Yesterday, we went to the Nevada Day parade. It was pretty fun, and we got a few good photos. There were some pretty neat entries, including the miniature horses, the Shriners on wheels, the military pack horses, the dancing coffee beans, and more.









When we got hungry, we ate at Arby's and had market fresh sandwiches. Mmmmm. Over this past week or so, we've seen a few movies that we snag for free from the local library: "Forever Young" with Mel Gibson, "The Hunt for Red October" with Sean Connery, "The Grapes of Wrath" with Henry Fonda, and "The Road to El Dorado". We've also seen a few over again that we either own or have borrowed from family: "My Fair Lady", "Charlotte's Web", "Willow", and "Oliver".

This afternoon Richard, Becky, and I sold Richard�s blue 280ZX car. It was very sad. I know it�s just a car, but it held a lot of memories for us. Richard had the car for a number of years so there was a lot more memories in it for him than for me, but we went on our first date in that little blue car. Richard took me to see Spirit of the Dance at the Eldorado and then we drove all over downtown Reno and looked at all the lights. We walked around a bit too, but then he took me to a place in town where there wasn�t any traffic and we went �vertical driving�. The t-top on his car was open so, we both stood up on our seats and just let the car go by itself as Richard steered with his foot. Only for a little ways, of course, but that was vertical driving. It was fun. After that, we went to the Atlantis casino and sat on one of their big black couches and just talked and laughed and had a great time. And the rest is history. It was just a wonderful evening! We also went for many drives in that car and Richard rescued me many times with it as my car was much older and in much worse shape than his was. And although it is just a car, I do miss it for the memories! We just don�t have the money to put into it to make it new again, so we had to sell it. Maybe someday, though, we will be able to get a car like it and go vertical driving again!

On Saturday, the 20th, we went to the Animal Ark in Red Rock to see all the animals they have there. It was a lot smaller than the Sierra Safari Zoo, but it was nice. The animals were mostly from this area and colder regions of the world. They had tigers, both orange and white, a mountain lion, a lynx or two, some foxes, wolves, coyotes, desert tortoises, owls, a falcon, bob cats, a couple bears, some Arctic foxes, etc. The animals were all pretty neat! There was no petting area there, though. Most of the signs cautioned us to keep all hands and everything else away from the cages and to stay behind the security fence. Most of the animals are pretty wild. They were very nice, though. As we were leaving, the wolves and coyotes started howling and making all kinds of noises. The lady at the fee desk said that it was close to their feeding time. They must have all been hungry or something. It was interesting.





Becky has been squeaking a lot lately! She just loves to make noise and listen to herself just because she can! It is funny! Although, at times, it is very hard to talk over her! I find myself having to raise my voice just to be able to communicate with Richard, or we go in the other room to talk because she is so excited and squeaky. It's just hilarious!

This weekend was a busy one for us! On Friday, the 12th, Becky had a doctor's appointment where we found out how much she weighed and such. She now, at four months, is 15 pounds, 10 ounces and is 25-1/2 inches long. She also had to get her shots which was horrible, as always! But she did really good this time. She cried when she got the shots but she stopped crying pretty quick and was only unhappy off and on for the remainder of that one day. Last time it took her a couple days to get over them. Anyway, she is as healthy as can be! Oh, and she finally growing some hair - not a ton or anything, but her hair is growing. =)

On Saturday, the 13th, we did a bunch of things together since Richard had the whole day off. We went to the Sierra Safari Zoo in Red Rock and we saw all kinds of animals there. To name a few - there was: a camel, lion, tiger (white), liger, buffalo, hyena, a couple wallabies, some huge snakes, a Zebra, and some Baboons. There were a number of other animals too, but too many to name them all. In one section of the zoo you actually get to walk around inside the cage with some deer. They are extremely friendly animals! They like to chew on anything they can. They chewed on our shirts, pant-legs, Becky's shoes, and they even went after her pacifier. And they would follow us around the cage as we looked at the other animals. They were quite funny!



Saturday evening, after the zoo, we went to the Basque Monument by Rancho San Rafael. There is a tall statue there of a shepherd carrying a sheep and then a wall of names that the site was dedicated to - I had Richard take some pictures of a few so that I can see if I'm related to them. There was also a little map that showed all the early Basque settlements in the United States. It was pretty neat. After the Basque Monument, we went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and had some dinner! It was very yummy! And then, after dinner we went and rented a movie to finish out the day. We rented What Women Want, with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. We had a great weekend!



(And just as a sidenote - I have to talk about this song I used to sing when I was in 4th grade. I have to put it in here because Richard can't get the song out of his head and he thinks it's funny - and I loved it too! When I was in 4th grade, my teacher taught us all kinds of music and poetry. Just little kid stuff, but it was great fun to us! And one of the songs that we liked to sing was called - Señor Don Gato. It was a very silly little song and we never performed it for anyone but we loved to sing it in class as a treat after we finished our school work for the day! It was great! Richard is going to attach a link to the song title so that you can see the words if you would care to. We sang the English version. =)

Well, this weekend has been a busy one, hasn't it? Not only did the New War start today, but this weekend was also General Conference. We watched a good portion of the two-day proceedings on cable TV (thanks go out to our local cable provider), but took in the last session today via the Internet broadcast. We then went over to my parent's place for a wonderful chicken and mashed potatoes dinner this afternoon, followed by a small helping of ice cream and watching the movie "Left Behind".



Yesterday, we visited with Arianne and Jeremy Palmer for a couple of hours, and then stopped by and visited with Nerea and the munchkins afterward. NetZero^TM is only free for 10 hours per month now. While that kinda sucks, I guess it's still pretty cool if you only check your e-mail once or twice a week.

Here are some recent photos of Becky, for my friends that have requested to see some. Click on a photo to see more. Enjoy!         =)

On Sunday, September 30th, our little family traveled a couple hours into California to go to my cousin's wedding. My cousin Tony married a girl named Stacey and they had their wedding outside of a friend's house in Brownsvalley, California. It was a nice ceremony and the decorations were very pretty. All the bride's maids wore green dresses and the groom and best men were all dressed up in black tuxedos. After the ceremony they had a toast to the new bride and groom and some dances. First it was the bride and grooms dance, to their song. Then, they did the money dance, where if you want to dance with the bride or groom you have to give them a dollar, or so, and then dance with them until the next person with money comes up to cut in. It was a nice wedding. I hope the bride and groom will be happy together.