This is one of the moments that I wish we had been able to photograph, but life has to happen at its own pace and we were without camera at this one. Twenty-one years ago when my family took a similar trip to the one we were taking we made a stop at this crazy restaurant in Amarillo called the Big Texan. It was very memorable and entertaining. I wanted Robby to experience this phenomenon of a restaurant that I had told him stories of. No joke, if you are capable of eating 72 oz of steak in one hour you get the meal free. If you fail you have to pay for your dinner. They now even have a webcam to broadcast the people who are attempting the feat.

For our visit, we were seated up in the balcony which gave us a great view of the restaurant. There was one gentleman attempting the 72 oz challenge, but he was unsuccessful. Emily enjoyed watching a cowboy band work their way around the dinner floor entertaining everyone table by table. She informed the waiter that she wanted ‘mac-cheese’ for dinner immediately at his approach. She received a cowgirl hat with her meal which she thought was awesome! The hat was so distracting that she really didn’t eat much of her dinner. She thought she was big stuff.

Part way through our meal the cowboy band, which did have one cowgirl musician, visited our table. I sat racking my brain for a few minutes trying to think of a song for them to play for us. Then I remembered ‘Home on the Range’! I made the request and Emily’s eyes lit up. She was so pleased as they played and sang the song to her. When they were finished she thanked them for singing ‘her’ song. It was really sweet.

That evening was perfect – I got to relive a fond memory, I was entertained with a great dinner, I was able to introduce this odd restaurant to my family, and Emily had such a great time. Since we have visited The Big Texan, we officially have a cowgirl in our house.

How cool is it when your Dad climbs up a ladder and lets you look back out. This storage room was a little bigger than the other ones we were able to enter and allowed for a little exploration. While we visited at Bandelier, Emily had the freedom of hiking and riding in the backpack. She got quite a kick out of getting to go up with Robby and taking a peek back out.

You always meet interesting people when you are out hiking. We hiked up to a family of five on the trail with their two-year old son lagging behind. He didn’t seem very motivated to keep up with his family . . . but when he saw Emily hiking on the trail he found motivation to keep up with our family. I figured that his family would be grateful that he was catching up, and then when we passed them and he kept up with us talking with Emily and I. I don’t think he was going to give his own family a second consideration so we slowed down and let them catch back up with us. His mom convinced him to hang with them again. It was really cute to see how kids relate and are so comfortable with other little people like themselves.

We were so close to Bandelier we couldn’t resist a quick visit. Bandelier National Monument preserves the ruins of a cliff dwelling community. They were kind and built some replica buildings and set up ladders so that we could have some hands on experiences with the ruins. Julia was just hanging out for our hike and loving it. She was busy looking and waving her arms and legs.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

One of our overarching themes of our trip was the song “Home on the Range”. One of the library books I had picked up for the trip was the song put to pictures of a little boy chasing his cowboy hat through a dream. Emily loved reading the book every night at bedtime and then we would sing the song to her. We also had a copy of the song that we listened to everyday. Emily started calling it her song. And in our travels, we even had one day that we saw a herd of bison and a few deer and antelope grazing.

The song was definitely sinking in because one day Emily was talking with a couple of women at the Grand Canyon about the rainbow we could see. After she had pointed it out, she continued with the proclamation that ‘the skies are not cloudy all day’. Maybe one day she will understand that rainbows require a few clouds, but the exchange was very funny!

Another of our trip highlights was hiking in Carlsbad Caverns. The cave is quite impressive from the huge open rooms, number of bat residents, and unusual rock formations. We were able to hike two trails in the cave. We hiked into the cave through the natural entrance which is a hike descending 800 feet and then the second hike was a loop around the ‘Big Room’. In total we went three miles carrying both girls.

We weren’t sure how the girls would respond to being in the cave. They were bundled up because the cool temp would feel really cold to a kid with very little body fat and who is not exerting any energy hiking. The adults were a little over dressed and kept peeling off layers as we walked. Despite the constant cool temperature, hiking and carrying the girls built up quite bit of body heat. Emily commented on how dark it was and the funny smell. She thought the sun had gone down. Like usual for the trip, Julia greeted the park rangers who crossed our path with waving arms and kicking feet.

While we were on the second hike each of the girls dozed off and took a great nap. Not hard to imagine them doing it – it was dark, they were warm and bundled next to their parents, and it was naptime. Overall they were happy to be out and about and didn’t mind the dark cool cave. Thankfully, the hike ended at an elevator. We admired the visitors that visited the cave before the elevator was installed and were glad that we had the modern convenience.

For the trip, I purchased Emily a few new books to enjoy in the car. My favorite was a Handy Manny book that had movable parts. For anyone who doesn’t know, Handy Manny is a Disney cartoon for preschoolers about a man and his tools who fix about anything that is broken in his town. So, in the book the saw moved in a sawing motion, the hammer could hammer a nail, etc. The only problem was that Emily’s interaction with the moving tools, which she thought were awesome, was in a motion that worked the cardboard pieces off of the rivits. I was disappointed, but she started calling her tools her friends and continuted to play with them away from the book.

Fast forward to our general play at home after returning from our trip. She has taken to finding thinks that are “broken” and carting her tools to the broken item and fixing it. Her favorite to fix is Julia’s high chair. She will stand behind the high chair sawing, hammering, and screwing. She is turning into a Handy Emily! I would be happy if Emily learned to fix everything in the house. We will have to wait and see.