United States Botanic Garden

On Friday December 22nd we had plans to tour the Capital building and watch the Washington Capitals play hockey. We had a few hours to kill before our tour of the Capital began and this was the day that it rain all day so we decided to spend a few hours in the United States Botanic Garden not far from the Capital building. It was a warm and dry place to walk around, not to mention the Garden was rather interesting.

These two photos are of the model trains that they had setup throughout the gardens. It was really neat being able to view them and it made you feel like a kid again watching all of the trains.

This photo was taken in the children's section of the garden. They have these fake flowers setup for you to smell, each with a different scent. The "flowers" are filled with things such as thyme, oregano, garlic, vanilla, and cinnamon. So here's Jim sniffing one of these flowers. It's actually a very cute idea...

The following photos are all replicas of the different DC monuments and buildings. I overheard several people say that these were made with the different stuff found inside the garden. They are all spectacular and awesome to look at, certainly the highlight of the gardens.

DC at Night

I plan on slowly posting pictures and stories from our Christmas vacation. I didn't feel the need to make one large post so I decided I would tease everyone a little. This post will be the first of probably about three or four posts. On Thursday December 21st we decided to tour (or should I say walk) DC at night. There are a few monuments that are best viewed at night so my sister Stefanie and tour guide Mark took the liberty of showing us around. Unfortunately, we tired out quickly so we did miss several sites but we also had a lot of fun. Keep in mind this is the night that Stefanie got pulled over in the Pentagon parking lot...sorry no photo to follow.

Apparently, my camera doesn't take good pictures at night so I only have a few that turned out well enough to post. Enjoy!

The following three photos were taken at the Air Force Memorial. Tour guide Mark told us that this monument had just opened. It's an awesome monument that is perched on a hilltop with stunning views of downtown DC.

This photo turned out great! It's a picture I took of the Imo Jima (sp) Memorial. We went to this monument directly after getting pulled over by the Pentagon Police, which means Stef was still rather cranky and we were all trying to keep our distance from her.

Here's Jim and Mark at the Albert Einstein's statue. Stef's no longer cranky at this point....

More Winter Wonderland

It continues to snow here in Los Alamos which makes this day three. I woke up this morning not expecting much more snow...guess I was wrong. We now have about a foot and a half of snow here at the house and I can't wait to call my best friend Sam, she lives in the Jemez Mountains. When I talked to her yesterday she had over two feet of snow so I can't even imagine how much she now has. It's two early for me to call her but you can bet I'll call her in a few hours. Also, as of yesterday she had no power and she was very worried about the food and meat she had in her freezer.

Jimmy spent all day yesterday at the ski hill snowboarding. He had a really good time and it's so wonderful to see the ski hill getting snow this year since last year they received no snow. Jim, Jimmy, and myself already have plans to go skiing next weekend and I can't wait. It's been a few years since I skied so I'm really looking forward to it. Jim has only skied once so needless to say I'm also looking forward to watching him spend the day on his butt...haha.

Anyway, here are some more photos for your enjoyment that I took about an hour ago.

Here's an updated photo of our backyard. As you can tell it's still snowing.

This photo is taken from the front of our house. That's our driveway in front of you. I promise Jim did an awesome job shoveling it yesterday and now you can't tell it was ever shoveled.

And of course here's another photo of Nanook playing in the snow. This is his favorite weather.

Winter Wonderland

I was so disappointed that I missed most of the snow last week, but as you can tell from the photo above (this is our backyard) we have received more snow the last few days. In fact it's been snowing the last two days straight with the Jemez Mountains receiving almost two feet. Los Alamos received 8 - 9 inches and here in White Rock we received about 7 inches.

I love this weather! I'm not entirely sure why I love the snow so much considering I can't stand to get cold, but for me a fresh snow fall is the most beautiful thing on earth. Jim stayed home today and shot some photos of the snow fall. Nanook has pretty much migrated outside and has been having a blast playing in the snow.




Here's Nanook in the backyard this evening. As you can tell, by the time this photo was taken the street was clear. However, the street is once again covered.







This is my favorite photo that Jim took of Nanook in the snow....I plan on framing this one.

National Lampoons (Libertys) Vacation

I wanted to post a quick recap of our vacation thus far. It's been quite interesting at this point and it's not over yet. We have no internet connection at our hotel...or at least nothing cheap. So, I'm using the internet at my sisters house. I'm hoping this is going to be one of those posts that will make you laugh. Honestly though, I'm not sure how I'll be able to convey the funniness of our vacation through the internet but I'll certainly try. One last thing before I get started, I will not be posting any pictures until I return to New Mexico since we plan to wait until we can download the pictures to our server at home.

So here I go...

We arrived last Wednesday night and luckily we didn't get caught in all of that mess from the massive snow storm that hit our area. Apparently, we just missed the storm (we left the same day most of it arrived). Although I would have loved to see all of that snow and get some really awesome pictures, I heard Los Alamos received over one foot of snow....maybe the next storm.

Anyhow, I arrived here sick. Jim and Jimmy both had the flu a weeks ago and apparently I finally came down with a pretty bad cold as a result of the flu that they had. I'm packed full of phlegm from the chest up and my family is certainly having a good time making fun of me. On Thursday I thought I was feeling descent enough to do most of the monuments at night which was really fun, but also really cold. For those of you that don't know, my sister drives a POS (piece of sh*t) and Mark had the bright idea of driving around the Pentagon parking lot so we could get a really good view of the Pentagon and, guess what? We got pulled over by the Pentagon Police because the car had a headlight that was burned out. I thought about asking the trooper if he would take a family photo with us, but he didn't seem like the type. Needless to say, we didn't get the picture...so Stefanie never got a ticket and we were able to move on our happy way.

It rained all day Friday and we had plans to tour the Capital Building in the morning and go to a Washington Caps game Friday night. By this time I'm completely drugged up on Tylenol and unfortunately the best way around DC is by foot. So, yes we walked all over DC in the rain. Luckily we were pretty much dressed for the occasion. By the time we made it to the Caps game we all looked liked wet St. Bernard's coming through the cat door from spending the entire day in the rain. For those of you that are interested, the Caps lost to New Jersey 4 to 1.

Saturday ended up being a bust...we were all to tired to do anything and I all I wanted to do was sleep. My fever was up and down all day....probably from spending the day in the rain.

Sunday...the main event...spend the day with Aunt Suzie. The day started out pretty descent, although Mom was late as always. We decided to pile all of us in the POS and drive up to Elkton (my home town). My sister has this tradition of stopping at the Maryland House every time she drives to Elkton. So we made the usual stop, we all got out of the car, did our own thing and met back at the car. Apparently, while most of us were gone my sister and Jim decided to "fix" the driver's side window that was broken. They didn't fix it at all...in fact they made it worse, the entire window came off of the track. So here we are, Christmas Eve, driving to Elkton in the POS with a window that is permanently down in the freezing cold weather. Things went great in Elkton, although we did feel like we had to cut our trip short so that we could leave at a descent hour and not freeze our butts off on the drive home. Did I mention that my sister drives a POS???

It was a cold ride home, so don't be surprised if the next blog reads that I have pneumonia....

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Heading Home

I'm so excited to report that Jim and I will be heading home to Maryland tomorrow...wahoo! I spent the entire day doing laundry, cleaning the house, and packing our stuff. We've been planning this trip for months, but I think I'm more excited about taking Jim to see my old stomping grounds around Elkton. Not to mention, Jim has never been to DC and my sister has lots of activities planned for us. It looks like tour guide Mark will be showing us around the next several days. So, during the next week I'm not sure how often I'll get the chance to post a blog, but I'll certainly try when I get the chance. I'm taking my laptop with me, but it doesn't look like our hotel offers free internet service so I'll have to shop around.

Northern New Mexico has been receiving snow the last two days and the last time I turned the news on the airport was closed. I have a gut feeling that tomorrow could turn out to be a longer then normal travel day for us. I had wanted to take pictures of the snow tonight, but apparently the camera is already packed. Oh well...I'll post several pictures when we return if I don't get the chance to post while we are in DC.

Christmas Shopping

Okay, I know it's been several days since I last posted and I really do appoligize for the long delay. There really hasn't been much going on here in the Liberty house. I've been working my butt off at the credit union trying to get ready for my vacation and I've also been trying to get ready for Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is next Monday...it doesn't feel like Christmas here. The weather has once again been unseasonably warm these days and I think the warm weather certainly hasn't helped. We did get an awesome snow storm a few weeks ago (I should have taken pictures to document it), but within days the weather turned warm again. We are also suppose to get more snow today but I managed to get my Christmas shopping done in a short-sleeved polo shirt...with no jacket, so I don't think it's going to snow anytime soon.

Anyway, like I said, I did get my Christmas shopping done today. I spent the day in Albuquerque finishing up my shopping while Jim spent the day in the mountains getting more firewood. While in Albuquerque I went to the new ABQ Uptown shopping center and was really impressed with all of the nice shops that have moved into Albuquerque. I can't wait to go back there again when I have more time to look around and enjoy myself. Anyway, nothing else here...