Back to Hell Paso

We got back night before last, late. West Texas is as ugly and smelly as ever, but we'd expected no less. In some ways, it was good to be back in familiar surroundings, but in other ways, it sucked because, well, this place sucks.

The good news is that we only have about 16 more months to deal with this place and the Army, and only a few weeks after that until Thak graduates from school, and we can leave, so we're really in the final countdown until we're done with this crap for good. Today is New Year's Day. Next time this day comes around, we'll be well inside of 6 months before we can run from this place and never look back. That doesn't exactly suck.

Our trip to Minnesota was awesome. I had no idea I would love it so much up there. I'll post pics as soon as I can. Thak did some weird thing with them, and I can't find them (NEVER NEVER NEVER let the husband clean out your memory card...) so whenever I do, I'll post them. Thak also took a couple short videos of the snow in Minneapolis, and the kids opening their presents on Christmas morning (I think), so when I figure out where he put those, I'll upload them to youtube, and embed them here. We have literally TONS of pictures, because we did so much. It will take several entries to show them all.

We saw a lot in Minnesota. We went to the Minnesota Children's Museum, which was probably the coolest place I've ever seen (and just as good for Orren as it was for Erin), and we went to the aquarium that's under Mall of America. While at Mall of America, we went to the Vikings store, and got the kids a football. We also saw Legoland, and the new Nickelodeon amusement park that's in the middle of Mall of America, although we didn't ride any of the rides this time. Mall of America was cool! The only part that sucked was that we ended up parking on the roof of the parking garage, and it was 6 degrees outside, but probably more like -20 with the wind chill up there! It was super cold and super windy, so that part sucked. It wasn't that big a deal, though. Minneapolis and St. Paul are great cities. They aren't filthy and disgusting like El Paso, and they're very middle class. In fact, crime in the entire state of MN is very rare compared to everywhere else we've lived. It's a whole different world up there. We want to go back in the summer and see more of the Rochester area than we did. We liked what we saw on our way home, but we want to see more in the summer. So far, it seems like a real fit for our family, though! The kids were happier in MN than I've ever seen them, Thak and I were practically stress-free (yes, even driving through a blizzard!), and the whole place was just awesome. I was surprised to have liked it that much. I really was kind of expecting it to suck. OK, Thak's hometown sucks... but any town with about 1000 people in it and absolutely NOTHING to do is guaranteed to suck, regardless of where it is. The rest of the state, however... well, the part of it that actually has cities.... was amazing.

But anyhow, pics soon.