Adelaida and I spent Saturday and Sunday at my dad's farm in Owen County, giving Adelaida her first taste of farm life. Saturday morning, we visited with my Grandma and Grandpa Fox, who were seeing Adelaida for the first time. Although they have several -- about 17, I think -- other great-grandchildren, they were delighted with Adelaida and told me several times that I'm very lucky that she is such a great baby.
After a short visit with my grandparents, we went to my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ray's lake house in nearby Clay County. Their daughter Erin was visiting for the weekend with her four-year-old daughter Evie, so we were able to spend some time with their family and with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Fred, who have a house on the other side of the lake. Evie is adorable and very mature for a four-year-old, so she didn't seem to mind at all that she was the only child (other than Adelaida, who was too young to play with her) among eight adults. She made friends with the adults easily and was particularly fond of my dad -- several times she walked up to him and asked if she could hold his hand while they walked. It was adorable, and I look forward to the day Adelaida is old enough to do the same.
The morning and early afternoon were spent doing my favorite kind of hunting -- mushroom hunting! I enjoy mushroom hunting for three reasons: it's a nice excuse to take a walk in the woods, you can be pretty certain of finding mushrooms in the same location you've found them in previous years, and you don't have to worry about being quiet to avoid scaring off the "prey." Also, they taste great! We found several mushrooms near Ray and Debbie's house, but most of them were too small to pick (we were apparently there about a week or two early), so we staked them to mark the location and Ray and Debbie were going to pick them the following weekend.
After a leisurely lunch, Ray brought out the golf cart and we ventured a little further from the house than we'd ventured on foot. Evie especially enjoyed going for rides in the golf cart, so we took several trips around the lake.
We said goodbye late that afternoon and went back to my grandparents' house for another short visit and to deliver the chicken (neither a live chicken nor the leftover fried chicken from lunch, but a beautiful ceramic chicken that Debbie had painted) to Grandma, then went back to Dad and Mary Jo's farmhouse for the evening. We sat around talking for a while, first inside, then outside by the fire after Adelaida had gone to bed. It was a little chilly, but that just made the fire feel even better.
Sunday was Easter, and we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for coffee, which is Dad and Mary Jo's custom when they are down at the farm, then stopped by the lake house to remove the remains of a deer from the edge of the lake (actually, some other very hungry animals had taken care of most of it for us). After a brief stop at the farm house to get some supplies, we headed out into the fields for some TSI (Timber Stand Improvement). Dad worked the pole trimmer and chainsaw, I was in charge of killing vines with the brush axe and removing fallen limbs from the fields, and Mary Jo spent half of the time sitting in the truck with Adelaida (who was taking a nap in her carseat) and half of the time walking around the trees with me. It was quite a treat for me to carry the brush axe, since that's usually Michael, BJ, and Dale's job when we go for walks at the farm. But, since none of the boys were there, I got to both identify vines that needed to be cut and cut them myself.
I was worn out after a couple of hours of TSI, so we stopped just in time for lunch with Michael and Sami, who joined us for the afternoon. We went to Clay City for lunch and ate at a 1950s-style diner. Dad was concerned that we'd have a long wait if we arrived too early, so wanted to get there around 2:00. But, we were pretty hungry, so we decided to go around 12:30 and chance having to wait for a seat. Of course, we had a pretty good laugh when we walked in and saw two other groups seated in a restaurant of about 25 tables. The meal was good and the company was great, and Adelaida was content being passed around the table during lunch.
We left Clay City and drove back to the farm, parking the truck at the edge of the forest near the tree plantation. We walked through the forest toward Grandma and Grandpa's house, nominally looking for mushrooms, but really just talking and enjoying the walk. Michael did find several mushrooms, but just marked their location so someone could pick them after they'd had a chance to grow a bit more. We met Grandpa looking for a beaver that was cutting trees around his lake, then walked back to the house to visit with Grandma. Soon, Michael and Sami had to leave, but Mary Jo and I stayed with Grandma, who had pulled out several picture albums that included some pictures of me when I was a baby -- I really looked like Adelaida!
After looking at the pictures, we went back to the farm house to pack up, then drove back to Greenwood, where I really hoped Adelaida would sleep through the night for the first time in over a week! Unfortunately, she had different plans and woke up four times in the middle of the night!
Monday was my last day, and I spent the morning sleeping in and packing all of our gear the house, then met my high-school-friend Jennie and her 13-month-old daughter Brooke for lunch. Jennie and I had a great time talking together and I was very impressed with Brooke--she was standing by herself, eating "real" food with her fingers, and able to communicate what she wanted (mostly by pointing, but she certainly made herself understood). It made me excited about all the new things Adelaida will be doing in the next year.
After lunch, Mom and I went to Papaw and Ruth's house so they could have some more time with Adelaida. We talked and viewed some old family pictures that Papaw had unearthed, scanned, and labeled. He is getting ready to go to a family reunion in Texas this month and is very excited to be able to show the family pictures at the reunion.
My cousins, Chloe, Courtney, and Christa, came to Papaw and Ruth's house after school and spent about an hour there before their mom was able to pick them up after work. All three of the girls got to hold Adelaida (although she was pretty fussy because she was tired!), and we got hear all about what the girls did in school that day, the homework that they were doing, the books they were reading, and the school projects they were preparing. We had a great time visiting with them. After they left to go home, Papaw, Ruth, Mom, Adelaida, and I met Mikel for dinner at Olive Garden, then we went back home to finish packing and do our best to sleep the last night in Indiana.
The next morning, we woke up early (3:45am Eastern time, which was 1:45am New Mexico time) and once again successfully navigated airport security. Adelaida was an angel on the plane ride, alternating between sleeping and being awake and happy. Dale picked us up from the airport, then dropped us in Albuquerque so he could finish working. Dale was able to go home relatively early that afternoon, so we finally got home around 4:30 -- 15 hours after setting out from Greenwood that morning.
All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful vacation. We had so much fun seeing everyone in Indiana and introducing Adelaida to all the wonderful things Indiana has to offer -- sitting in the grass on spring Saturdays, going shopping with the family, sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap, mushroom hunting, seeing cows and lots of trees, and having people who love her always available to hold her, cuddle her, sing to her, and play with her. I hope we'll be able to visit again before the end of the year so Adelaida can spend more time with her family.
Dale and I took Adelaida on her first "real" hike today--we've taken her on several small hikes, both from our house and on the Albuquerque side of the Sandia mountains. None of those hikes were more than two or three miles long, and we either carried her or strapped her to our chests in a simple carrier.
Today, we drove down to the east side of the Monzano mountains and hiked up the Spruce Spring Trail, across the Monzano Crest Trail, and down the Red Canyon Trail, a total of about eight miles. It took us four hours to do the entire hike, including baby-mandated stops for nursing and diaper changes. Adelaida rode the entire way in a hiking backpack that we got just for her--it's a large external-frame backpack that has a seat for Adelaida, space for all of our gear, and a sunshade to keep her shaded in the sun and dry in the rain. She slept for close to three hours in the backpack, so it must have been pretty comfortable for her (except that I kept messing with her--tucking her hands inside the backpack so she'd stay warm, making sure her face wasn't mashed in the blanket, adjusting her had--and she kept waking up). 
The entire backpack is quite a contraption, and relatively heavy even before we add Adelaida's gear (diapers, wipes, dirty diaper bag, diaper changing pad, extra clothes, sun shade hat, hat to keep her head warm, two blankets, toys to keep her occupied, and so much more), Adelaida (all 12 pounds, 10 ounces of her!), and our gear (water, food, first aid kit, and windbreakers). With Dale carrying the backpack with Adelaida and me carrying only two liters of water, Dale was weighted down enough that we were walking at about the same pace (Dale usually slows down to allow me to keep up with him). The backpack itself has several neat features, including a hand mirror to look at the baby while carrying her (no, Dale isn't just admiring himself on the trail!).
We saw evidence of several animals and came within about fifteen feet of a very large animal. We had stopped on the trail and I looked up the hill to our left and saw a large moving mass. I immediately identified it as a bear and my heart started racing...then it started walking toward us and I realized that it wasn't a bear and must be a mountain lion, which I know will eat young babies--but seconds later, it moved out into the open and I saw it was a common grey mule deer: an herbivore, not much taller than I am, and more scared of me than I should have been of it. The bear-mountainlion-deer calmly walked away from us without even glancing in our direction. Nevertheless, I was really frightened, and spent the rest of the hike imagining bears and mountain lions everywhere I looked.
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