Pretty Princess

Mia is sooo in love with princesses.  She cycles through watching Tangled, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and (for the first time today) Beauty and the Beast.  She doesn't call each movie by its correct name, though.  When she wants to watch one, she asks for Perunzal (Rapunzel), Princess Ora (Aurora), Snow White (she gets that one right), or Belle.  For her birthday, Mary S. made her some skirts to play dress-up in.  She LOVES them.  She's calling them her "princess skirts".  I love that she's a girly girl.  It's great to play dress up, have tea parties, and talk about princesses.  I love my sweet girl!

Breakfast Picnic

Mia has become very interested in picnics.  She'll take anything (even a washcloth) and spread it out all nice and neat in the floor.  Then she'll say, "Let's have a picnic, Mommy!"  It's been pretty hot here, so Wesley suggested that we have a breakfast picnic at the park.  It was a great idea.  The weather was great, and there weren't that many people.  We were even visited by a curious squirrel.  I tossed him a donut hole which he snatched and ran off with.  Mia did the same thing with her donut when he came back, and he made off with that one too.  Wes and Mia played with her giant bubble wand.  It was pretty breezy so the huge bubbles were going everywhere.  After that, Mia played on the playground for awhile before we went home.  Later in the afternoon, we took Mia to Aunt Stelle's for her first snowcone.  Aunt Stelle's has been around for a long time, but we heard that this may be their last summer because they're retiring.  We had to make sure Mia got to go there.  Mia chose strawberry which she loved.  Wes got Beatle which was supposed to taste like Sweet Tarts, but he said he didn't see any comparison.  My raspberry sno cone was great, or as Mia said, "It's delissus!" (delicious)

Father's Day

Wesley wanted to take Mia to the Mavs parade downtown on Thursday.  The Dallas Mavericks are the 2011 NBA Champions, so they were having their very own parade.  Over a quarter of a million people were expected to attend.  The city of Dallas urged people to take public transportation because there wouldn't be enough parking for everyone.  Wes and Mia were going to ride the DART train into downtown.  Unfortunately, even though they went to a few different train stations, the trains were full to capacity and weren't allowing anyone else to get on.  Wes was disappointed but decided they would have a fun day, anyway.  He and Mia went to the park to play, and he kept her home with him for the rest of the day for some Daddy/daughter time.  I'm glad that he likes to spend time with her and take her to do things without me sometimes.  I think it's important for them to have a strong one-on-one bond. 

Mia made a Father's Day hat for Wes at daycare.  He wore it for her which was really sweet.  She also helped to make him a card at daycare.  Mia and I took him to his favorite Salvadoran restaurant for a Father's Day meal on Friday.  Then, we all went to Home Depot so that he could get a new edger for doing lawn work.  We love him so much!

Sprinkler Fun

We're only halfway through June, but it's sooo hot here in Dallas.  Due to water restrictions, residents aren't allowed to turn their sprinklers on between 10am and 6pm.  At 6:02pm on Sunday, Wesley set out his sprinkler for Mia to run through.  She was only playing on the edges of the spray, so I held hands with her and ran through fully-clothed.  She got the hang of it, and really enjoyed herself.  I think we'll have to get a small pool for her to splash around in soon.  This heat will be hanging around for awhile.

The Road to Home

We finally got our pictures taken with the Mesa Verde sign as we were leaving the park on Thursday morning.  We'd been too busy to do it earlier.  Wesley and I wanted to take a different route home than the way we had come out there, so we decided to keep going east when we hit Durango instead of going south back toward Albuquerque.  We drove through some nice Colorado towns with lovely names like Pagosa Springs, Monte Vista and Alamosa.  My favorite leg of the trip was driving through the San Juan and Rio Grande National Forests.  We drove through the snow-capped Wolf Creek Pass which was beautiful.  It's not often that you see snow in June if you're from Texas.  One of the major reasons we chose to take that route was because we would be able to drive through Southfork, CO.  Both of our dads (as well as uncles, cousins, etc.) have hunted elk up in Southfork.  It's one of those places we'd both heard about but never seen.  My dad told us about a restaurant called The Hungry Logger that was pretty much a tradition for them to eat at whenever they went to Southfork.  We thought it would be fun to stop in and have some dessert there, too.  While driving through town, we didn't see any signs that said The Hungry Logger.  However, the icon of the restaurant is a 24 ft carved logger that stands out front, so we were able to spy him.  Apparently, the name of the restaurant was changed to Biggins a couple of months ago.  Thank goodness for that tall logger to point us in the right direction.  The three of us ate some chocolate cake and then got back on the road.  After we drove back down into desert country again, we passed a field of dirt that appeared to have sculptures sitting in it.  We made a u-turn and went back to check it out.  The sign explained that the stone carvings were there to commemorate the Old Spanish Trail that went through the area and eventually ended in Los Angeles in the 1800s.  We drove for twelve hours that day (including pitstops) and stayed the night in Amarillo.  We drove the rest of the way home the next day.  I love vacations, but there's something comforting about sleeping in your own bed.  We're happy to be home, but it's tempting to start daydreaming about our next destination!

The little turkey snuck my burrito into her lap when I wasn't looking.  The rustling of the wrapper gave her away!

 Wolf Creek Pass with snow in June.  Love it!

 Having cake with Daddy at the Hungry Logger

My Anasazi Munchkin and Four Corners

One of our rangers told us that the people who had lived in the cliff dwellings used to be called Anasazi, but they are now called Ancestral Puebloans (basically to be politically correct).  On Wednesday, we took Mia to Spruce Tree House.  She did very well and was finally interested in looking at the dwellings which she called "houses".  She was a little too eager at times.  This prompted me at one point to pull her back from an edge and say, "Mia if you dive head-first into a kiva, you're going to ruin our vacation!" Lol.  A woman standing next to me started laughing, and I couldn't help but laugh, too.  I think Mia was ready to take up residence in one of the dwellings.  She was dying to go inside one and play.  I was glad she finally got to really look around.  After leaving there, we went to see some of the Far View Sites which were on top of the mesa.

That afternoon, we all drove to the Four Corners.  It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the desert.  However, there were several vendors set up selling jewelry and other items.  We bought Mia a necklace and bracelet, and my dad bought me a turquoise bracelet.  Wes liked the scenery out there.  He said it looked just like the background to a spaghetti western movie.

Spruce Tree House

 Mia gives it two thumbs up!

Nana Bev heading down into a covered kiva

  She climbed all of the way out of the kiva by herself!

 This is where I chided her for acting like she was going to take a nose-dive into the kiva.

 Some of the Far View Sites

 Four Corners: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado

Look Mommy! I'm in four states at once!

I can even do it on one foot!

 It does kind of look like something out of a western out there.

 

Mucho Mas Cliff Dwellings

Our 3 1/2 hour tour was scheduled for the afternoon, so on the morning of vacation day #5, we went to Cedar Tree House which were formations on top of one of the mesas.  It was fascinating, but Mia wasn't listening very well which reaffirmed our decision that she needed to stay at the camp that afternoon with her daddy.  I knew she would have fun there, though.  She loved that she could more or less get covered in dirt, and there wasn't much I could do about it until we went to the showers in the evening.  Also, there were lots of mule deer in the area.  They wandered through the campsites at will, and had no fear of humans.  Mia loved watching them.  Dad, Bev, Ryan, and I went on the tour.  It was a lot of fun.  I've always wanted to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and I was not disappointed.  They were built and lived in during around 900-1300 A.D.  It's amazing that they have been so well cared for and are still around for people to look at today.  I was hot and tired by the end of it, but I was so glad that I got to see all of the dwellings.

Cedar Tree House pics

It was weird to be in the desert and see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

  Wes and Ryan being funny

 Tour photos

Square Tower House from an overlook

Cliff Palace seen from across the mesa

 Took some pics from above Cliff Palace while waiting for our tour to start.

 Dad and Bev watching Ryan and I on the tour.  This picture is really zoomed in.  They looked like little specks up above us when I took this.

 Me at Cliff Palace

 View of the canyon from Cliff Palace

 Pic of the inside of a kiva

 Last ladder to climb out of the canyon. Whew!