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.

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.

Not many things can make Robby look short, but the Saguaro cactus can. This one is around 14 feet tall and around 75 years old. It hasn’t sprouted its arms yet, but is old enough to start some. We didn’t see any wildlife while we were out in the afternoon for the hike and drive other than bugs eating from old cactus flowers. By dusk, we saw in increase in animal life and saw several bats and a Gila monster on the road. The Saguaros bloom all summer and had stopped by the time we visited, but we did catch a few blooms still out. It would be an amazing thing to see them all in their evening blooms.

We spent several days in the desert landscape visiting different places. One of our stops was Saguaro National Park to see the often depicted Saguaro cactus up close and personal. They are amazing plants which surprised me when we looked over the landscape. I’m not sure what I expected, but I liked how the plants covered the hills and valleys like a pine forest would in a mountain region. It was a forest of the prickly trees.

We talked a lot about the cactus with Emily. I was a little concerned that she would try to touch one. They look so cool – I wanted to touch them even though I knew better. We successfully kept Emily from touching just about everything while we were there. I think she even left the dirt alone. While it was quite warm there was a breeze that kept us a little cooler for our nature hike. Emily loved the play area in the visitor center and was quite interested in going back inside to play.

We had an ongoing conversation with Emily about the sun and whether it is going up or down. I don’t think she has quite grasped the concept yet, but she will proclaim whether she thinks the sun is currently going up or down at any time in the day. We traveled a lot after dark and Robby photographed many sunrises and sunsets which seemed to also encourage the discussion. I think that Emily is heavily influenced in the thought that sun is going down from her need for a nap or bed. She would proclaim that the sun was going down around 1pm when it was time for her afternoon nap. It makes for a really funny conversation to have with her.