels to block them... doubt it will work. At night, the ground is crawling with them... and they jump all over the place as you walk by. SO gross...

Alright, well thats all I have for you. I will leave you with a very funny video of Thomas and Theo man. He was trying to get him to sit up. Enjoy. (The video is in the post above this one.)