Birthday Weekend!

So, very adventurous weekend  haha.
The hubby and I headed up to Albuquerque to get a "new" engine for his Volvo station wagon. It's been dead for over a year now.
On the way, we took a detour through Bosque Del Apache. We pulled over to look at some pretty yellow daisies, and:

 He picked me flowers! Isn't he sweet  :-)

Then, we got to Albuquerque and went to a u-pull junkyard to get an engine cheaper than elsewhere. Spent most of the day Saturday in the hot sun finding all the volvos we could and which engine was still in the best shape. Found the one we wanted and spent about 4 hours getting the engine out of the car. Those volvo makers really like their wires and twisting them ALL around the engine!! It was a hard day, but we got it out and loaded in the truck. That night we got Chinese food from Panda Express (LOVE that place!!) and watched part of a movie on tv. We went to bed at like 9:30 which is early for us! We were so worn out. Got up Sunday and made our way to Santa Fe. Thought about going through the Plaza but all the historic places including most of the shops around the plaza were closed. Oh well, we had fun driving at least. Headed back to Albuquerque and went to the Aquarium. That was fun!

 My favorite: bottlenose dolphins!!

That was a lot of fun! I love oceans and sea-life. We spent a few hours there and then headed south to Ruidoso. We were gonna go from Carrizozo to Ruidoso through Hwy 37 but it was a little blocked:

The smoke from the Little Bear Fire could be seen miles away. It's beautiful and tragic at the same time. I feel bad for the people that have lost homes. The smoke made beautiful pictures:

These are the sun through the smoke. On the bottom left of some of the pics you can see blue - that's the sky, the rest is smoke!

We had dinner in Ruidoso for my bday and stayed the night there. Monday morning, we went to Cloudcroft and stopped by the Railroad Trestle that they've helped refurbish. We both love railroads and the history behind it so it was fun to see. They have some info now and you can look out over a ledge at the Trestle:

Beautiful Trestle!

Part of an old Trestle

We got home Monday and I walked into our house to find this: 

and this:

My brother and mom are so sneaky  ;-)  They came over to feed our pups that morning and decorated the house as well  :)

Well, it was a tiring but fun weekend! Not much more to report on the adoption front. We are still waiting for a birthmother and in the meantime, we are just trying to raise money for the Adoption Fund. Sorry if I'm bugging you all with different fundraisers, I just want to have a variety of options about how you can help us if you'd like to. Thanks so much for all your help!!