Don't expect Coronado

We took our time driving back to Oklahoma City on Sunday, stopping to see the sights and enjoy New Mexico during daylight hours. It's such a beautiful state. We made a decision on the fly to stop at the Coronado State Monument, a state park just north of Albuquerque. Turns out, Coronado is not involved in any way. That's OK. We got to check out some murals that were about a bajillion years old. We were the only ones in there, so Mia celebrated by shouting at the top of her lungs. I'm pretty sure that was sacrilege. Yikes.


The good news is that Mia loved the roadside stop. She especially enjoyed petting the rocks. We've been practicing "soft touches" instead of hitting, so there was lots of praise for softly touching the rocks in the parking lot.


The park also had a pathway down to the Rio Grande, which was pretty neat. Leigh carried Mia and I poked along behind them, continuously scanning for scorpions, rattlesnakes and attacking cacti. Luckily, we arrived unscathed.


While we were stopped in the town, Bernalillo, we found a park using our GPS. The goal was to wear Mia out as much as possible before we continued to our next stop in Amarillo, Texas.


Mission: Accomplished.

Colorado: State of Doom

Saturday we spent the day and night in Durango, Colo. It was the first time to Colorado for all of us. It's amazing. I think I spent the entire time saying, "Wow! Wooooow! Wow!" It almost looked fake. It was so gorgeous.

And deadly.

The roads that snake through the mountains and highways of death.

I'm terribly afraid of heights, so I was plastered to my chair as we drove higher and higher. I might have cried. After our ascent, we spent time at a ski lodge in Durango, watching other people hit the slopes. It was so fun! Mia enjoyed tearing through the ski shop. Yikes. Sorry about that.


It was a long, fantastic day. Oupa Alfie was totally worn out.


Mia was not.

New Mexico wrap-up

OK, there are just too many pictures and too much to say all at once, so I'm just spreading it out. So here's a bunch of random stuff.

Alfie put Mia on an adorable/dangerous children's ATV while we were visiting the Harley shop in Farmington. Great.

Mia absolutely loves Carin, of course. It's because Carin doesn't put her on ATVs.

New Mexico has the best scratch-off tickets ever. Come on, Oklahoma. Where are the Ninja 9s and Zombie Cash tickets?

We had a really nice dinner on our last night in Farmington.

During that dinner, Mia explored her highchair. Then she got her head stuck and screamed bloddy murder.

Mia was worn out by the time we headed for home Sunday. She had a big trip.

Coming up: Colorado, Cadillac Ranch, Coronado Monument and The Big Texan!

Aztec ruins

OK, first of all, the Aztec ruins weren't actually made by Aztecs. So let's just get that misnomer out of the way. No Aztecs in Aztec, N.M.

We went to Aztec Ruins National Monument with Carin and Alfie.

Want to go somewhere of religious and historical significance? Take a toddler. It's a super great idea.

Mia spent the morning trying to escape off the path. We can only presume she planned to topple the ruins that have been standing for hundreds of years.

And this is a picture of us down in the kiva, which is sort of like an underground-ish house. Kind of. I think. It's just the ghosts, Mia and me down there. Creepy.

So 80 percent of our morning was spent wrangling our child, as evident by our family portrait. She looks like she doesn't even know us. Good times.

On a related note, I got a national parks passport! My Uncle Russ and our family friend Bobbi each have one, so I picked one up and got my first stamp. Wooo!

The Four Corners

New Mexico: very beautiful, very dusty.

Carin had work stuff again today, and Alfie had a few meetings of his own. So this afternoon, Leigh, Mia and I explored the area by ourselves. The two main things we wanted to see was the Four Corners Monument and Shiprock, a neat rock that juts out of the desert.

First: Four Corners. Leigh and I loved the drive out there becaus we finally had the chance to see the New Mexican landscape. Our drive into Farmington was overnight, so we enjoyed seeing everything on the way out.


I just want to say now that I absolutely love all the photos from the Four Corners. They completely describe our family in every way. Cracks. Me. Up.

Becuase we had a bit of a drive, Mia slept. Halfway there, we realized that she had dumped all of her milk onto her clothes. Did we think to bring extra clothes along on such a short day trip? Of course not. We scrounged up her long johns from somewhere deep inside the car, so that's what she wore the rest of the day. She fell back asleep - this time from the exhaustion of a wardrobe change - and she wasn't too excited that we woke her up when we finally arrived.


Nevertheless, we pressed on and took some family pictures. Some fellow tourists took our pictures standing on the monument. Notice only 1/3 of the family is actually looking.


So Leigh snapped this picture, which captures the moment without actually requiring everyone to look in the same direction at once.


We decided to take a photo of each of us on the four corners. Where's Mia's photo? You try to get a 1 1/2-year-old to stand still on a spot the size of a saucer.


After that, we stopped to take a picture in front of the monument sign. I'm pretty sure this took longer than our actual visit to the monument. At first I tried to put the camera on top of the car and use the timer. I didn't get a good group photo, but I snapped this hilarious shot by accident. Notice Mia running away. No supervision. We are terrible parents.


I moved the camera down to a rock to make it easier to focus the lens and easier to grab our escaping child. Ah-ha! Got you that time, Speedy McGee!


After we left, we made our way back toward the town of Shiprock, which is named after Shiprock, which is a giant rock that looks like a ship. All very creative. Apparently there isn't a main road to the rock and no area maps show how to get there. So Leigh and I decide to turn off the highway and onto a dirt road. We figured we'd just drive until we got there or the road ran out. Thanks to this little Navajo town that let us drive around, looking for a way to the rock.

Leigh snapped this picture along our drive.

It turns out that everything in New Mexico is actually really, really far apart. It looks like it's all there together but it isn't. Tricksters. We drove several miles into the reservation on dirt road before calling it a day.

At least we got pretty close. We had the chance to snap one last picture of ourselves, including the family member wearing long johns.

The big surprise and the big burger

I think Alfie spent 10 minutes saying, "WHAT?!?" after we walked into his hotel room. He was totally shocked! Turns out, Carin is sneaky. Carin had work stuff to do, so Alfie, Mia, Leigh and I spent the day checking out the scenery, walking through downtown Farmington and eating. And eating, eating, eating. Mia was quite suspicious of Indian tacos, but the rest of us enjoyed them. Alfie had a Navajo burger, which is apparently just a giant, giant burger on fry bread. I told our friend Kimball, who is from New Mexico, that every Indian taco I've eaten until now has been a total sham. The ones in New Mexico are the real deal.

The longest surprise

Do you know how long it takes to drive 12 hours with a toddler? A hundred hours.

We're going to New Mexico for a long weekend to visit Leigh's parents. His stepmom, Carin, got a job offer in Farmington, N.M., so she and Leigh's dad, Alfie, are spending the week there. They're meeting with company folks, looking around at real estate and seeing how interested they really are in moving to the United States.

We've been planning this surprise with Carin for a few weeks, and Alfie has no idea that we're arriving at their hotel Thursday morning after 12 hours of driving. Pray for us. Seriously. This is going to be a long drive.

Lenten promises

Leigh and I have each decided what we're giving up for Lent.

Leigh: being indirect.

Me: swearing.

We'll see how this goes.

Mia takes on the playground

Check out this kid. She can climb all the way to the top of the playground and slide down by herself. What the heck? When did she get so big?