My sister is spiderwoman

Before going off to COT (that's commissioned officer training), I was lucky enough to go on a family vacation to Colorado.

We drove (well, a few people flew) but I forget how wide open the skies of West Texas are.

The wind farms were especially cool. You can't tell from this picture, but we passed a flatbed truck along the way carrying one of those wind blades. It was as long as one whole block of the town we were stopped in.

Texas has nice (apparently snake infested) rest stops. there were warning signs all over the place to watch for rattlers.

The first leg of the trip to Amarillo, it was just my sister Ginnie and me in the car. 

But we joined up with the rest of the family and on Saturday we stopped at this cool little park in Dallam Texas.

The kids had a blast playing on some very old fashioned playground equipment.

(the merry-go-round AKA the vomitron)

Because I only had a week before I would be flying back to Dallas, we ended up cramming in a bunch of stuff into three days.

(hiking to Alberta Falls)

Ziplining (that's a word right?)

I really enjoyed the rock climbing...

from this angle, it looks kind of impressive

from this angle, not so much.

But Ginnie was amazing. She was a regular spider woman. 

She has sticky fingers. And I mean that in a nice not a she-steals kind of way.

The next day was white water rafting and the day after that was home for a bit more packing and a road trip to Alabama. 

Which brings us to today. Tomorrow is the beginning of COT. I don't know how much time I'll actually have to post things, but if you're wondering what COT is like, I like this blogger's posts.

If his posts are any indication of what COT will be like, that rock climbing excursion should be helpful. I just wish I had Ginnie's fingers.