Touring Southern Colorado, Part 1: Pagosa Springs

This post and the pictures I'm including here are a little bit dated, but I wanted to share a trip we took this summer with all of my dedicated readers :)

Back in the middle of July, the stars aligned with Dale's work (he had a two-week lull on his program), my work (I was waiting for someone to fix my glovebox), Grant's work (he was being laid off and his company didn't really care if he went to work anyway), and Jamie's pregnancy (she was still able to fly and was seeing her doctor only every two weeks). Rather than just talking about what we might all do with our free time, we actually acted on it and took a ten-day vacation together in southern Colorado.

Our first stop was Pagosa Springs, which was a pretty neat small town -- in the mountains, with a sulfur spring in the middle of the town and several nearby hikes. The most memorable part of Pagosa Springs was "Vince Guitar," a waiter at a Cajun restaurant that we almost walked out of before we even sat down (it had a bit of a dank to it). Instead, we decided to stick it out and each ordered something different from the menu. And wow! it was amazingly good! The etouffee, the okra, the gumbo, the catfish, the sausage, it was all soooooo good. "Vince" made it even better with his antics, like proclaiming that he was the best thing on the menu and offering me himself, drenched in etouffee. A good time was had by all that night.

We took one long hike near Pagosa Springs,
up a canyon to a gorgeous waterfall. Although she was very pregnant at the time, Jamie did great, and of course Adelaida loved sleeping in her backpack on her daddy's back.

Pagosa Springs also has a very nice wild animal park that we visited, and we were lucky enough to be there at the time of their daily feeding tour. We saw a brown bear, several black bears, coyotes, wolves, an elk, mountain lions, and several other animals being fed. The keeper talked to us about the different animals and several of them performed tricks for us before they were fed.



Dale and Adelaida are ready to find the waterfall.


If you look really closely in this picture, you can see Dale (wearing a blue shirt) and Adelaida (wearing white), just to the right of the base of the waterfall, framed by a darker patch of rock.


This is another of my favorite pictures of Dale and Adelaida, taken on our Pagosa Springs hike. I have this picture set as my computer background on my home computer.

Adelaida's laugh

Note: this post has several videos, which may not come through on email or Facebook. If you can't see the videos, go to our blog at http://parkesranch.blogspot.com/

Several people have commented that Adelaida always seems to be smiling in the pictures I upload. This is not because I upload only the pictures in which she is smiling; rather, she smiles almost all the time. Sure, she has her fussy moments, but they are really few and far between. We have been blessed with an extremely happy, content baby.

Early in the morning when she is awake but still in her crib, talking to herself, I walk into her room quietly and wait for her to notice me. When she does, I get the biggest, most sincere smile, and it melts my heart. Those smiles make me forget about the fussy moments.

In addition to a beautiful smile, Adelaida has a wonderful laugh. Here are several videos you might enjoy:

Adelaida has enjoyed her jumper for several months, but never really jumped in it. She'd stand and twirl in it, but never jumped. Dale decided to demonstrate jumping for her, with two wonderful effects: she started jumping herself and we got a great video of her laughing.


This video is one of Dale bathing Adelaida. She always likes it when he pours water on her, but when Dale poured water on her belly by first turning the cup upside down in the water, Adelaida just couldn't get enough of it.


In the last video, Adelaida is sitting on the couch laughing almost hysterically at Dale, who is behind the camera. Murphy also thought Dale was pretty interesting and barked at him several times in the video.

A Visit with Mamaw

Adelaida had a very special treat this Labor Day weekend: her Mamaw came out for a visit! Adelaida was so happy to see her Mamaw, and I think Charlotte was a little bit happy to see her granddaughter, too :)

We had quite an exciting weekend. Charlotte arrived Friday evening, and after a short play session to satisfy both the visitor and the visited, we all four turned in for the night. Saturday was a luxurious day -- we didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do! Instead, we played a bit at home, Adelaida practiced standing, and we went for a short hike near our house. Adelaida got to ride on her Daddy's shoulders for a large part of the hike (she especially enjoys pulling on his hair and tugging on his ears), which was a real treat for her.

Later in the hike, Dale got a very special treat -- Adelaida fell asleep in his arms! Although she used to do this all the time, she seems to have outgrown this precious act and we don't get to carry her sleeping very often any more.

On Sunday, we took a family trip to the zoo. We saw almost all the animals in the zoo, including the adorable baby orangutan and a much (much!) larger version of Snuffles Jr. Adelaida is getting to the point now where she actually looks at and pays attention to the animals at the zoo, so taking her is really fun. She doesn’t seem to notice many of the smaller animals, but really enjoyed looking at the polar bear, tigers, giraffes, and gorillas.

Monday was another relaxing morning. We sat on the floor a lot and read to Adelaida and helped Adelaida play with her blocks. In the afternoon, we went to a Labor Day party with my chemistry group, then Charlotte had to leave us. It was a short visit, but a wonderful one!

Adelaida is two-thirds of a year old!

Adelaida had her eight-month birthday on Thursday. We celebrated by taking her for a hike this weekend :)

Here is a series of pictures to see how she's grown over the past eight months:

Adelaida celebrated Christmas Eve with us when she was just a tiny little thing, only four days old. We had no idea, when she was just four days old, that she would become such a fun little girl!


This is a picture of Adelaida when she was two months old, just a little bit shorter than the pink panther...


...and when she was four months old, pink panther was just a little bit longer...


...and at six months old she was still a bit shorter than the pink panther...


..and now that she's eight months old, she is actually longer than the pink panther, by about an inch! Unfortunately, I couldn't get her to straighten her legs all the way, so she still looks like the pink panther has an inch or two on her. Maybe next month I'll be able to get a picture of her standing with the pink panther and it will be obvious that she's taller :)

My favorite picture

We've taken a lot of pictures of Adelaida, in her almost-eight months of life. Several of those pictures are dear to me, but I think I have a new favorite. I made it my desktop background at work, so I can look at her blueberry-covered smiling face every day!

Our little girl is growing up!

Adelaida is almost eight months old, and isn't yet able to pull herself up to a standing position from sitting or lying down, but she is getting close. I've been encouraging her to pull herself up from a sitting position whenever I can, and she's getting pretty good at that. I hadn't thought much more of her new talent until yesterday, when I went to pick her up from her crib after her nap, and briefly stood her up inside the crib. That's when I noticed that, when standing inside the crib, the top railing of her crib hits Adelaida at about her hips.

I knew then that we had to make some changed in her bedroom, before we found out the hard way that she had figured out how to stand and tumble out of the crib.

Her crib is designed so that the crib rails can be raised or lowered, and there are about eight settings for the height of the mattress. I like having the rails low (so I can reach into the crib easily), so we moved the mattress from the highest setting to the lowest. Her crib rails now come up to her armpits when she stands in her crib, so it will be much more difficult for her to fall out of the crib once she learns to stand up by herself!

Vacation in Indiana, Part 3: At the Farm

I stayed in Indiana for several days after Dale left, and every day was full of fun activities (including an Indians baseball game, dinner/pool party, and time spent talking to my family). But the time that really stands out was our trip to my dad's farm. Rachel Murphy drove over from Ohio with her 8-year-old niece, Farrel, and Bill's twelve-year-old son, Billy, was visiting. So, Rachel and I took Billy, Farrel, and Adelaida down to the farm for two days. Michael and Sami met us there, and my dad had lots of kid-friendly activities that we could help him with. We took lots of pictures, so I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves here.

Adelaida, Rachel, Farrel, Billy, and Marie pose in the hay barn.


Billy and Adelaida admired the new 848 tractor.


Billy and Farrel helped my dad drive the tractor. We made Billy hold on while the tractor was in motion :)


Michael picked up tackle on the way over and broke out the fishing poles for Billy and Farrel to fish. The lake was well stocked -- Farrel and Billy were catching fish faster than Michael could bait their hooks!


Adelaida sat on her Grandma Mary Jo's lap for the hay ride...


...and had a lot of fun with her Grandpa Steve at the bonfire!


I got a picture of Rachel, Farrel, Billy, and Adelaida sitting together on a bench in front of the lake.


Farrel had an eagle-eye for tiny toads. Both she and Billy are holding toads in their hands -- Farrel has her hands cupped so that her frog wouldn't escape, but you can see the tiny toad in Billy's open hand. They were really very small! The toads became pets on the walk around the lake, so of course we had to name them. Billy and Farrel named their toads Frogger and Hops, then both wanted to name my toad. Together, they settled on "Sir Tony Sanchez Toadman" for my toad. We were really proud of Farrel for holding her toad, as she had declared before we went to the farm that bugs (and other farm- and woodland-creatures) were disgusting and that she would never touch such an animal. In addition to holding her toad, she also held several of the dozen or so fish she caught!


Before we left the farm, we gave Billy and Farrel the opportunity to request one more farm activity. They chose to return to the hay barn, where we had gone when we first arrived at the farm. They wanted to play in the straw bales again before leaving. It was impressive to see the change in Farrel in just 24 hours: she went from being very timid and not wanting to be on anything high to a fearless girl who could climb to the top of the highest straw-bale tower.


We had a great time at the farm and I look forward to the day when Adelaida is old enough to enjoy more of the farm activities.

Vacation in Indiana, Part 2: Independence Day

By Thursday of my vacation, I was feeling better and was quite relieved that Adelaida hadn't caught my illness. By Thursday evening, I was ready to get out of the house and do fun things. Mom, Mikel, Adelaida, and I were all sitting around the living room Thursday evening, when the doorbell rang. Mom answered the door, and I head her say, "come on in" to someone. Then, I heard Dale's voice! Yes, my dear, beloved husband had surprised me by joining Adelaida and me for our vacation! Dale wasn't able to stay the entire time that I was going to be in Indiana, but he did stay through the weekend and joined me for both an Independence Day party at Mom and Mikel's house and a quick trip to the farm to see my dad and Mary Jo. (Dale is pictured holding Adelaida and Brooke, the 16-month-old daughter of my friend from high school. Adelaida and Brooke were quite taken with each other and we hope that they grow up to be good friends!)

Friday was the big Independence Day party. We set up a tent outside, a volleyball net, and carried all the chairs out to the grassy area under a big deciduous tree. We made way too much food and had family, friends, and neighbors join us for a perfect relaxing summer holiday celebration.


Brooke and Adelaida both wore red, white, and blue American dresses for the occasion and were both so happy to run around (Brooke) or sit happily (Adelaida) outside with the adults. This picture was taken just before Brooke decided to sit on Adelaida's lap! Her daddy saw it happen and jumped up to stop Brooke, although Adelaida didn't really seem to mind.






One highlight of the party was Pinky, Mom and Mikel's next-door neighbor who is a henna tattoo artist. She came over with her henna supplies and quickly gave several of the girls (Rachel R, Jennie, and me) tattoos. Billy saw us getting tattoos and thought it was really cool, so Pinky gave Billy a tattoo on his arm, in a masculine design, of course!

Billy and I posed with our tattoos. Mine is a butterfly and Billy has a yin-yang and lightning bolts.


The next day, Dale, Adelaida, and I went down to Owen County to spend some time with my dad and Mary Jo. Dad put Dale to work installing stepping stones at the lake house while Adelaida supervised from her blanket.





Dad and Mary Jo both enjoyed seeing, playing with, and holding Adelaida. Mary Jo taught Adelaida to play peek-a-boo, which she just loved. It is so wonderful to hear Adelaida giggle!


Before we left, Dale had the privilege (I guess) of moving the cows to a new pasture and feeding them. I was a little worried at one point that he would be run over by the cows, but he survived the ordeal!

Vacation in Indiana, Part 1: traveling

I wanted to visit Indiana with Adelaida this summer to give her family members a chance to see how big and fun she has gotten. We considered various options for traveling and decided that Adelaida and I would drive to Indiana, with a stop in Tulsa along the way to visit with Richard and Laura. We drove all day on a Saturday, spending about twelve hours driving from Albuquerque to Tulsa (with some stops along the way to break up the trip). We had left early that morning, so arrived in time to visit with Elizabeth and Sarah a bit before their bedtime. Elizabeth was so happy to see her cousin and was very good about sharing her toys with Adelaida!

We spent Sunday relaxing with Richard and Laura, enjoying the cool air conditioning inside and marveling about how hot it was outside! The three girls got to play together during the day and we all spent Sunday evening at a local Independence Day festival, where Elizabeth enjoyed playing in all the inflatable slides, bouncers, and obstacle courses.

We left early Monday morning and drove to St. Louis, where we met Michael and his friend Joe. After a mid-afternoon snack of (huge) creme pies, Michael, Adelaida, and I completed the very long drive to Indiana. Fortunately, Adelaida hasn't lost the ability to sleep for hours on end in the car, so it was a pretty easy 23-hour trip with an infant! We arrived at my mom and Mikel's house in time for dinner and plenty of time for Mom and Mikel to hold Adelaida, then went to sleep.

I'll gloss over the next few days; suffice it to say that I woke up Monday night with an awful stomach/intestinal flu and spent the next few days recovering and hoping that Adelaida didn't come down with my illness (she didn't). Mom and Mikel were a huge help with Adelaida -- I don't think I changed her diaper even once on Tuesday!

And so Adelaida and I had arrived in Indiana, ready for a vacation and quality time with our family.

Home again!

After a month of what seems like constant travel, Dale, Adelaida, and I are all home and getting settled back into a more normal routine. Part of this routine is going to involve more frequent blog posts, so you can expect to hear about our exciting trips over the next several days or weeks.

Our summer of travel started with a long trip to Indiana to visit family. Adelaida and I drove to Indiana (with a stop in Tulsa) and spent almost two weeks in Indiana before flying home. Dale couldn't take that much time away from work, but was able to join us for a wonderful surprise visit over Independence Day weekend.

We returned from Indiana, spent one week at home, then packed up the car and toured southern Colorado with Grant and Jamie for ten days. This was a hiking, euchre-playing, sleeping in kind of vacation, which is exactly what vacations are supposed to be like!

I'll be posting more details (and pictures) from both of these trips over the next few weeks. For now, here are two picture of Adelaida. In the first one, she is sucking on the strap to her favorite sun bonnet (a sunflower hat) while in her hiking backpack. In the second, she is sitting on the floor, naked except for her diaper, chewing on the handle end of a purple Mexican maraca. Enjoy!