from texas to north dakota

in december we left north dakota for texas, by way of idaho (for christmas) for shawn to receive training to become a combat arms instructor. we're excited for him to have a normal work schedule and to work with a small group of people. i drove down with him, stayed for a week and a half, and then flew to alaska to spend with my family until i joined shawn again in texas in march. one of the main attractions of the san antonio area (besides sea world) is the downtown river walk. a lot of restaurants and stores have set up shop along the river - the majority of the restaurants being either steak houses or mexican food. below are me and shawn in march on one of the bridges that cross over the river.
the last weekend before shawn graduated his program, we took off down to corpus christi, tx to visit padre island national seashore - one of our nation's national parks. i loved it!! i love the ocean so much and could spend all day watching the waves lap on the shore, looking for treasures that the tide has brought in and hearing and smelling the ocean. it was such a peaceful day taking all that in. i really didn't want to leave. i tried to talk shawn into running into town and buying some blankets and sleeping on the beach, although i really don't think that would've worked very well due to me not sleeping very well at night on a normal bed. my hips and back and knees were not cooperating very well with my pregnancy at that point and i was quite miserable at night. anyhow, i read the quote below in the visitor's center and it really made me think. we have come from the age where poseidon is the all-powerful god of the ocean to the age where we have trashed one of our treasures and no longer really fear the ocean as much as we used to. it still is a dangerous place - ask any fisherman - but much of the fear of the mass populace has been erased. cruises are a commonplace thing, ocean fishing trips for fun are common. as a people, we no longer view the ocean as "all-powerful". it is just one of our natural resources and no longer a thing of magic and mystery. sad.
and here's my car!! honestly, when i got this subaru in 2004 i didn't really like it but it has grown on me. it can go anywhere anytime of the year and the all-wheel drive is incredible and has never failed to get me out of sticky situations. way to go, subaru! what ever would i do without you?!!!
me and shawn, once more. i was about 25 or so weeks along in my pregnancy or thereabouts in this pic and i felt huge! i'm even bigger now at 32 weeks.
and here's shawn after his graduation from combat arms school. way to go, idaho!!!
on the drive back north to north dakota we stopped in idaho to pick up our dog, denali, at shawn's parents' house. one of the nights we were there shawn's niece and nephew spent the night. shawn talked the kids into building a fort so they could sleep in it and the kids were excited. we all built the fort and when they got bunkered down for bed shawn's niece decided she would rather sleep with grandma. so shawn started telling linkin (pictured below) a bed time story and linkin then decided he wanted to sleep with his grandma, too. i guess shawn started the story off something like "it was a dark night.." and linkin got scared. i don't even think shawn was able to get out more than a couple of sentences before linkin was out of there. haha! kids are so funny!
while in idaho i was also able to go see my little brother and meet his fiance, lauren. i was just going to have lunch with them but ended up spending the whole day at lauren's house. thanks for a wonderful meal (bulgogi) and the great company!!
and here is shawn and denali on the drive home to ND. denali had to have her head on shawn's shoulder for most of the drive. i guess she was excited to have her separation from shawn end.