Labor Day Weekend- Hatch Chile Festival

My parents came down to spend Labor Day Weekend and see our house. They arrived late Friday night. On Saturday we took my parents to the Eiffel tower and the Red River Veteran's Memorial. Each time Guy and I have gone to the memorial they've added more to it. They now have benches and pillars talking about each war. There was also a chile festival going on at the same time.

Retired flag box

Red River Valley Veterans Memorial

At the Veteran's Memorial (Eiffel Tower on the right)

My parents under the Eiffel tower

On Saturday we took my parents to hike on the Trail de Paris. The trail stretches from east to west across the 3 surrounding towns. The goal is to ultimately make the trail over 100 miles across a few states as part of the rails to trails program. We hiked the portion of the trail by the junior college. There's an outdoor yoga place along the trail. I've been told that in the fall and spring they have classes out there but I haven't heard anything more about them.

Warrior pose

After our hike we went downtown to check out the Hatch Chile Festival. The chile festival was pretty fun. They had mariachi band come from Sherman, TX (about 1 hour away) and there were games and activities for the kids. Lots of vendors came and had products made with hatch chiles. You could buy chiles but they also gave out chile sliders as samples. My dad and Guy both got the sliders. They were a little burned the the chile on them was pretty nice. We also sampled some raw organic non filtered honey. It wasn't too bad tasting but it was a little more expensive than I wanted to spend. After checking out the chile festival we toured the down town area. We stopped in one of my favorite shops (Olive Paris) to try out the different olive oil flavors. It's a pretty neat store and my parents both found things in there that they liked.

Fountain downtown

Afterwards we came back to the house and ate lunch and then played 7 wonders. It's one of my dad's new favorite games.  He's desperately hoping that an app will come out soon so he can continue to play it. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town that we hadn't been tried. The food was pretty good but really filling. We came back, walked Finn and then watched Goosebumps on Netflix. The movie was only rated PG but I wouldn't take young kids to see it. Pretty scary stuff in it, I thought.

On Sunday we went to church and had a nice relaxing sabbath. We also got to Facetime with all of my family. It was nice to be able to talk to them. My parents left early Monday morning for the airport. Guy and I went swimming later that day and we had a few of his coworkers over for dinner. It was a relaxing weekend.

Finn's new Friend

The second night of Finn and I officially living in Texas, there was a big rain storm. The next morning we kept hearing this cry in the yard. Guy and I went to try and figure out what it was. We finally found the source coming from under the grill. We chased it out of the yard in the early morning. Since it was so dark out we weren't sure what it was but we thought it might be a stray cat. The next day we heard the cat again...this time it had moved and was living under the shed. Every time I took Finn outside the kitten would either come out from under the shed, or Finn would crawl under the shed to it.  The poor kitten was pretty dehydrated and cried non stop. It was in the upper 90s that day and since she was pretty dehydrated I gave her some water. We didn't want to feed her and have her come back. Our neighbors also heard the kitten and they put food out for it. She lived under the shed every night for 2 nights. We tried to throw her over the fence during the day but she always came back. Finn thought the cat was great. He would chase it, and the kitten would occasionally chase back. He'd pounce at it and she'd pounce back on to him. She'd also lick him and walk between his legs. If I wasn't watching him, he'd pick the kitten up in his mouth and walk the yard with her. Guy asked around at work if anybody wanted a free kitten. Since nobody did we thought it was best to call Animal Control and get rid of her. I wasn't too worried since she's such a pretty color that I was sure she'd be adopted right away. When animal control (which is just the police department in Reno) tried to catch her they couldn't get her to come out from underneath the shed. Eventually they ended up just leaving a cage and told us that if we caught her then just call them and they'll pick her up. It wasn't too hard for us to catch her since every time Finn was outside. Guy and I felt a little bad about getting rid of her especially since Finn had a fun time playing with her, but neither of us wanted to deal with the responsibility of taking care of an additional animal. Let alone an outdoor cat. From this experience we learned that Finnegan doesn't mind cats and that he's pretty good with them.

Finally caught the kitten

The move to Texas and Lasley Family Reunion

The first weekend of August Guy met up with Finn and I in Chillicothe for his family reunion. Since we're close to Dallas he was able to take a direct flight after work to Des Moines and spend the first part with his family. It was nice because it allowed Guy to be able to spend time a little extra time with his family. I needed to work Friday so I didn't get down to the festivities until Friday afternoon. We chatted, played games, got Grahams Ice Cream and had a blast seeing everyone. Guy's nieces and nephews had fun playing with Finn. Finn did great with the little kids.

Mae holding Finn's leash with Ked and Tynn

Tynn trying to walk Finn

Finn playing Tug

We left early Sunday morning for the long drive home to Texas. Finn is our little trooper in the car. He mostly sleeps by our feet. I think moving him from Texas to Iowa when he was younger really helped with his behavior in the car.

Getting closer to Texas. Finn decided to sleep in my lap

We made it to Texas!