SpokaVegas

After spending a very merry Christmas with the Brookses in Redmond, Steve, Lucy, and I packed up and headed to Spokane to stay for a bit. We were greeted with loads of snow, which it turns out, is great fun for Lucy. Lucy has been trained to ring bells in order to go outside to go "potty", but she rang her bells every chance she could just to go and play in the snow. Just about every day, we took her to the tennis courts at Comstock Park, which is the half-way mark between our parents' houses. For those of you who are unaware, the Brookses and Walther parents live less than a mile from each other. Steve and I used to ride the school bus together in high school. Yes, it's quite a cute story.

We started off playing fetch with balls, but those were lost in the snow quite quickly. Lucy would take off running with one in her mouth, dropping it along the way, not to be recovered until the big thaw. We switched to a rubber frisbee and Lucy became quite a fan. She even learned to catch it on the fly. We're hoping to take her snowshoeing this winter in the Cascades. We are constantly scheming of ways to wear her out. It allows us to get some exercise along the way as well.

While in Spokane, we had the great opportunity of celebrating New Year's Eve. We signed up for First Night, which is a big organized even where dozens of performers put on shows around downtown Spokane and you can walk between them and catch as many as possible- all for $15. We saw some great Irish musicians and dancers at Lewis and Clark High School (our alma mater) and also saw some great comedians, Brothers from Different Mothers (http://www.differentmothers.com/)in in the Central Methodist Church sanctuary. Strange place for a comedy show, but check them out...they were pretty intertaining. We wrapped up the evening with hot butter rums while watching "Home of the Brave", which was just filmed in Spokane- 2 houses away from my parents. Not the greatest movie, but it was fun to see some familiar places- including Steve's elementary school. 50 Cent was in the movie... I'm still wondering what happened to his metal teeth.

We also got to relax a lot with our parents and Steve and has dad had some quality time down in the shop making cabinet doors for our bathroom. All in all, our visit was great. It was hard to leave!

Thanks for a great visit in Spokane M & D Brooks and Walther! We'll be back soon.