Hello, Houston

The Clayton's have arrived safely in Houston. We arrived Friday morning, picked up our keys and headed straight to our new apartment. Since we had actually never looked at our exact apartment, we were excited (and a bit nervous) to open the door. But, it's great and we know we will make this place feel like home. It is on the third floor which isn't a big deal, but I do know that we will strategically plan trips to make sure we don't have to make hundreds of trips up and down those 38 steps. And hey, we're young. It's good for us.

Now let's talk about the road trip. The 17 hour road trip. Yawn. It was tiring, but we did it. With the help of five-hour energy, coffee and XM radio, we survived with very little complaints. I shared the trip through my social networks, but here are some pictures from the trip.

The SUV was packed to the limit.. leaving just enough room for Ryan and me in the front and Rosco and Marley in the very back.

I saved the second half of this book to read on the trip -- ended up being a really great read by Emily Giffin.

My turn to drive - southern Illinois, Missouri and a little of Arkansas.

Ryan drove the hardest leg across Arkansas from midnight til almost 5 a.m. Then it was my turn again once we crossed into Texas.



We technically arrived in Houston around 9 a.m. but it takes some time to travel around the country's fourth largest city and actually used to be at the top of the list of cities with the worst traffic. More importantly, Forbes just recognized Houston as the "coolest" city in America in this article. The local newspapers' blog also just mentioned that the city is among the top cities for moves. So, we are not the only newbies here.

Houston may be big and have a lot of traffic, but it is beautiful! And it has palm trees. We are beyond excited to get settled in and explore everything this city has to offer.

The first adventure, of course, was to find a dog park. Since Rosco and Marley had slept for almost two entire days (18 hours in the car + the 14 hours we slept after the trip), they were FULL of energy. After doing a little research, we discovered that Houston has more than 20, that's right TWENTY, dog parks across the city. So, we randomly picked one sort of close to our place to check out today - Millie Bush Bark Park. Wow, fifteen acres for the pups to run with two ponds, picnic tables, dog showers, the works. Rosco and Marley each gave it their "paw" of approval. They both swam in the pond for the very first time. Someone threw a ball into the middle of the pond and without thought, they both jumped into the water with the rest of the pack and started swimming after it. Except for Marley. After following for a split second, she realized she was in the water and didn't like it. She busted a U-turn real quick and swam back. Let's just say she didn't fall for that trick again, and never returned to the water. Unfortunately no, I didn't catch it on video, but it was definitely AFV prize worthy. Rosco swam almost the whole time chasing ball after ball. Both are now curled up asleep, where I imagine they will be for the rest of the day!

Here's a few shots from the park today:

Much love,
The Clayton's