Yesterday everyone was doing pretty well considering the night before...except for Pete that is, who was looking a little rough.

Then Tina, her friend Josh, his two kids, and his girlfriend, and I all go to White Sands National Park to slide down some dunes of sand, bike around and have an evening picnic...when the storm rolls in. Let me tell you, wind and fine white sand and rain do not mix well. At first it was quite fun: Tina and I were riding our bikes around like a bunch of hooligans in the wind and sand, the wind almost knocking us over on our bikes....but next thing you knew we were all running for our lives out of the crazy sand storm. But we were stubborn. After sitting in the car for a little while, we decided to exit and continue the barbecue that we had started: the sand wasn't so bad even though it was raining and still quite windy. We were positive the storm would just "go by" but then it really got out of control! Luckily there was Josh, who has the father instincts and quickly gathered all our stuff (before it got lost forever in the sand) and put it away in the vehicles (including the poor Myra, which Tina and I forgot...oops, sorry Myra). We quickly ran out, gathered the bikes and put them in the back of Tina's hardcore pickup truck and rolled out of there, purple lightning flashing all around us and lighting up the sky, which was a beautiful (and perhaps terrifying for some) sight.

We finished our barbecue at Josh's and went home.

Today is yet another lazy day, but we need to accomplish a lot too: laundry, packing, getting ready to leave (not very exciting, but necessary) and hopefully a hike of some sort.

Tina's got a few job/education/travel fairs to go attend (on behalf of her old job...at the University of Alberta) so we'll be doing those for the next few days...and then we're off to Mexico!

We'll be visiting some of my friends there, which should be good times...and we shall write soon with what crazy adventures we cook up next!