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.

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.

Julia has grown up so much! On this trip Julia has graduated to loving restaurant high chairs. She has discovered the fun of interacting with other diners, waiters, and her family. She tries to grab for anything that is close by, waves her arms when given water out of a straw, enjoys trying table food, and enjoys dropping things on the floor even more. I really feel bad for the staff that has to clean up after Julia and what she drops on the floor. More than once we had other diners stop by and visit with us on their way out and compliment Julia and her easy going personality. We are grateful for this personality because it makes it possible for us to travel to such cool places.

Julia was a great sport on this trip. Of the little freedom she has, she didn’t get to exercise it much. I think one of her favorite things to do on our trip, other than eat snacks, was getting into the front pack and going. It meant that she was with a parent, her legs were free to kick, and there was lots to see.

One of the must-dos for our trip was to hike in Bryce Amphitheater. There is a fairly steep hike in and out, but once at the bottom you get to hike between the amazing rock formations. Julia got to ride in the front pack with Mommy kind of out of default, because there was no way I could carry Emily on her back for 3 miles. Carrying Julia is a bit like being pregnant again, you can’t see in front of you and your feet are lost again. We went down slowly so that we could both enjoy the views and make sure we had good footing. This portion of the hike had really cool trees that were growing up around the the rock formations.

Julia was the entertainment for all of the other hikers. She had lots of smiles and sweet words from other hikers. She would kick her feet and wave her arms at the other hikers like she was thanking them for their attention. My favorite example of this was the bus full of retired French tourists. While we know no French we heard a lot of ‘Bébé’ and ‘Oo-la-la’.

Daddy had the pleasure of carrying Julia out of the Amphitheater. It was a good change of pace for his back. When we were done we had a well deserved snack of apples, cheese, and crackers. Julia snacked and then crashed in the car for a nap.

The first stop of our trip was in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We met our friends Becky and Sharick for an evening of fun and dinner. We rode the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views of the valley. We haven’t seen Becky and Sharick since our last trip out to Colorado, so we were able to introduce them to the girls.

At the top of the mountain, they had several activities setup as a tourist trap and most were not friendly for our little ones, so we skipped them. Lucky for Emily, they didn’t charge extra for the activity of playing in the gravel. She had quite a collection of little stones and would have filled her pockets if she could have.

We talked the guys into riding a rollercoaster that took you down part of the mountain. The novelty of it was that you had control of your speed by the use of a break. They seemed to enjoy it a lot and were glad that they had gone.

A classic photo of a Daddy with his child, both taking a nap together. Our lives have been ordered in a way that Robby just doesn’t get to take naps with baby Julia like he got to with baby Emily. So when I caught this moment together I had to take a photo. It appears that Robby makes a pretty good foot rest along with someone fun to cuddle with. These are such sweet moments.