Year 1 was marked by repeat Yo Gabba Gabba episodes with Jack Black and her hatred of life jackets. Oh and also there were bears.
Year 2 was marked by constant recital of her favorite nursery rhyme book and the joy of peeing on the side of the road. And also she rode her first real trail rides on a horse (double) in Colorado.
This year it was about rocks and her excitement of peeing in the little porta-John bags. Oh and also she rode her own big horse on her first one hour trail ride in the mountains with us.
Getting her to wear a helmet only worked after the wrangler braided her hair so pretty! And I also wore the helmet to set a good example. Yes there's a picture. It resides on Paul's phone.
And also rocks. Did I mention that? Rock finding, rock games, rock ID. ROCKS, PEOPLE! And Colorado is fortunately loaded with them. Pretty ones. I now know what calcite and obsidian is. And also aventurite. Look what I learned!
Tent Prep at the M Lazy C ranch
We were *those parents* when we realized Anna was wearing those obnoxious light up shoes in the dim cave tours. OK the tour group actually thought they were handy and funny (good sports) but I did pick her up and hold her during the "look how dark it is in a cave" bit they did when they turned off all lights.
Cave of the Winds. She kept looking for bears :)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Houston Homestead) We were getting texts from TJ and the construction guys regarding the progress of our back patio while we were gone.
Back in Colorado...
We got to ride on the Cripple Creek Rail. This was a neat little ride through old mining towns. Check out the shot of the old mines versus the new here. The new is the huge tan wall structure going across the top of the mountain. I think the old are obvious.
We topped it off with a "family float" rafting ride on the Arkansas River which was awesome but too tame for Anna who kept asking when we were going over the waterfall. Again with the helmet. Again I play along. The only adult to look ridiculous enough to wear a helmet on the family float. Anna will have to be 5 before she gets to ride a rafting trip that really DOES warrant a helmet. By the way, the helmet was actually optional on both the horse AND the raft trip by the companies. But mandatory by me.
We have some cute rafting photos but they're on a CD and I'm blogging this from my phone so there's. 75% chance I may not ever get around to posting them. Ok I will.
Anna really liked everything Native American we came across, including the music and the dancing.
On the trip home we took the route to Austin where Anna is staying with my mom and sister etc for the week. While paul and i were still there she beat the table at UNO. She has been worthy competition for Paul although she hasn't developed the cruelness factor that comes in the UNO strategy.
Since Paul and I left, The text images have been rolling in:
Complete with chips in lap. This perplexes me since out of the 32 hours on the road total to and from CO, she didn't snooze once in the car seat.
Gaudy and bedazzled. My mom bought her this and apparently 3 more in the same gaudiness range.
Accessed my mom's jewelry box:
I understand She got a pedicure today, complete with chair massage.
And her lunch was fun from the looks of this:
Note to self and others:
M Lazy C Ranch = awesome
Historic Triple B Ranch (we did a cabin) = Avoid!
Grey Wolf Ranch in Victor = nice but pricey. That's luxury.
We were going to camp in a tee pee when we got to Grey Wolf but for $100/ night and fire restrictions we were afraid we'd freeze our butts off at 10,000 ft so we rented an uber expensive cabin instead. Maybe next year we'll do tee-pee but for $100 to sleep on dirt we should at least be able to build a fire!
Well there's that. It's Tuesday now and time is flying. Well that and literally I'm on an airplane right now headed for NASA Ames. Quick trip! I'm trying to ground myself until late September. And teaching starts next Monday.
Woot!
1 comment:
I love the part about being perplexed that she never snoozed in the car on the trip to CO, but snoozes with your mom.
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