Chicago shower

Here I am at a nice restaurant, 94 West, in Orland Park, IL. Joe's
family planned a baby shower for baby Gus. We had our own room that
was perfect! Had a nice meal and received amazing gifts for Gus, like
a stroller, swing, high chair, crib set, and baby monitor. It was fun!
Here I am with Gus' new froggie. I like baby showers!

New Jeep!

Hi all - here I am at Joe's Dad's house. Behind me is our new Jeep! We
decided to trade in the awesome Hummer for this Jeep on Tuesday...it
happened pretty quickly, and we had a fun time driving it to Chicago.
It is a bit more maneuverable than the H2, and it is nice that it is
new and under warranty. It is the arctic edition - very winter like:-)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Freezing Fog

Driving back to Wisconsin and there is a really neat winter wonderland
going on outside! Freezing fog has created a cool white coating on
most of the plants and trees outside. Joe actually turned the car
around and backtracked 10 miles to get the best shot! How cool is
that!

Winter Wonderland

It snowed in Wisconsin and Minnesota yesterday. Today, we are driving
back to Minneapolis on I-94 and there are several areas where the
trees have an awesome dusting of snow on them! Here I am on the side
of the road with a nice example - Joe even turned around and
backtracked down the freeway to help get a great shot! So excited that
winter is coming!

WI Shower!

This is the first in a series of "make up" posts! Anne has been busy
lately with Gus and has failed to post many neat items over the last
four or five months.

Here I am at Marty and Margaret's place in Merrillan off the Sand
Road. Today, Margaret is hosting a very nice shower for baby Ennesser.
I am sitting amongst the prizes for the games. Can you find me?

Gobble - Gobble

Hey all! As we were leaving Fort Snelling, we were stopped by a turkey
crossing! You can see them behind me heading into the forest. Pretty
neat!

Another Found Bunny

Here we are at Fort Snelling, near the airport in Minneapolis. Joe's
dad and Terese are here visiting and Terese's cousin, Penny, is
showing us around. As we were walking down the trail, we found a box
that looked liked it had a camera in it. I wonder someone is studying
and taking pictures of bunnies! Maybe they will take a picture of me!

Nice day

Here we are again at the top of the hill. We are lucky to have another
nice day! You can see the tractor and some of our tools in the
background. You can also see Joe and Orion behind me. I am sure the
doggies will have fun today!

Bunny in bunny...

Here we are on the property again...Joe is doing some work and Anne
and I are doing non-strenuous work, like taking pictures:-) When we
were still in California, Anne had the guy off the I-215 that makes
metal sculptures work up a bunny that is based on my likeness. We
brought him with and Joe installed him right on the top of the hill.
When you drive by on HWY 54 from below, it looks like the bunny is
floating above the earth - very cool! I like how he turned out. Looks
like he is running. He even has shoes!

Tractor!

Hi all - just arrived at the property to check out all the work that
Joe has been doing all the weekends for the last few months. Here I
am, sitting on the new tractor! It is pretty neat - it is bigger than
a regular riding lawn mower, but smaller than a regular tractor. Just
perfect for our property as it can do a lot of work (mowing, hauling
debris, and small grading) but it is small enough to be maneuverable
around all the trees. There is even a cup holder I can sit in! I like
tractors!

Little Joe - Bunny Fan!

Here we are at Joe's Mom's house to visit and have some supper. We are
done eating and looking through Joe's baby books. Several times we
have cone upon bunnies that Joe drew when he was little. This one is a
cool yellow one! Joe really liked magic, and still does...sometimes he
drew rabbits coming out of a hat. I guess Joe always liked bunnies and
was destined to have one (me!) someday!

Mississippi River - Iowa/Illinois

Here I am, gazing out on the Mississippi River as we cross over from
Iowa to Illinois. Neat sunlight and blue skies. Apparently, there are
some clouds and rain ahead by the time we get to Orland Hills, but we
don't really see too much in the way of clouds ahead. We will see!

50,001...

Just outside of Lincoln, NE and the Hummer rolled over to 50,000
miles! It was a hard to get the shot, so we got it at 50,001. It is an
awesome ride!

Fat Dogs - Part II

Here we are on a refuel break in Western Nebraska. We happened to stop
at another Fat Dogs gas station. Good to know we are 'nowhere' (look
above the sign).

I am pretty sure we have an old post out there somewhere where we held
up Orion to take a shot with me:-) Very windy here - Orion needs to
learn NOT to pee into the wind!

Colorado/Nebraska border

Here I am, crossing into Nebraska. Snapped a photo at 80 mph...If you
look carefully, you can see two red and white pillars on either side
of me on the side of the road. I think these are to close the
road...we've been down this interstate when it has been windy and
snowy, so I can see why! We are actually experiencing it now - as
soon as we crossed into the state, the wind started blowing harder,
blowing us sideways and tumbleweeds started flying across the road.
Nebraska can be very treacherous!

Leaving the Front Range

Got some breakfast at Einstein bagel and on the way out of town. We
are east of Denver now, looking back on the snowy mountains of the
front range. We won't be seeing any big snowy mountains for awhile,
but neat fall foliage awaits us! I love fall! It is my favorite
season!

New Tilt-up in Broomfield

Here we are hitting the road on Wednesday morning. We stayed in
Broomfield, CO (a suburb between Denver and Boulder) for the last two
nights at the aloft hotel. Very nice, modern, and new hotel that takes
pets! The doggies loved it there...

Broomfield was an interesting place. We learned that it was formed
recently over a number years by annexing more and more land.
Everything is new and there are a lot of technology jobs/companies
here. At first, the city was in four different counties and in 2001,
they formed there own county. How interesting is that!?!

Right across the street from the hotel someone is building a new
tilt-up structure of some kind. Behind me you can see the workers
lifting a piece into place. Over two days it was neat to see the
ground go from nothing to take the shape of a building so quickly!
Hopefully our home will go up as quickly in the coming years! I like
to see things get built.

Dream House, Boulder

Here we are north of Boulder. We just finished a hike in the foothills
southwest of Boulder with the doggies. Very nice trails here! We must
have hiked for over an hour!

Since we were in Boulder, we thought we'd try to find the home of
Christopher Herr, the architect that designed and built his own modern
place that was the topic of one of the first seasons on Dream House
that Joe, Anne, and I watched on HGTV. All we knew is that it was
north of Boulder and we remembered it was on a slope that had just a
few trees. Lo and behold, we found it! I like the Dream House show on
HGTV and new modern buildings!

Johnson Tunnel

Going through the Johnson Tunnel! This is my favorite tunnel! The
eastbound is the Johnson Tunnel and the westbound is the Eisenhower
Tunnel. It was hard to get a shot this time. I tried to get the
temperature reading in the rear view mirror in the shot - it was 34
degrees. Winter is fast approaching! And there is a crazy twinkle in
my eye on this shot.

So I didn't realize it, but the Johnson the tunnel is named after is
Edwin Johnson. He was a governor and US senator for Colorado from the
30's and 50's. Neat to know three interesting facts...

Rabbit Valley pit stop

Here we are again at Rabbit Valley. There is a very neat 1.6 mile loop
trail around some sites that arceologists dig up several artifacts,
mainly dinosaurs! There was a neat exhibit and a restroom not even a
quarter mile down the trail, so we all got out for a break to stretch
our legs. Here I am with Astro and Orion checking things out. Really
nice out today - sunny and 62 degrees. I love unexpected stops that
turn out to be very cool!

Rabbit Valley!

Here we are at Rabbit Valley. I am pretty sure I've blogged this
before, but feel the urge to do so again...it is just a mile after you
cross into Colorado from Utah...so neat that things are named after
rabbits!

Double Arch

Double Arch, coming right at cha! Another neat arch. This one is
adjacent to Turret Arch. It is like Zorro's mask...neat!

Turret Arch

Checking out the arches now. Here I am at Turret Arch. Joe is taking
some cool pictures of the tree at the base of the larger arch while I
blog this. Arches are so cool!

Arches National Park

Here we are on Columbus Day at Aches National Park. I'm at the
visitor's center where there are some more cool metal creature
sculptures.

We stayed in Moab, UT last night at the Super 8 motel because they
allow doggies. It wasn't a good experience for us...it was older and
there were cigarette and blood stains on one of the blankets. Then the
TV went out. And then Orion went crazy sniffing on one of the beds -
which was a little scary thinking what it was he was he might be
sniffing...needless to say, we decided to check out early and will
head to either Gand Junction or Boulder tonight. I love adventures.

Bryce Canyon - Sunset Point

Another shot of Bryce Canyon, this time from Sunset Point. This
overlooks the same area as Bryce Point, but to the north of Bryce
Point. What a neat place to watch the sun set! Now off to drive to
Moab, around five hours!

Bryce Canyon video

Also took a cool video of the view of Bryce Canyon from Bryce Point.
It is almost almost a 360 degree view of awesome formations, but I had
to walk across the narrow ridge to get all sides of the canyon. If you
look closely, you can see Joe in his red jacket taking some pictures
among the other tourists. Very awesome view here!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Here we are at Bryce Canyon National Park. We are at the Bryce Point
lookout near sunset. There are so many neat formations down below! We
almost didn't come here as we have a long drive to still get to Moab
tonight, but it was so worth it! We should have skipped Zion and come
straight here! I love Bryce Canyon!

Red Canyon

Here I am about 20 miles away from Bryce Canyon. Just on the side of
the road there were some neat formations. The area is called Red
Canyon - which makes perfect sense as the rocks are about as red as
they get! It really makes the sky such an unreal color of blue. This
is way cooler than Zion Canyon!

Weeping Rock, part II

Here is another video of Weeping Rock, taken from further back into
the overhang. All of a sudden, there was a short window that most of
the tourists disappeared, so we took advantage of that. You can see
Joe taking some neat timed exposures of the water/rock. You can also
see cool plants growing in the cracks of the overhang above me.
Beautiful blue skies and perfect weather today.

Weeping Rock

Here we are at the one stop we made in Zion at the Weeping Rock. It is
a crazy overhanging rock that has a large amount of water draining out
of some fractured bedrock that is above the overhang. It creates a
cool weeping waterfall that you can view from under the shelter of the
overhanging rock. This was the only cool thing in Zion...we wouldn't
recommend spending time here, if your time is limited, as we found
that just driving on the main highways is much cooler. Weeping Rock =
cool; Zion = nothing special.

Ringtail

Here I am at the Visitor Center at Zion National Park. There are cool
metal creatures outside near the area you get on the shuttle bus to
tour the park. The park people don't let you drive into the park
(unless you are disabled), so you have to take the bus.

This creature is a ringtail. He is pretty cool. Our eyes are very similar...

Zion National Park

Here we are on our first major stop at Zion National Park! Nice day,
57 degrees and sunny. I like all the neat colored rocks here...

Metal Horse Sculpture

Driving through Las Vegas now. There is road construction on the I-15,
so the freeway is pretty much stopped for about 20 miles! We decided
to get off and travel on surface streets on the west side of town -
very bad drivers in Las Vegas! And very tiresome to run into that when
on a long roadtrip!

As we were pulling off the interstate, we snapped this shot of a cool
metal horse sculpture on the off ramp. There are several creatures
around town including rams and turtles. Very neat and three
dimensional.

Cajon pass

Cajon Pass, here we come! Anne got me a new hat for me to ride in -
pretty neat. We are going to take our time on this trip. So far the
plan is: St. George, UT; Moab, UT (2 nights so we can check out
canyonlands national park); Boulder, CO; Lincoln, NE; then Chicago.
yeah!

Leaving for our road trip

Here I am in Riverside at Angie's place. Joe is here. He was able to
cone out to California and get me and Anne and the doggies for awhile
- at least until Anne has the baby (did I mention we will be having an
addition to our family:-) There is a chance we could come back, we
will see...I like road trips! Especially in the hummer!

Strange creature!

Here I am heading up I-15 near Ontario, going with Joe and Anne to
Target regional office and we came upon this interesting creature...I
like interesting creatures!

My favorite place to be again

One post I forgot to make this weekend while in Minneapolis - my
updated favorite place to be:-)

I like the new sheets that Joe and Anne picked out! It is quite comfy.

Empty airplane!

At Phoenix - Anne got a Cinnabon and not only do I have my own seat,
but I have my own row! Most empty flight I've ever been on! I love
flying like this!

Rooftop Dining

Here we are on a rooftop near Joe's work. It is called Crave and our
seats look down on the intersection of 9th and Hennepin - right by the
Orpheus Theater. That is where the Minneapolis America's Got Talent
auditions were held. Pretty near place and an another unexpected
surprise today after we didn't get our flight back due to a mechanical
failure. Ended up being a good day, after all! I like rooftop dining
on a perfect weather day!

Giant Target Dog!

One more cool thing we noticed at Target HQ - a giant picture of the
Target Dog! You can see how big he is by scale compared to me and
Joe's hand! The doggie is so Orion-like! If I knew I'd be coming here,
I would've worn my red sweater! I like the target dog...

Great Hall

Here we are at Target headquarters where Joe works. This is the Great
Hall - a huge, hip, lounge that the employees can use. Very cool! The
picture doesn't do it justice...

13 floors up!

One of these things is not like the other - can you tell which one? It
is me - the bunny! We were fortunate to get a guest pass to go with
Joe up to his office as he needed to do a few things for his trip back
to NYC. You can see the convention center, with the green domes,
behind me. Joe tells me that president Obama was here last week and
there were helicopters and secret service people everywhere.

It was too sunny to get a shot to the SW, but the view is awesome
there, too! Maybe I can go to work with Joe sometime and help him like
I do Anne sometimes.

Rustic Mill - destroyed by fire

Here is a blog post I didn't get to yesterday...after we finished
working on our property, we stopped to take a picture of the old
Rustic Mill. This is a mill converted to a restaurant that has been
opened off an on for a number of years. It is only two or three miles
from our property. It reopened last year and we had stopped there
once. I think I posted a blog entry from the big picture window that
was on the creek side of the structure. Unfortunately, it was recently
destroyed by a fire. It was sure convenient! I hope someone rebuilds
it!

Evidence of a Creature?

At the storage chest on our property, and we discovered some sort of
creature/paw prints on our box, like they were trying to get in...
Very strange! We never figured it out. Alan has captured all kinds of
wildlife captured on webcams on Marty's property, including bears,
quail, etc. Maybe our project cams will catch the creature eventually!

Shelter from the Rain

Here I am, out on the property with Joe and Anne...they cut more brush
and probably another 20 trees today. The view is really opening up!
Three more poplar trees are easily viable now that things are thinned
out and some of the random oak and chokecherry trees are out of the
way.

It rained twice, including right when we were leaving. I found refuge
under the picnic table in Anne's hat, and balancing on Joe's shirt and
Anne's iPad. Neat adventure.

GPS Drive HD

Here I am, riding in the allroad on the way to see the Thompson family
in Wisconsin. Joe has a new app for his iPad called "GPS Drive HD"
that we are testing out. So far it seems pretty cool! I like
technology.

Ennis?

Maybe someday Joe will take me here, or maybe Iceland!?! Neat
indicators they have inlaid here at the Phoenix airport! Time to get
on the next flight!

PHX

At the Phoenix airport on the way to see Joe in Minneapolis. There was
a cool creature in the flooring just outside the restroom. I like to
travel!

Don's Band

We are at the Beach House in Cardiff by the Sea watching our surf
friend, Don, play the bass in the blues band he is in. It is very nice
out as the sun is going down. There are very large windows from our
awesome seat so we can see both the band and ocean. You can see Don
seated right in front. He looks much different when he isn't in a
wetsuit! They sound great! Nice and mello...

Fresh fish

Fresh fish on display at the Fish Market. Yum!

Fish Market

Staying with Paul and Angela in Carlsbad this weekend because it is
107 degrees in Riverside! Here I am in Del Mar with Paul, Angela, and
Anne. We are at the Fish Market near the racetrack. When Joe and Anne
lived in Carmel Valley, we never made it here and it was so close! It
is also right on the course for the La Jolla half marathon...food was
great!

Joe's Airplane!

Here we are at the Minneapolis airport very early in the morning.
Today, we (Anne & me) are flying back to California on Southwest and
Joe is flying to NewYork City on Sun Country. He leaves 5 minutes
before us. Here we are, sitting on our plane waiting to push back from
the gate, and Joe's plane has already pushed back a few gates down
from us. If you zoom in, you can see his Sun Country plane. We
eventually got to watch him take off. Very odd to think we will be
pulling away from each other at rapid speed this morning. We meet back
up at the same airport on Sept 1st... So that part is cool!

The Depot

Here we are on a Sunday morning at the Depot in Merrillan. This is now
a bar/restaurant that was once a very busy train stop along the "400"
from Chicago to Minneapolis. If you look closely, you can see the
allroad and Joe, Anne's Mom, and Anne's Dad in the background. After
having breakfast, we are off to head back to Minneapolis.